May is Mental Health Month, a time to focus on mental and emotional wellbeing. And if you work in healthcare, you know better than most how important that goal is — and how hard it can be to achieve! We're here to help with three essential mental health tips for nurses and healthcare professionals.
Why Mental Health Matters in Healthcare
Healthcare is a tremendously rewarding job. But it can be demanding, too. Even if you don’t work overtime, the shifts can be long, with long hours spent on your feet. And of course, there are the emotional ups and downs of working with people during some of the most intense moments of their life.
All of this may explain why nurses and healthcare professionals have a higher risk of burnout than people working in other jobs. And the consequences of that can be serious, potentially leading not just to errors during the job but also triggering depression, weight gain, high blood pressure, and other long-term effects.
3 Essential Mental Health Tips for Nurses & Healthcare Professionals
If you're a nurse or clinician concerned about your emotional wellbeing — or if you simply want to live your healthiest life — here's how to stay on top of mental health in three basic steps.
Tip #1: Understand the Symptoms
Too often, we don’t really know when we need mental health intervention. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), some symptoms to look for include:
- Feeling anger, lack of patience, and irritability more often than you used to
- Feeling tired, depressed, or sad more often before
- Experiencing physical ailments like digestive problems, lack of appetite, new aches or pains, or intimacy issues
- Memories of traumatic incidents keep popping up in your thoughts
- Spending more time alone and shunning others
- Not feeling interested in doing things that used to bring you joy or contentment
- Having trouble sleeping
- Feeling disinterested in work and patients
- Consuming more alcohol or other recreational drugs
Tip #2: Know Where to Find Support (and How to Provide It)
Any of the above symptoms can be normal enough. But if they’re starting to dominate your life, it’s probably a sign that it's time to reach out for support.
But where? Your first step is to speak to your doctor or counselor and ask for guidance. In addition, your employer will usually provide mental health resources that usually include time off or access to professional services. You can also talk to loved ones about what you're going through.
- Should you confide in co-workers? It's great to find a buddy ay work — someone who does the same job and who can relate to your day-to-day concerns. But confiding on a deeper level should only be done on a consensual basis, after you've established that friendship or relationship.
On the flip side, it’s also important to support others in your place of work, family, or community. If you have a nurse or healthcare professional in the family, check in with them and let them know you’re there if they need to talk.
“I find comfort in other nurses, not just locally but across the U.S.,” explains HealthTrust nurse Heather Godfrey. “We are all in this together and have to support each other. You can’t do it by yourself — you have to rely on your team."
Tip #3: Build Resiliency by Practicing Self-Care
The mental health tips from NAMI focus on building resiliency as a way to support mental health by reducing the “harmful effects of stress and trauma." And self-care is among the tools it recommends for getting that important job done.
As we recently explored in our deep dive on the topic, some ways for healthcare professionals to practice self-care include:
- Taking care of your body by staying hydrated and active, and paying closer attention to your diet
- Making a point to sleep well by giving yourself the time you need (ideally, seven to nine hours) and practicing healthy sleep tips
- Setting goals and priorities — maybe a path to your dream job, home ownership, or whatever is most important to you — and a routine to help you achieve it
You can find our full list of self-care tips here, plus many more from NAMI here. And check out the ANA's Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation program for even more ideas on supporting self-health.
Trust HealthTrust to Support You in Your Career and Mental Health Journey
Here at HealthTrust, we have a long history of supporting mental health for nurses and healthcare professionals, with recruiters and in-house credentialing teams who work to make sure you find the right balance between your professional and personal goals. Get started by exploring hundreds of open jobs today.
