It is said that working night shift is hard on the body. It certainly can be, unless you take really good care of YOU.
As a RN of 34 years, I have worked a LOT of nights. In fact as an aging RN, I am working more nights now than ever before in my career. You have to be able to think quickly on your feet, and be ready to run at a moments notice, when your body is telling you, it is time to sleep. It is difficult to go against the circadian rhythm.
I work in Long term care and have done so in homes ranging in size from 34 residents to 160. In every situation, there is only 1 RN scheduled. It is the time of day when the paperwork is the most intense, and the risk of resident falls, and injury are even greater. So performance matters. You may be the only available to calm a frightened resident, or monitor and administer pain medication. Your team work and relationship with your support staff is most important to ensure comfort and care for your residents. There are no extra people to support you at that time of day.
So... after a night of the most intense time of the work day, what can you do to ensure your wellness and vitality are looked after... Here are some tips that I have come up with. Not your usual stuff.
1. Make sure you are well hydrated during your shift. Drink more water than coffee. Coffee actually is not good for you. Water is the key. Sure have a cup of coffee, but don't make that your major beverage on shift. Caffeine dehydrates you. The diuretic effect on top of the transepidermal water loss that naturally occurs during the night, Can be detrimental to yur well being. Plus if yu drink caffeine all night, you will not settle easily for sleep during the day.
2. Your melatonin, which naturally is manufactured in your body, may be depleted. It is that feel good hormone that is made every night, when your body sleeps, and in the dark. Sleeping during the day, with light coming through the windows and working all night with fluorescent lights on will have an effect. So make sure your room is in darkness, and perhaps consider supplementation.
3. Make sure you are doing some exercise during the day. Either wind down after your shift with a brisk walk, or go to the gym, or use a piece of in home exercise equipment. I personally love the rebounder. It is a gentle way of working your muscles and moving lymphatic fluid (the super highway system in your body to remove debris in your body), and it is a great way to improve your circulation. You can learn more about rebounding at www.thehealthcirculator.com
4. Invest in your personal health and wellness. After being up all night, you are at greater risk of serious health compromise. All health and wellness occurs at the cell level. This is a foreign concept to many health care professionals, but it is true. We have over 70 trillion cells in our body (give or take a billion or so), but when our cells are not functioning in harmony with each other because of the stress of working outside of our natural rhythm, and sitting in front of computer screens, and wi fi, wireless monitors etc, it causes a raucus in our body, and we are not in rhythic harmony with ourself, you really need to bring in PEMF (Pulsed Electro Magnetic Frequency therapy) into your life. Laying on a mat for just 8 minutes twice a day will calm your cells down into their self regenerating, and self repairing mode, and help to improve circulation and reduce pain. It will help to reduce your risk of chronic illness, which often plagues health care professionals. It can also calm down the risks of PTSD in first responders as well. Often in our adrenalin filled lives of dealing with life and death, it can cause increased risk of illness. Working all three shifts in one week and often not in consecutive order can shorten the life-span of those who hold life in their hands. You can learn more by visitng my website www.pemfconsultant.com or. joining the PEMF Consultant FB community and keeping abreast of the current science & more www.facebook.com/groups/359487041056950/
5.Building up your body's own natural immunity. Shift workers can get run down very easily, and as such it is important to be super vigilent at ways to build up our body's glutathione. Our medical professionals do not really know much about this master antioxidant that is in EVERY cell in our body. Yet is greatly depleted. Medical science does not really look at this key life ingredient, nor are professionals trained as part of their formal schooling. I know I never heard of it until recently. This ingredient in life needs replenishing in our body in order to have a fighting chance against the germ warfare that health care professionals live with every shift. A Dr. Herbert Nagasawa discovered how to combine ribose and cystine, which also occur in our body, to help to reduce and chelate heavy metals in our body. Riboceine technology resulted, and by being able to render fat soluable toxins to a water soluable molecule, which is easily rid of our body, it helps the cells "breathe" so to speak and regenrate to bolster our immunity.. You can learn more about this here https://bpearcerai.wixsite.com/max4us2 Join us on FB here for more cutting edge info www.facebook.com/cellserenity/
There is so much more I can talk about, but just incorporating a few of these tips will definitely put you, the RN or healthcare worker, into a healthier state of body, mind and spirit. And... add years to life, and quality to your career.
Brenda Pearce RN, is the "Empowered Nurse". She triages body, mind and spirit through her TV program, Oxford Empowered, on the Rogers Cable TV system. She is a best-selling contributing author to 4 books. You can learn more about her blogs, books, and more at www.amazon.com/Brenda-Pearce/e/B00KPQGFVW
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