What is the importance of self-care for nursing students? Self-care for nursing students helps with stress management and overall wellness. Taking study breaks, spending time in nature, eating well, exercising regularly, and connecting with friends and family are essential self-care activities.
It’s not uncommon for nursing students to put in more than 40 hours per week between coursework, labs, clinical rotations, NCLEX-RN exam prep, and study requirements.
This is particularly true of students enrolled in an accelerated Bachelor of Science (BS) in nursing program, such as the University of Mount Saint Vincent’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program.
Because of the accelerated timeline, the workload can sometimes feel more intense, which is why self-care for nursing students is so important.
While you’re considering how to navigate nursing school, you should reflect on the self-care habits that can support your mental and physical wellness. Consider the areas that could use improvement in your life, such as sleep hygiene and nutrition habits, and take steps to address them.
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What Constitutes Self-Care?
Self-care is an intentional practice of supporting your physical, mental, and emotional health. It involves consciously taking the time to participate in activities and form habits that promote healthy functioning, high quality of life, and wellness. Self-care activities may allow you to:
- Relax
- Connect with loved ones
- Deal with stress in a healthy manner
- Enhance quality of life
- Reduce your risk of physical illness
- Support optimal cognition
Self-care can encompass a wide range of activities. It’s fully customizable to suit your needs, lifestyle, and preferences. Examples of self-care activities and habits include the following:
- Physical wellness: Eating well, exercising, staying hydrated, and getting sufficient sleep
- Mental wellness: Spending time in nature and enjoying favorite hobbies
- Social wellness: Spending time with family and friends
Self-care for nursing students can also involve spiritual wellness. Consider the ways in which you connect to your values or care for your spiritual health.
The Importance of Self-Care for Nursing Students
Self-care is important for everyone, but particularly for nursing students. It’s not possible to spend the entirety of one’s waking moments working on the nursing school curriculum.
The importance of self-care for nursing students cannot be overstated. ABSN programs can be stressful due to their intense pace and heavy workload. Unless it’s managed in a healthy way, stress can negatively affect your physical health in many ways, such as:
- Exacerbated breathing problems, including worsening asthma
- Gastrointestinal discomfort
- Increased risk of chronic headaches
- Increased risk of heart and blood vessel problems, including hypertension
- Musculoskeletal pain and disorders
Taking the time to care for your wellness can reduce your risk of health problems. It’s important to form good self-care habits in nursing school, as you will also need them when you become a busy, working nurse.
In Mount Saint Vincent’s ABSN program, students must learn to balance nursing coursework, nursing labs, and clinical rotations.
While the ABSN program is challenging, know that the Mount wants to help students succeed. You will have access to student support resources and can rely on your nursing cohort to help alleviate stress. Combined with healthy self-care habits, you will be supported throughout your nursing school journey as you work hard to accomplish your goals.
Top Tips for Nurturing Your Whole Health
Self-care for nursing students can take many different forms. Consider incorporating the following habits and activities into your routine:
1. Prioritize and Practice Good Sleep Hygiene
Prioritizing sleep is among the most important steps you can take to protect your overall well-being. Sleep is also essential for preserving your cognitive abilities, including your ability to concentrate on schoolwork.
Improve your sleep hygiene by:
- Avoiding alcohol
- Avoiding caffeine, starting in the afternoon
- Establishing a regular bedtime/waketime
- Only using your bed for sleeping and sexual activity
- Minimizing electronics usage in the bedroom
- Using blackout curtains and neutralizing other sources of light
- Using a white noise machine
- Keeping the bedroom at a cool temperature
If you’re struggling with insomnia, consider talking to your primary care physician.
2. Develop Supportive Relationships With Cohort Members
Get to know the other members of your cohort and develop supportive relationships with them. For example, you might take the initiative to form a study group. Be there to support your new friends when they’re struggling with the curriculum or workload, and they’ll return the favor.
3. Spend Time With Family and Friends
Your social wellness is important. Self-care for nursing students includes spending time with family and friends. While visiting with your loved ones, try to be fully present in the moment. That is, avoid talking and thinking about nursing school to give yourself a mental break.
4. Limit or Avoid Fast Food
Since you’re studying how to help others lead healthier lives, it makes sense for you to care for your own physical health, as well. The intense schedule of nursing school might tempt you to resort to fast food or other similar options for convenience.
Fast food and other ultra-processed foods can be bad for your cognitive health. Researchers have found that people who eat ultra-processed foods demonstrate faster rates of cognitive decline in areas such as memory and recall. Preparing more nutritious food can help you in your studies while also giving you the energy needed for active clinical rotations.
5. Try HIIT Workouts
Exercise is an important part of self-care, but it can be tough for busy nursing students to find enough time to work out on most days of the week.
Consider incorporating high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts into your routine. These include sprint intervals, burpees, and jump squats. HIIT workouts don’t require much time but can be an effective exercise for busy nursing students.
6. Take Study Breaks
Trying to fit in a marathon study session each weekend? It’s actually more effective to study for shorter bursts of time more frequently. Look for short windows of time throughout each day during which you can review nursing concepts.
If you take the subway to your labs, for example, you can use your commute time to study. By scheduling shorter study sessions, you’ll naturally take more frequent study breaks, which can help maintain your focus and avoid burnout.
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7. Spend Time in Nature
New York City may be one of the world’s busiest metropolitan areas, but there are plenty of parks scattered throughout the five boroughs, as well as several botanical gardens. Make an effort to visit these green spaces now and then. Spending time in nature can help with stress management.
8. Talk to a Mental Health Counselor
Some nursing students might delay talking to a mental health counselor until they are already experiencing high levels of stress and struggling to cope. It’s wise to proactively speak to a counselor before risking reaching this point.
By proactively working with a counselor throughout nursing school, you can protect your mental health. It’s an opportunity to learn better coping skills and have a therapeutic outlet.
Join a Supportive Nursing School Community
Mount Saint Vincent is a compassionate nursing school community that nurtures the development of the whole student.
We understand the importance of student support services. Our ABSN students benefit from personalized attention from nursing instructors due to our small class sizes and one-on-one support from Academic Success Coaches. Our ABSN learning sites in NYC are designed to help nursing students thrive.
If you have a non-nursing bachelor’s degree, you may be eligible to apply for our ABSN program. Contact an admission counselor today and receive personalized support throughout the admission process.