5 Important Self-Care Tips for Geriatric Social Workers & Nurses

Those that regularly provide services to individuals in need are often saddled with duties and responsibilities that can be incredibly taxing over time. For professionals in these lines of work, it is of utmost importance to have a strong understanding of self-care and consistently employ self-care strategies to stay refreshed and able to perform their duties. For those that work in nursing and social work fields, this can be particularly true.

Many nurses and social workers regularly interact with deep deprivation, poverty, and very difficult circumstances. Because of this, their normal professional experiences can be difficult and highly demanding. This can be particularly true in geriatric care.

If you are a geriatric nurse or social worker, here are a few tips to help you implement self-care in your regular routines and make sure you can withstand the rigors of your job.

The Stresses of Geriatric Nursing and Social Work

Especially in the last five years, nurses and social workers have experienced increasing amounts of professional stress across virtually every setting, specialty, and geographic area. When not counterbalanced by adequate self-care and stress-relieving techniques, the negative effects of working in intensive care-based roles can build up and begin to compound. Exhaustion, burnout, chronic stress, and more are common workplace experiences for professionals such as nurses and social workers and have been documented in studies.

Geriatric nurses and social workers are no exception. In fact, the nature of geriatric care can present some particularly challenging nuances that can sometimes make these difficulties even more widespread. Geriatric nurses and social workers tend to see more death and loss than those in other specialties.

They watch many of their patients or clients die alone. They witness tragedy, grief, and sadness — and can experience those emotions themselves when they build relationships and friendships with their patients. Providing geriatric care can be extremely difficult and trying in many cases. This is why strong self-care routines are so important.

Here are five tips you can implement in your regular rhythms that can help you combat the stress and difficulty you experience at work. The research has proven it over and over again –  there are a few simple rhythms and behavior choices anyone can incorporate into their lifestyle that can act like tangible health investments by increasing overall wellbeing. Making regular habits of one or more of these activities can combat the accumulation of stress at work and help foster higher levels of general overall health.

Self-Care Tip One: Prioritize Physical Activity

Take stock of how much physical activity you engage in regularly. This might look like exercise, but it can also include a wide range of other types as well. Walking to work or taking your kids on a bike ride once a week contributes to your overall amount of movement.

Once you have honestly evaluated, start making it a priority to increase your average weekly physical activity. Movement, especially when incorporated through an activity like exercise or play, can provide a number of health benefits and can help keep burnout and professional stress at bay.

Self-Care Tip Two: Incorporate More Outdoor Time Into Your Regular Patterns

Spending time outdoors can provide a number of similar types of benefits to physical activity. Vitamin D from sunshine, breathing fresher air, spending time in natural spaces or around natural elements, and the movement and physical activity that being outside can often involve can all create benefits for both the human body and psyche. These range from improving mood to increasing fitness and other health metrics. And if you are working to incorporate more physical activity, take it outdoors and reap double benefits.

Self-Care Tip Three: Be Proactive About Your Mental Health

Strong mental health awareness and skills can be vital for those who work in stressful or trying jobs. Mental health has been named by many academic thought leaders and self-care frameworks one of the most vital components of a strong self-care routine. You can be intentional about mental health by attending trainings, practicing meditation or mindfulness, engaging with regular or rhythmic activities that help provide emotional and mental regulation, and making sure you are getting enough physical and mental rest.

Self-Care Tip Four:  Healthy Diet

Adjusting your diet to incorporate more healthy choices can also provide a number of profound health benefits that build on each other over time. Healthy eating doesn’t have to involve starving yourself, only eating lettuce, or never eating anything you enjoy again. In fact, healthier eating can be immensely delicious and satisfying.

There are a few simple ways to start making better eating choices that can be easy to work into your normal routines and increase slowly over time. First, you can make significant changes to how much food you consume per day by simply eating more slowly. This allows your body to keep up with what you’re consuming and triggers a “full” response in time to actually allow you to stop eating before you’ve consumed more than you need.

To make this practice even more beneficial, add to it more awareness of the portions you’re eating and work to regulate them over time. Second, begin to reduce the amount of processed sugar you eat and start replacing those items with natural sugars and sweeteners instead. Even making small changes like these can start bringing about health benefits.

Self-Care Tip Five: Be Communicative with Your Supervisor and Teammates

Finally, professional and workplace stress affects everyone. It’s important to share concerns or difficulties with those you work with so that you can receive adequate support. If your supervisor or team are not safe to talk with about self-care and professional stress concerns, it may be time to speak to another member of management or seek external support like a professional psychologist or counselor to help you manage your workplace stress. It’s important not to keep stress and burnout concerns to yourself.

Incorporating these tips can jumpstart your self-care journey and help you work through your professional stress and difficulties more effectively.