How to Recover from a Tough Shift

Nicole Johnson, BSN, RN, CCRN, CEP, Founder of Unwound Retreats

Have you ever had a shift that you couldn't shake? If you're in healthcare, most definitely you have and you know exactly what I'm talking about. What do you do?  How do you take care of yourself?

I recently had a really tough shift in the ICU and I thought I could share some ways to metabolize the trauma.

1. Attend a formal debrief. Attending a debrief can help you put the pieces together about events that occurred and help you process your feelings.

2. Talk to a therapist. Your employer will often have an employee assistance program that offers free counseling. Talk to a professional about what you experienced. As nurses, we can see and bear witness to some traumatic events. Let them help you process it in a healthy way.

3. Be easy on yourself - practice self-compassion. Kristen Neff, PhD has amazing work showing the power of self-compassion. Be kind to yourself. Talk to yourself like you would a best friend.

4. Eat, sleep, and exercise. Take care of your most basic needs. Listen to your body.

5. Create good boundaries around work. Create a pre-shift and post-shift ritual for transitioning from one place to the next. Maybe you sit in silence on your way home. Or maybe you meditate before work. Try to NOT check your work email on your days off. Give yourself a break and don't sign up for extra shifts. And on those rough days, when your shift is over, focus on what you were able to accomplish. Look at the good you provided.

6. Find community with your co-workers. Talk with them about what you're struggling with. Of all people, they will definitely understand.

7. You come first. Take care of yourself first. Give yourself lots of love and do something that brings you lots of joy.

8. Take a mental health day! If we are preoccupied with something that didn't go well, we can be distracted at work. You want to show up to work when you are able to be present to the job at hand.

I hope this can be of some use to you. We have such a strange job, as we are humans taking care of other humans.

A lot of the craziness of our job is unseen. Know that I see you.

Sending love, Nicole

About Nicole:

Nicole Johnson, BSN, RN, CCRN, CEP is a nurse with 16 plus years of experience, mostly within  Critical Care.  Nicole is also the founder of Unwound Retreats - events, resources, and retreats for nurses and hosts retreats for nurses annually in Mexico and Turkey.   

Nicole has a background in the Foundations of Happiness at Work from the Greater Good Science Center of UC Berkeley, Mindful Based Stress Reduction, and Emotional First Aid. 

Nicole is a big believer in prioritizing the well-being of nurses and teaches nurses different evidenced based modalities to improve that.