Staying Healthy While Studying an MSN-FNP
Nursing is an extremely challenging profession, and it only gets more so during times of professional development. The top qualification in the profession is a master of science in nursing, which can be taken after completing a bachelor’s degree and becoming a registered nurse. These grueling courses are often carried out alongside an already stressful job, which only amps up the pressure. Luckily, these can be done online and will help ease some of the stress just like Delta 8 from Budpop, to learn more about this natural aid check this blog post named is delta 8 spice?. However, you still need to put in some work to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you’re gearing up to start the MSN-FNP chapter of your career, we will tell you everything you need to know about keeping yourself healthy for the duration.
What is an MSN-FNP?
An MSN-FNP is designed for the family nurse practitioner who wants to solidify themselves within the field and evidence the application of the latest technology and practices. Further, they will back their position as a nurse through proving practice within culturally diverse populations.
Signs of Poor Work-Life Balance
Staying healthy throughout the course of a nursing career, and especially during an MSN-FNP course, requires effective management of stress levels. Stress is triggered by different things for everyone, but results in the release of the cortisol hormone, which can put a strain on our health in high doses. The management of stress for nurses comes down to finding a healthy work-life balance. Again, this balance will be different for everyone. Having a poor work-life balance will have a detrimental impact on mental health, happiness and, in some cases, physical health. The signs of a poor work-life balance can manifest in the following ways.
Constant Tiredness
Being tired is part of life, especially if you have a stressful job. Getting a good amount of sleep is essential to having a healthy lifestyle, and working extreme hours puts you at risk of going without. When you’re heavily fatigued, you will make errors at work and impact negatively on your course. This is manageable in the course of normal jobs. However, nurses have a duty to treat patients in their care to their best ability. If you are working longer than the standard 12-hour shifts, your chances of making mistakes will be more than doubled.
Broken Relationships
Typically, people consider the “life” part of the work-life balance to represent hobbies and personal interests and activities. This is true; however, it also runs through the relationships we keep both in and outside of the family. When we run ourselves into the ground through working too much, we don’t spend enough time with our family, which can have a damaging impact.
Eventually, you will be caught in a vicious cycle where you start performing worse at work and then being stressed out at home. When all of this stress adds up, it will impact your grades and you will burn out, which can make you extremely sick.
Damaged Lifestyle
When your stress levels are boosted to harmful levels it can hurt your immune system, which can make you ill and cause you to miss vital work for your course. Further, when individuals are stressed out, they will often make bad choices. For example, stress can lead people to have a drink or two for relief, which can lead to drinking more to keep up. If someone spirals down that road, they will find it even harder to get back on track.
A Healthier Work-Life Balance
Being able to recognize when you are under considerable stress is a fantastic skill to have, and can save you from facing the dreaded burnout. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to ensure that your work-life balance is just right.
Self-Care
You spend every day of your working life looking after other people, so it’s only right that you get to have some much-deserved downtime to yourself. Therefore, you need to make space in your schedule for yourself. This doesn’t have to be a long period of time, even if you run yourself a bath at the end of the night and relax with some music and a cheeky glass of wine – just make sure you’re not drinking for the wrong reasons.
Time Away from Screens
The majority of things we do nowadays revolve around electronics of some sort, from social media to distract yourself to pointless games from the AppStore. So, you should try and give yourself a break now and then. This may sound counterintuitive considering you’re completing an online course. However, when you are taking a break from work and learning, the last thing you need are distractions that pull you back into a working frame of mind. When you get the opportunity to spend time away, you must honor that space.
No one is asking you to turn your phone off and become a recluse. However, studies have shown that taking a daily break from electronics is a great way to improve mental wellbeing. Then, when you’ve got the time, you can fill it with whatever fun activities you desire.
Build a Schedule
If you go into the week without knowing what you’re doing and on what day, you are asking for trouble when it comes to your MSN-FNP course. You will be given your roster from work and be expected to work everything else around that. You need to talk to your work mentor and agree times for when you can focus on your personal professional development. That way, you can focus on your studies while you’re at work without impacting your job.
When it comes to the life part of the balance, you should sit down with your family at the beginning of the week and ensure that you’re all on the same page. You are completing a course that will better their lives and they will be supportive of that. So, if you have children, tell them when you will spend time with them. Also, when it comes to a significant other, tell them when you can see them and when you will be working.
When you’ve got a routine that works for you both inside and outside of work, you will notice a positive change in your health. The only thing you need to do is stick to your schedule no matter what is going on around you, except for family members being in poor health.
Stick to Deadlines
When you first start any course, your assignments will feel enormous and the deadlines will feel years away. However, if you’re not careful from the start, you can be faced rushing all of your work and trying to squeeze more than you need to into an already hectic lifestyle, which will boost your stress levels even more so. When you get your assignments, you need to sit down and break them down into manageable chunks. Then, you need to set yourself some personal deadlines that are a fair amount before the originals. When you’re on top of your assignments, you won’t feel as much pressure at work or at home to get everything done in a day.
Get in Exercise
Exercise is vital for a healthy lifestyle. Doing just 150-minutes of exercise a week is enough to make a huge difference. When you exercise, your body will release positive hormones that will counteract the cortisol in times of stress. Also, you will boost your productivity and concentration, which will be essential to your master’s course.
Often, you don’t need to put a dedicated slot for exercise in your schedule, since you can simply change something up. For example, if you drive to work and end up stuck in traffic for hours wasting time, you can grab yourself a bike and cycle instead. You will get in your essential exercise, cut the traffic, and have more time to complete the things you need to.
Socialize
Socializing is a great way to blow off steam and let your worries wash over you. You won’t have the time to go out with your friends on a Friday night anymore, but you can certainly squeeze in the odd coffee now and again. Meeting up with your friends or a family member will give you someone who’s not involved with work to have a rant to. Getting things off your chest will have an enormously positive impact on your mental health.
Say No to People
You’re going to be in constant demand by the people you work with, your family, and your friends. Therefore, it’s important for you to say “no” to people to safeguard your mental health. No matter what your threshold, there’s only so much you can do before you break. Saying no doesn’t mean that you’re offending anyone or letting them down, it just means that you can’t do something right now. So, if your manager asks if you can work longer at the weekend but you’ve already got plans, you need to be firm and tell them so. However, there’s nothing wrong with telling them you can work at a different time.
When you say no to people, you need to make sure that you do it in the right tone. You need not be calm with your comments without getting the other person riled, especially if you rely on them to pay your salary. Also, if you say no too many times, you may find that people stop asking you to work extra, and eventually you’ll need it.
Take Your Breaks
Your breaks are there to give you a hot minute to calm your mind down, so make sure that you take them. Working through your break will only lead to greater stress levels. Although you can use your break to do coursework sometimes, you shouldn’t make a habit of it. You should use your break to get some food and switch your mind off for a few minutes before going back to saving the world.
You are also entitled to paid holidays throughout the year. You need to make sure that you take these for your benefit. You don’t need to have anything booked to make the most of them, even if you simply sit around in your pajamas all day for a long weekend. Plan your holidays from work with downtime away from your coursework. You will find that your mind feels fresher once you get back to the grind.
Speak to a Specialist
Sometimes, when you’ve been busy carrying the burden of everyone else’s issues on your shoulders, you need someone to talk to. Although you have friends that you can unload on, they won’t be equipped to give you the tailored support you need. So, you should get in touch with your workplace counselor or therapist, who can help you work through your issues.
If you need help changing some of your behaviors in an attempt to achieve a healthy lifestyle, you can work through a Cognitive Behavioral Development (CBD) program. These specialized programs will allow you space to work through issues and come up with personal realizations. For example, if you need to get better at sticking to your schedule, you can work through the reasons why you’re not doing so. If you’re struggling with deadlines, your therapist may be able to recommend you get extensions.
Be Honest with Your Tutors
If you’re studying at a reputable university, they will have a student welfare department and you will have a personal tutor. If you’re falling behind in a specific module, you should discuss this with the tutor. They will be able to work out a plan with you that can help you get back on track.
Nursing is a tough career to take on in life. You will be stressed out and need to manage a multitude of responsibilities both inside and outside of work. If you want to reach the top of your game, you will need to complete an MSN-FNP – or equivalent Masters in Nursing. While you’re carrying your course, you will have even more stress to deal with. Keeping a healthy lifestyle while you study is important and includes getting sufficient exercise, building a schedule and sticking to it, and focusing on self-care.
