Nursing is a mess right now. Maybe messier than it’s ever been. At the same time, the issues we see are getting more attention than they ever have.

So, this raises the question, is it time for you to leave nursing?

In this episode, I address the question of whether or not it’s time for you to leave nursing as well as give you some things to think about that might help you love nursing again.

Resources from this episode:

• My NEW coaching program
• My Healthy, Happy Life Assessment

The post Is it Time for You to Leave Nursing? appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

In this episode, I’m starting a new series called, “Roles in Nursing”. Throughout this series, I’m going to talk to nurses doing a variety of different roles so that we can learn about the many options available to nurses.

In last week’s episode, I asked the question, “is it time for you to leave nursing?” With the Roles in Nursing series, I hope to show that there are jobs, within nursing, that can help you stay in nursing, and even find joy.

For this episode, I interview Janessa. She is a 15-year nurse who has been working as a school nurse for the past 5 years. You can find her on TikTok @thenursesoffice.

You can learn more about becoming and being a school nurse by visiting the National Association of School Nurses.

The post Roles in Nursing: School Nurse appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

• 5-minute Debrief
• Dr. John Deloney’s podcast
• Chris Foy – my personal trainer
• heartpeacecounseling.com

The post More Healthcare Habits for Nurses appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

In this episode, I give five assignments that all of us nurses, and other healthcare workers need to consider making part of our routine.

5 Assignments

1. Find someone to talk to
2. Check on people
3. Find a group
4. Get professional help
5. Call 988, before you do something you can’t take back

Resources mentioned in the show

• RESTORE Groups

The post What Nurses Can Learn from the Death of Twitch appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

Here are some things I discuss in this episode

• A little bit about myself
• The mission of Restoring Nurses
• The Healthy, Happy Life Blueprint
• The 5-Minute Debrief
• Healthy, Happy Life Assessment
• Farkle (if you’re not familiar, check it out, it’s lots of fun.)

The post Relaunching the Restoring Nurses Podcast appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

My name is Matt. I’m a nurse on a journey to build a healthy, happy life for myself and my family, and on a mission to bring as many nurses with me as possible.

What is a Healthy, Happy Life?

The exact definition of what makes up a healthy, happy life is going to vary from person to person. For me, a major part of this was making sure that I was always available to attend and participate in my children’s activities. For others, it may include a strenuous workout regimen to obtain and maintain optimal physical health. Regardless of what that looks like for you, I believe there are six pillars that work together to build a healthy, happy life.

 

 

This is the foundation upon which the 6 pillars are built on.See the graphic to the left for a visual on that shows this. How can you even begin to build a healthy, happy life until you know yourself. 

There are several parts to this foundation:

• Knowing your why
• Knowing who you are
• Knowing what matters most to you
• Knowing who you want to be
• Knowing where you’re starting

This is the foundation. It’s also the first step towards building the healthy, happy life you deserve.

 

 

The post What is a Healthy, Happy Life? appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

The night started like any other… how’s that for a cheesy story starter? Seriously though, it felt like any other night. Sometime after I went to bed, I was startled awake. My heart was pounding and felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. I sat on the edge of the bed, trying to breathe, to no avail.

I was afraid.

The truth was that there was nothing to be afraid of, yet I was afraid. I knew that it didn’t make any sense. I also knew that the truth didn’t matter. I was afraid.

Actually, to say I was afraid wouldn’t really do it justice. I was freaking out.

I sat on the edge of the bed for a short time but had to get up. I couldn’t just sit there. I also didn’t want to disturb my wife. I moved to the living room and paced…

Back and forth, and back and forth, I paced.

I’d pace for a while, then sit in the recliner thinking I might be able to get to sleep. I wouldn’t even get the footrest up before I had to get up again. And again, I paced.

Back and forth, and back and forth, I paced.

Over and over I sat in the chair, for just a matter of seconds before I had to get back up and pace.

Back and forth, and back and forth, I paced.

This seemed to go on for hours. Looking back, I’m certain that it was not nearly so long. But, it sure felt like it.

After a while, I finally decided to wake up my wife. I really should have done this much sooner. I’m not sure if it was pride, or shame, or fear of how she might respond, or maybe even a genuine desire to not disturb her. What it certainly was was stupid. We are a team, I’m here for her and she is here for me.

She came into the living room with me. She watched me pace, unsure of what to do. As she become more awake, she held my hand. With her feeling her presence and her touch, I was able to sit down. She talked with me. She played ocean waves sounds on her phone. And she held my hand. After a time, I was finally able to sit back in the chair, put the footrest up, and finally fell asleep. Kim stayed out there with me, still holding my hand.

I woke up a different man

When I woke up the next morning, I was a different person. Nobody could have looked at me and seen the difference, but I could feel it with every fiber of my being.

You see, the version of Matt that had gone to bed the night before was confident, even bordering on cocky at times. Maybe more times than I care to admit. He was calm, to the point where nurses that worked with him in the ER sometimes went so far as to ask him how he always remained so calm. That version of Matt believed that he could do anything he put his mind to.

That version of Matt was gone.

I woke up the next morning a different man. I woke up afraid. Afraid of nothing, and afraid of everything.

I remember going to work that morning. I had to go down one level to the basement to get to the department I was working in. I approached the elevator I had ridden in thousands of times before. I pushed the button and waited for the door to open. When it opened, I couldn’t bring myself to enter it. I had ridden this elevator literally thousands of times and it was only one level, but I couldn’t do it. I went around the corner and took the stairs.

I was a different person and I wasn’t sure that I liked this version of Matt.

The anxiety continued throughout the day. I remember having to start an IV and my hands shaking as I did. I had started thousands of IVs prior to this and I was good at it. Still, I was so afraid that my hands shook. My hands hadn’t shaken like that in nearly 20 years, since I first started drawing blood as a phlebotomist.

I was afraid… of everything… and of nothing.

Then bedtime came

As evening approached, I gradually began to become more and more anxious. I felt like someone returning to a place where they had been attacked. Just the knowledge that I would soon have to go to bed, or even just to sleep made me anxious.

Little did I know that this was going to become a nightly routine for at least the next several months, and maybe even a year or more. I can’t clearly remember when this stopped.

I knew I had to sleep and I was trying to be the man I was before this started. I was certain he was gone, but I was going to pretend. So, I kissed my wife goodnight and climbed into bed. I intentionally rolled to face away from her. I didn’t want her to see that I was lying there awake, with my eyes open.

Eventually, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I could feel my heart beating and feel the anxiety growing in me.

So, I prayed.

I prayed, “Lord, give me peace; give me strength.” Over and over again I prayed. I literally prayed myself to sleep. I did this every night for months.

It’s better now, but not over

Truth is I’m much better now. I’d love to say that I have defeated anxiety. I’d love to be able to share a powerful tool that could help you defeat anxiety. Sadly, I don’t have any such things to share. I am much better now than I was. It’s not that I never face anxiety. Rather, I’ve just gotten better at dealing with it.

My hope in sharing my story is that you might realize two things:

1. You are not alone. There are so many people dealing with the same, or similar stuff
2. There is hope to get through it and learn to deal with it.

The post My Anxiety Journey, Part 1 appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

In this episode, I had the opportunity to chat with Chris Foy. Chris is a personal trainer in Sydney, Australia. Married to a nurse, Chris has seen firsthand, through his wife and her coworkers, the struggles that nurses have in taking care of themselves and the negative effects this can bring.  Through this Chris has developed a passion for helping nurses take better care of their physical health.

I hope you enjoy this episode

Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode

• My Fitness Pal
• Top 10 Barriers to Self-Care
• Chris’ Stretching Videos
• Chris’ TikTok – The Strong Nurse Coach
• Strong Nurse Academy

Ready to start building the healthy, happy life you deserve? Download the Healthy, Happy Life assessment below to get started.

The post Habits for a Physically Healthy Nurse with Chris Foy appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

It would be great if this life was something that someone could just give you. As with so many things in life, building the healthy, happy life you deserve is work. One of the biggest obstacles we face in this process is knowing where to start.

Start here

Think of the healthy, happy life you want to build as a house. I remember when my current home was being built. Before the first block was laid, they did a survey of the property. They couldn’t even begin to prepare for the foundation until they knew what they were starting with.

Building the healthy, happy life you deserve is much like building a house. Before you can begin adding the blocks that will build that life, you have to know where you are starting. I’ve developed a tool that can help.

Health, Happy Life Assessment

This assessment was designed around the 6 pillars of a healthy, happy life. It will help you identify your area of greatest need. This is the area of your life that needs the most attention. With that information, you can start building a plan to address that area and grow from there.

Did I mention it’s free?

The Healthy, Happy Life Assessment is 100% free. No strings attached. It is truly my hope that this tool can help you get on the path to the healthy, happy life you deserve. That’s why I created it.

The post Healthy, Happy Life Assessment for Nurses appeared first on Restoring Nurses.

For this reason. I recently shared a post talking about 5 ways to leave work at work. I followed with a post sharing an additional 7 ways to leave work at work. One of the things I shared in these posts was what I call the 5 Minute Debrief.

The idea with the 5 Minute Debrief is to get some of the junk out of your head, write it down, and then move on. Here’s how it works. The 5 Minute Debrief consists of 3 statements.

Things I did well today

Here’s the deal. Even on your worst day, there were still things that you did well. Take some time to celebrate that. If you don’t, then it can be really easy to focus only on the things that didn’t go well. Write down a few things that you did well. It doesn’t have to be long. Just a few short notes.

Things I could have done better today

Here is where you are going to think about the things that didn’t go so well. Consider things that you could have done better. I’m not suggesting that you agonize over conversations where you think you could have said something different or better. Just name some concrete things that you could have done better.

Write it down, learn any lessons that need to be learned from it, then let it go.

Things I need to look up before my next shift

In some cases there are things that you really do need to look up before your next shift. Maybe it’s a new medicine or a diagnosis you’ve never heard of. Maybe it’s something you wrote down in the second statement. Whatever it is, write it down.

The point of this is to put these things down so that you don’t go home thinking about them. If you’re like me, you’ll probably end up lying in bed thinking about these things. Writing them down, and deciding to look into them later, can get them out of your head so that you can be present with your family and so that you can sleep.

In some cases you might not really need to look them up. However, in most cases these will be things that you really do need to look up. After you’ve written them down, set the paper aside and plan to come back to it sometime later, before your next shift.

That’s it

While this is called he 5 minute debrief, it may take longer than that, sometimes. The real point is that it shouldn’t take long. Take as long as you need to complete it, but don’t drag it on forever.

FREE Download

To help with this, I’ve developed this free PDF version of the 5 Minute Debrief. Download it, print it, and have it ready to go when you need it.

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