{"id":107570,"date":"2022-04-22T20:29:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-23T03:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/?p=107570"},"modified":"2022-04-22T20:29:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T03:29:42","slug":"nurse-work-life-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/nurse-work-life-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Cultivate Work-Life Balance as a Nurse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After COVID-19, interest in healthcare professionals and their plight has increased, with a focus on the demand for nurses. If, like many, you find yourself interested in pursuing this important, in-demand career<\/a>, then you might want to learn more about nurse work-life balance before signing up for a nursing degree or an online RN program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article will address what work-life balance as a nurse typically looks like, whether or not nurses work on weekends, individual factors that lead to poor work-life balance in the nursing career, and the importance of this balance for hospital nurses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Work-Life Balance?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Work-life balance is the term used to describe how people split spending time and resources between their personal and professional lives and the amount of stress this division places on the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Does It Mean to Have Work-Life Balance?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A healthy work-life balance is taking reasonable care to devote adequate time and energy to work, leisure, and family life. Often, a job demands more time and energy than an individual can freely give without sacrificing some facet of their private life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other cases, things that should be done on personal time start to interfere with job performance. When this becomes a part of daily life rather than an irregularity, there is no healthy work-life balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Is Work-Life Balance Important for Nursing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nurse work-life balance is essential because of the nature of the healthcare industry and the role that nurse work-life balance plays in favorable outcomes for patients. Many nursing responsibilities, such as elderly care and direct patient care, require professional efficacy and an energy level above and beyond other fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to findings from the National Library of Medicine, this high pressure has led to a predictable relative prevalence of mental health issues among current nurses<\/a>, even in regular times before the pandemic. This sort of nurse burnout is what proper nurse work-life balance would help prevent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nursing Job Responsibilities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nursing jobs are not inflexible, and as such, the responsibilities a nurse might have may vary quite a bit from one to the other. The following are some general duties and complementary roles that most full-time nurses have in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking Care of Patients<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A nurse’s most common responsibility is providing direct care to patients in a medical facility. This usually encompasses whatever is needed, from keeping patients clean to providing healthy snacks and a listening ear. This facet of a nurse’s duties is what makes the profession one of the most vital in the healthcare workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Administration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Due to current workplace management systems, nurses often also find themselves at the helm of public hospital administration. They carry out many crucial functions in this capacity ranging from creating and updating records relating to patients to inventorying and scheduling treatments and appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Routine Medical Procedures<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nurses are often in charge of carrying out standard medical procedures such as temperature and BMI checks and other tasks like taking blood and urine samples. They do this in tandem with their administrative functions, creating and updating records of the tests carried out and tallying the incurred liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patient Liaison and Support<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since nurses carry out so many functions within the healthcare workforce, they are the only ones that can properly function as a bridge between other healthcare professionals and the patients being taken care of. As such, hospital nurses are often responsible for eliciting a proper description of issues from clients and explaining the prognosis to patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In one of many complementary roles, more tenured nurses might carry out training programs for other staff nurses to ensure a high quality of care or act as nurse managers to oversee their acclimation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effective nurse managers are also essential to the healthcare industry because they allow for quick assimilation of new staff in a field that has little room for error. Due to their importance, these tasks require comprehensive management skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Many Hours Do Nurses Work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As essential healthcare workers, full-time nurses usually work day or night shifts of ten or 12 hours<\/a> to provide adequate direct patient care round the clock, according to the National Library of Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many exceptions, as the nursing profession is full of concessions to keep up with the workload, which adversely impacts nurse work-life balance. Extra shifts and overtime aren’t uncommon, despite evidence from the Health Affairs journal that this does more harm than good<\/a> and leads to job burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do Nurses Work on Weekends?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Depending on the needs of different healthcare organizations, full-time nurses may or may not work weekends. Some nurses may not be required for any weekend work, while others might.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some nurses, such as those actively engaged in elderly care, might even have duties outside the hospital setting that are carried out on weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Achieve Work-Life Balance as a Nurse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n