Nurse Self-Care Strategies
As a nurse and a doctoral student, I have come to realize that one of the most difficult yet necessary challenges in this profession is learning how to care for myself as I care for others. Over the years, I have faced moments of profound emotional exhaustion. For instance, I pushed through 12-hour shifts, stayed late to chart, skipped meals, and ignored my stress signals. Despite my efforts, I have tried to develop a mindfulness and self-care practice more times than I can count, yet consistency remains difficult. This is largely because the culture around us tends to reward overextension more than balance. Consequently, I believe we must build stronger mentoring systems and more nurturing environments in nursing. In particular, this need is urgent in outpatient and clinic settings, where burnout often goes unnoticed and unsupported.
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Nurse Self-Care Strategies
The PICOT question guiding my DNP practicum project reflects this passion: In outpatient nursing staff experiencing stress and burnout (P), does participation in an eight-week holistic self-care and mindfulness program (I), compared to no structured wellness intervention (C), reduce self-reported burnout and increase compassion satisfaction (O) over eight weeks (T)?
This project draws inspiration from Dr. Katie Love’s Empowered Holistic Nursing Education (EHNE), which encourages nurses to return to their roots, viewing themselves as whole, multidimensional beings deserving of care and healing. Her approach isn’t just about incorporating meditation into a daily routine; it’s about redefining the way we perceive ourselves as nurses and as individuals (Love, 2021). I’ve found this incredibly validating, especially during times when I struggled to find space for self-reflection amidst the demands of work and school.
To support this project, I’m also drawing from Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring, which complements EHNE by framing self-care as an ethical responsibility in nursing. Watson (2008) reminds us that caring is not just something we give to patients. It is a mutual, sacred exchange that begins with how we care for ourselves.
Framed within the nursing meta-paradigm, this project considers:
Person as the nurse, not just a provider, but a whole person with emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.
Health is balance and well-being, not just physical stamina.
The environment is a space that can either support or drain us, depending on whether we feel seen and supported.
Nursing is a healing art that must extend inward as much as it does outward.
In closing, this project is personal. It is rooted in my lived experience of trying (and often failing) to make space for mindfulness and self-care in a demanding profession. I know I am not alone in that. That is why this project is not just about reducing burnout; it is about reimagining what it means to support nurses, foster mentorship, and return to the heart of nursing as a truly healing profession.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice. https://www.aacnnursing.org/DNP/DNP-Essentials
American Holistic Nurses Association. (2022). Holistic nursing: Scope and standards of practice (3rd ed.). American Nurses Association.
Duarte, J., & Pinto-Gouveia, J. (2016). Effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention on burnout and compassion fatigue in healthcare professionals: A randomized controlled trial. Mindfulness, 7(3), 696–706. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0500-7
Love, K. (2021). Empowered Holistic Nursing Education: The heart of healing. Self-Published.
Stamm, B. H. (2010). The Concise ProQOL Manual (2nd ed.). ProQOL.org. https://proqol.org
Watson, J. (2008). Nursing: The philosophy and science of caring (Rev. ed.). University Press of Colorado.
Watson, J., & Woodward, T. K. (2022). Caring science, mindful practice: Implementing Watson’s human caring theory (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
