Self-Care for Nurses: Essential Tips for Well-being

As a nurse, it’s hard to put your own health before anyone else’s. I’m with you! The first few years working in healthcare, I was so laser-focused on helping patients, my own well-being took a hit. I was frequently tired, listless, and physically drained on my days off – but, I’ve never wanted to change what I do for the world.

As nurses, we all need to practice a little more self-care. Yes, it’s become a bit of a buzzword over the past few years, but putting yourself and your health first is absolutely crucial – even if you think of it from the perspective of ‘the healthier I am, the better care I can give to others’.

In this guide, I’ll take you through some crucial self-care tips to ensure you’re mentally and physically raring to go.

Why Self-Care is Crucial for Nurses' Well-being

Regular self-care ensures that you’re both mentally and physically healthy, prepared to take on daily challenges, and able to relax and rest effectively. We’re all prone to burnout, and for nurses, this is especially true, as intensive studies have discovered:

“Nurses have moderate to high levels of burnout and were negatively associated with poor quality of life. Interventional programs are needed to decrease nurses’ burnout and improve their quality of life.”

Khatatbeh, H. et al

An interventional program can easily refer to moments of self-care that you can schedule and observe throughout your life, whether at work or at home. Self-care can help to improve your physical stamina, your mental resilience, your quality of sleep, and even the quality of your social life and how you interact with people.

You don’t even need to change much with your lifestyle or schedule. Think of self-care as like building a toolkit – much as you’d shop around for nursing equipment, try looking at a few different self-care resources and ideas that you can put in reserve to use whenever you feel tired or under pressure.

Areas of Essential Self-Care for Nurses

Ideally, you should focus on areas of self-care that revolve around your physical well-being, your mental health, and any social connections you make.

1. Physical Well-being

Nurses spend an incredible amount of time on their feet, rushing from place to place, staying alert for their patients. That’s going to take a lot of physical exertion!

Physical self-care is a must if you want to stay energised at work and if you want to avoid completely crashing out at home. That means taking time to eat healthily, to drink plenty of water, and to exercise regularly outside of work.

Regular physical activity and healthier choices for your physical well-being will help to strengthen your body, boost your stamina, and even help to clear out some mental cobwebs. Physical self-care can be amazing at reducing stress all around, particularly helpful in this line of work!

Physical self-care is all about strengthening your body so you have a fantastic foundation on which you can bounce back from pains and stressors of the job.

2. Mental Health

There’s little wonder why so many nurses struggle with mental health problems:

“During the course of their work, nurses encounter physical, mental, emotional, and ethical challenges. Depending on the role and setting of the nurse’s work, these may include incurring the risk of infection and physical or verbal assault, meeting physical demands, managing and supporting the needs of multiple patients with complex needs, having emotional conversations with patients and families, and confronting challenging social and ethical issues.”

Flaubert J.L. et al

Believe me (from experience), it’s natural to get overwhelmed in this line of work. However, letting your mental health suffer will also let your physical health suffer, and that has a domino effect on your patients and your life outside of work.

It’s difficult to clear your head and to refocus from day to day. However, many healthcare professionals swear by meditation and mindfulness practice, which can help to recentre your mind and your emotional core. Taking just a few moments out of your day to refocus and to think about literally nothing can be great for building resilience in stressful situations.

Many nurses also enjoy journaling, breathing exercises, and practicing gratitude to help keep mentally healthy and emotionally stable against a highly stressful working life. Creative expression, such as trying art or creative writing, can also be a great way to stimulate your mind healthily.

Try to separate life from work if you can – set your nursing scrubs aside for your next shift and focus on re-energising yourself at home.

3. Social Connections

Social self-care is all about knowing when to reach out to others for support and even guidance when things get tough. Nurses should never feel afraid to build professional relationships with others, to strengthen peer networks that can offer mutual support, or to ask for guidance from mentors or supervisors.

Nurses will often need help from others ‘in the same boat’ for emotional guidance and resilience. Even simply debriefing after complex or stressful days can help to break down traumatic experiences.

And, of course, it is never healthy to keep stress and worries to yourself if you have a network of friends and family who are happy to help out!

Essential Self-Care and Stress Management Tips for Nurses 

Everyone’s needs are slightly different, of course, but there are a few essential tips that nurses can follow to make sure they are caring for themselves inside and out. For example, I recommend taking regular breaks, staying hydrated, and prioritising sleep.

1. Take Regular Breaks

No matter how hard you work, it’s always important to take regular breaks to keep your mind sharp and to let your body recover. Always try to stick to the break schedule implemented within your ward or clinic – they are there for a reason!

2. Stay Hydrated and Eat Nutritious Meals

It’s very easy to forget about eating and drinking properly when you work long shifts in a demanding industry! However, staying hydrated is crucial for keeping your body and mind healthy, and the longer your shifts go on for, the more water you’ll need.

Balanced nutrition is vital for staving off sluggishness and for ensuring you always feel refreshed and prepared to take on the day.

3. Prioritise Sleep and Rest

Much the same as making sure you get a balanced diet, sleep and rest are vital for your mind and body to recharge. 

Sleeping your recommended eight hours every night will also help you feel restored, and stress hormones will dissipate. A good sleep schedule is great for staving off anxiety and mental pressures that may arise with the job!

4. Practice Hobbies

It’s tempting to try and focus completely on your work, even when you have days off – but this isn’t a healthy way to let your mind refocus and restore itself. 

While it’s good to get rest when you’re not at work, do also take time to enjoy hobbies and pursuits that really stimulate your brain. Focusing on work without taking time to enjoy other pursuits isn’t healthy – and balancing hobbies with exercise and a healthy diet can help to balance mental and physical well-being.

Helpful Tools and Resources to Support Nurse Well-being

I’ve rounded up some helpful resources and tools you can use for further reading, inspiration, and support. Several of our customers and partners in the healthcare industry also mention that the following are particularly helpful for regaining balance and perspective.

• Nurse & Midwife Support: This fantastic resource offers guidance on how to better support your own mental and physical well-being, along with several helplines you can call.

• Treat: Treat is an app that helps you tap into relaxation techniques and to boost your self-awareness – it’s particularly recommended for busy nurses at risk of burning out.

• Beyond Blue: This emergency counsellor service offers numbers to call and online help if you are in immense, urgent distress.

• Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria (NMHP): This body provides a dedicated series of tools and guides to help healthcare workers who may be struggling with work and life pressures.

Conclusion

Working in any part of the healthcare industry can be stressful and exhausting. After all, you’re making sure you’re giving people the best possible care they deserve! However, nurses and other professionals also deserve to take the time to exercise some self-care.

I hope you’ve found this guide useful, and use it as a springboard to find resources and tools that help you to keep that work-life balance healthy and in check.

Sources

Albert, D. J., Wong, R. C., K N Brayley, & Fibiger, H. C. (1979). Evaluation of adrenergic, cholinergic and dopaminergic involvement in the inhibition of hyperreactivity and interanimal aggression by the medial hypothalamus in the rat. In Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior (Vol. 11, Issue 1, pp. 1–10). Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/0091-3057(79)90289-2

Home. (n.d.). In Treat Healthcare. Retrieved June 19, 2025, from https://www.treathealthcare.com.au

Khatatbeh, H., Pakai, A., Al-Dwaikat, T., Onchonga, D., Faten Amer, Prmusz, V., & András Oláh. (2022). Nurses’ burnout and quality of life: A systematic review and critical analysis of measures used. In Nursing open (Vol. 9, Issue 3, pp. 1564–1574). Nursing open. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.936NMHPV 

Home. (n.d.). In www.nmhp.org.au. Retrieved June 19, 2025, from https://www.nmhp.org.au/welcome.html

Nursing Equipment & Nursing Supplies. (n.d.). In Medshop Australia. Retrieved June 19, 2025, from https://www.medshop.com.au/collections/nursing-equipment

Nursing Scrubs Australia - Professional Scrubs. (n.d.). In Medshop Australia. Retrieved June 19, 2025, from https://www.medshop.com.au/collections/nursing-scrubs-uniforms

Support for Nurses & Midwives. (n.d.). In Your health matters. Retrieved June 19, 2025, from https://www.nmsupport.org.au

Urgent Help - Beyond Blue. (n.d.). In www.beyondblue.org.au. Retrieved June 19, 2025, from https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/urgent-help