#healthynurse Spotlight - Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™

Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ - #healthynurse Spotlight Series - Ashley Johnson, MSN, AGPCNP-C, DNP(c)

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Nurse uses aromatherapy, meditation, and deep breathing to improve her own job satisfaction. Ashley Johnson, MSN, AGPCNP-C, DNP(c), works in the Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF Health).

Over the past year, resiliency has become more important than ever for nurses. Building and improving resiliency, however, doesn’t just happen on its own. It takes an intense focus and dedication on habits that will — over time — build a more resistant sense of self.

Ashley Johnson, MSN, AGPCNP-C, DNP(c), knows this for a fact. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has made an extra effort to focus on habits that will positively benefit her mental and emotional health, including:

Reducing anxiety
Eliminating burnout
Improving job satisfaction
Strengthening resiliency

“I work in a stressful ICU, so I had to pivot during the COVID-19 pandemic to find healthy ways to deal with my emotions,” said Ashley. “Before the pandemic, I incorporated more for general health, like working out. But I wanted to also focus on reducing my stress and anxiety.”

To do that, Ashley uses a combination of aromatherapy, deep breathing exercises, meditation, and stretching — all of which she finds soothing. She uses aromatherapy and deep breathing any time of day, whenever she feels she needs it. At the end of each workday, she takes a few minutes to meditate and stretch.

“If I’m on my feet 12+ hours a day, my body is usually hurting by the time I get home,” said Ashley. “I’ll take 5 minutes and put my legs up against the wall, stretch, and think about the day. This helps me cope and look forward to the next day to come.”

Far-Reaching Impacts of Healthy Habits
Ashley says she feels calmer and more rejuvenated now that she’s engrained these healthy habits into her lifestyle — but the benefits go beyond that. She’s also noticed an improvement in her job satisfaction and a reduction in the burnout she was feeling at the start of the pandemic. Taking these techniques to work has allowed her to be a better employee, coworker, and caregiver.

Today, Ashley is working on sharing her healthy habits with those around her. She’s developing a quality improvement project for the other nurses in her unit. The project involves the creation of self-care kits nurses can access in the breakroom to perform aromatherapy, deep breathing, and mindfulness practices at work.

Motivation to Overcome Challenges
While Ashley has seen much success from her healthy habits, she also faces challenges. In addition to her job as a nurse, she’s back in school, which adds stress and constricts her time.

Finding enough hours in the day to focus on self-care is hard enough simply working as a nurse, but adding in responsibilities like school can push self-care to the backburner. To combat this challenge, Ashley designates non-negotiable time in her day for meditation, stretching, and deep breathing.

Ashley’s Advice
Nurses are dealing with challenging expectations and circumstances. During these endeavors (and beyond), Ashley encourages other nurses to:

Keep working on it: Self-care is an ever-evolving process to continue improving yourself. Feeling better isn’t going to happen overnight. Practice and keep at it.
Tap into the resources around you: Do you have friends or coworkers who practice certain lifestyle habits that improve their well-being? Adapt some of those practices into your own life to see if they work for you.
Be open-minded: Try different tactics and avenues you may not have thought of in the past. You never know what might click.

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Blog #healthynurse Spotlight 11/15/2021 12:45pm CST

Added by Holly E Carpenter, RN, BSN