Self-Reflective Journal Entry

Self-Reflective Journal Entry

Self-care is the intentional choice made by an individual to only participate in activities that promote and benefit their well-being (Ross et al., 2019). The activities must benefit one’s mental, emotional, and physical health. Types of self-care vary from one individual to another based on a personal view of self-care (Williams et al., 2022). Self-care has essential health benefits for students, such as decreasing burnout, increasing energy, reducing stress, strengthening relationships, improving resilience, and improving academic performance. Lack of self-care among student nurses promotes stress, fatigue, and inability to concentrate on studies and offer the best health care to patients (Mills, 2019).

Self-care Plan

During the National Holistic Nursing Conference, I attended a self-care workshop where I learned about self-care and appreciated its importance in my student life. During the conference, I vowed to practice self-care by eating a balanced diet daily and practicing sleep hygiene. Due to my busy schedule as a student nurse, I often prioritize my education over my health. I rarely have healthy and balanced meals except when visiting my family members. I do not set aside time to prepare my food and usually rely on unhealthy fast foods and snacks. Accordingly, I plan to have a healthy meal at least twice a day.

In addition, I plan on practicing sleep hygiene which will include coming up with a sleeping schedule. I sleep only when I am tired, for less than eight hours a day; I sometimes fall asleep on my study table. Moreover, I developed the habit of carrying books to bed, especially during exam periods. I plan on having a sleeping routine that ensures I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day with a minimum of eight hours of sleep. Also, I plan on reserving my bed area for sleeping only. I will also frequently wash my bed sheets and pillows and turn the lights off when going to bed to ensure a comfortable sleep.

The self-care plans that I plan to practice will greatly change my current routine. I attribute my academic success to the extra hard work I put in despite sleeping for fewer hours and having unhealthy food. Although I understand the need for self-care in my student life, I am also worried about failing my examinations. The minimum of eight hours per day that I will spend sleeping and the few minutes that I will spend preparing healthy food means that I will lag in academic topics that I would have covered. I recognize that my doubt is the only barrier holding me back from practicing self-care. During the self-care workshop, the presenter emphasized high performance levels in students who practice self-care; therefore, I plan to practice self-care (Green, 2019).

A Self-care Skill I Find Complicated to Implement

A self-care skill that I would find complicated to implement is joining the gym. Due to my schedule, I might end up skipping most gym days. Gym registration and memberships are also costly. However, I will ensure I am physically active by walking at school and in the hospital from one point to another. I will also install an application on my phone to calculate the number of steps per day. Another self-care that I would find complicated to implement is yoga. Yoga routines and equipment are costly. Besides, yoga requires consistency, which I’m unable to guarantee.

References

Green C. (2019). Teaching accelerated nursing students’ self-care: A pilot project. Nursing Open, 7(1), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.384

Mills A. (2019). Helping students to self-care and enhance their health-promotion skills. British journal of nursing (Mark Allen Publishing), 28(13), 864–867. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2019.28.13.864

Ross, A., Yang, L., Wehrlen, L., Perez, A., Farmer, N., & Bevans, M. (2019). Nurses and health-promoting self-care: Do we practice what we preach? Journal of Nursing Management, 27(3), 599–608.  https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12718

Williams, S. G., Fruh, S., Barinas, J. L., & Graves, R. J. (2022). Self-Care in Nurses. Journal of Radiology Nursing, 41(1), 22–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jradnu.2021.11.001

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Write a self-reflective journal entry discussing how your self-care affects your student practice. What types of things are you doing for self-care?

Self-Reflective Journal Entry

Competency

Analyze the impact of self-reflective practice in relation to self-care.

Scenario

You were provided a scholarship to attend the National Holistic Nursing Conference. During this conference, you participated in a self-care workshop and learned skills to increase self-care.

When concluding the day’s activities, the presenters asked you to reflect on your self-care habits and to document that reflection in a one-to-two-page journal entry.

Instructions

Write a one to two journal entry that addresses the following:

Using your own words, define self-care and the benefits of practicing self-care as a student.
Describe at least one self-care skill you plan to start using in your daily health practices. Identify which self-care technique you would use and explain how you would begin using this technique. Do you anticipate any barriers to using this new skill?
Describe at least one self-care skill you find complicated to implement into your nursing practice and discuss why this approach would be challenging to implement.