Authors

  1. Kirkendall, Neeli C. DNP, RN, FNP-C

Article Content

Nursing has always been a profession focused on the well-being of its clients, but nurses must also value their own care in order to care for others effectively. Nursing students are taught concepts such as caregiver strain, burnout, emotional fatigue, and moral distress. Educators teach students about attrition and retention, but do we effectively address how to deal with the stress of our careers to combat nurse turnover? Recent studies have shown that approximately 33% of novice nurses search for a new job during the first year of practice because of feeling burned out. This burnout can lead to lower job performance and satisfaction, as well as decreased quality of care. Do nurse educators focus enough on teaching students how to care for themselves? Incorporating the concept of self-care into our nursing curriculums affords faculty and students the time and resources needed to cultivate an increased appreciation for self-care. During the latest curriculum design, nursing faculty realigned priorities to include topics such as diversity, inclusion, equity, and now self-care. Administration and faculty created a taskforce with the goal of capturing how to successfully integrate self-care into the curriculum. The faculty completed a self-care course and discussed how to best integrate self-care into the program. Self-care is now discussed within specific courses or as a competency. Faculty are encouraged to engage in the self-care activities to intentionally highlight the need for all nurses to embrace self-care practices.