Caring for self: the roles of collaboration, healthy lifestyle and balance

The role of nursing demands much of an individual, both personally and professionally, but it also gives back in ways that can be life enhancing. The two aspects of one’s life– work and recreation, or professional and personal– become inextricably linked when undertaking the work known as nursing. To nurse is to become involved. After all, unless another or others are involved, then the act is not nursing. Central to being a nurse is being involved with another person, either caring for them or assisting them in their own care. This can take many forms: chance conversations about health issues; provisional diagnosis of an illness or disease; managing symptoms such as pain or breathlessness; counselling; advising on choices in treatments such as chemotherapy, dialysis or asthma medication; dressing or draining a wound; or assisting someone in palliative care. All these acts, and many more, are a normal part of everyday nursing and all involve interacting with another person or other persons. However, the compassion and empathy required to be so involved in caring for another can lead to work-related stress and its inevitable repercussions.