While we don’t know when a vaccine will be available for COVID-19, we do know we will be battling the virus for an undetermined amount of time, putting increased stress on our healthcare workers for the foreseeable future.
Reducing stress and preventing nurse burnout is essential to a healthy workforce that can continue to care for all patients while putting out COVID fires. In order to continue helping others, we need to help ourselves first (this includes being more aware of our own work environments/workplace stress, mental health, and emotional exhaustion).
Below are the top 10 apps that help nurses manage stress, as chosen by nurses.
These times are unprecedented and will find their ways into history books for many years to come. If you don’t already, now is a great time to start to start keeping track of what is happening and how you are dealing with it.
Other than logging your feelings and thoughts for history's sake, journaling can help you organize the way you feel and how you think. You also may be able to identify patterns in your thoughts and cope with them. Or you can even just get some heavy feelings off your shoulders by expressing them somewhere safe.
The Reflectly app helps with all that by putting a journal driven by AI right on your smartphone to help you navigate all the emotions you are juggling.
A good day starts with a restful night’s sleep. Working long hours, back to back shifts, and even nightshift can set you up for mistakes and long days when you don’t make time for rest and quality sleep. When you only have 12 hours between shifts, there’s no time to waste trying to fall asleep. Also, often there is not time for the proper wind down before heading to bed, and it can be difficult to turn off your mind and allow it to rest.
Get to sleep quicker with the Slumber app. It features stories and meditations smartly designed and scientifically backed that help you get to sleep faster. The stories can also help you fall back asleep if you wake up too early. There are a variety of free stories available, or you can pay for the premium membership to get access to all their content.
Perhaps just as important as sleeping well, what we eat can have a large impact on how we feel. In the current climate of the world, stress can get in the way of making good decisions to properly fuel our bodies. The best way to combat stress driven impulse eating is to have a plan and stick with it.
The eMeals Healthy Meal Planner app can help you do just that. It’s the all-in-one app for discovering recipes, planning meals, generating a shopping list, and even getting the groceries delivered. The app gives you new meal ideas every single week and directions to help with the prep. You can then convert your shopping list to an order on various delivery and pickup services like Shipt, Walmart, Kroger, Instacart, and Amazon Fresh.
Dive into the serenity of the Calm app. This mindful meditation app is one of the more popular ones for a reason. Use the various free meditations to give it a try before jumping into a subscription that allows you to access all the features.
This mediation app is great for those focused on creating a peaceful environment. The app also periodically includes meditations by celebrity guest hosts such as Matthew McConaughey and Lebron James. Calm really is the app if you are looking to add something truly soothing to your everyday routine.
In a time where everyone’s “normal” has been disturbed, you have the choice to decide now more than ever how your new everyday is going to look moving forward. Take this disruption and turn it into an opportunity to arise a better version of yourself.
The Fabulous app can help you keep track of and stay on track with new habits you are trying to build. No matter what element of your life you are trying to improve, Fabulous can help. It can help you improve focus and concentration, better sleep, managing stress and anxiety with meditation, improving happiness, establishing better eating and exercise habits, and creating more motivation.
Headspace is another very popular meditation app that you need to try out. It is great for beginners and those who are wanting to squeeze a few minutes of thoughtfulness into their lives throughout their day.
Headspace focuses on teaching mediation techniques in incredibly impactful, short sessions. The app also includes a delightful amount of illustrations to guide you and please the eye. It is a very casual and laid back approach that allows the benefits of mediation to blend in with your everyday life and be there when you need them most. This app takes away the pressure of mediation and makes it fun and simple for your busy lifestyle.
Just as there are apps to help you fall asleep better, there are apps to help you wake up better as well. Waking up to a loud siren of an alarm can put us in a stressful state of mind from the beginning. Stop waking up after three snoozes to immediately start your day with social media scrolling.
The Yoga Wake Up app allows you to wake up to more peaceful sounds and an audio-yoga session to get your day off to an energizing start. The ten minute session guides you through simple stretches that you can even do from bed if you prefer. Wake up your muscles and your mind to a relaxing sound track first thing in the morning. Take ten minutes for you and your body to put you off to the right start.
Put good in, get good out. We all know we should drink our water. Lack of bathroom breaks and no drinks at the nurses station can set us up to quickly fall into a state of dehydration. That means providing your body with the water it craves and needs is even more important. Just how much does it need? How much are you giving it?
This app, WaterMinder, takes all the guesswork out of it. With reminders, personalized goals, and helpful visuals, this app is super easy to use. It also integrates with Siri to make logging water intake effortless. Taking care of yourself is so important and being sure you are getting enough water is a great place to start.
Between shifts, moving your body while connecting with nature can be a great way to unwind and sort through your thoughts or just forget about them for a while. No matter if you prefer hiking, biking, or running, you need a good place to find information to switch up your routine and explore all the outdoors has to offer.
With the AllTrails app, you can find up to date information on various trails and if they are dog and/or kid friendly. You can also log your adventure and save your favorite routes. Additionally, use the app as a map as you explore and share your favorite hikes on social media to encourage your friends and family to get out and connect with nature as well.
The final meditation app, Balance, is all about personalization. Balance is an app focused on getting to know you in order to provide you with the best experience. You will answer questions for the Balance app as you use it, and it will slowly get to know you and your needs as it personalizes mediations just for you.
It uses the answers you give it and it’s library of various audio files to generate a daily mediation for you that is going to be the most efficient and meet your unique needs. Balance is as close as you can get to a personal mediation coach in an app. If you enjoy a more customized mediation session then Balance is the perfect app for you!
Too much stress is never beneficial to productivity, quality of life, or happiness, and this is especially the case with nurse stress. Take the leap; try a new tool—you never know what could really help until you try it.
Maybe you’re stressed out because you can’t find that one travel assignment you’ve been looking for? Let us help you get it locked in! Create a free profile and speak with one of our Nurse Advocates!
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