My Wellness Reflection

            In order to be a successful nurse you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of your patients. This semester I made two wellness goals to improve self-care. Even though these goals may seem simple to other people, they were hard for me to achieve. It took a lot of discipline and reflection to attain them. At first, I was not remotely in the range of being able to achieve them. Nursing is more than being smart academically, it is more important to be the best you, you can be. If you cannot take care of yourself, you cannot expect to take quality care of your patients. 

My Wellness Goals

            In the beginning of the semester I came up with two wellness goals that would improve my overall self-care. While there are many goals that I could set for myself, the two that I chose were the ones that could improve my life/self-care in bigger ways. 

  1. My first goal is to recognize when my brain is done and needs a break to clear my head and then continue with studying or my other tasks for that day. 
  2. My second goal is sleep and hydration. I do not remotely get enough sleep every night. Some days I drink enough water and other days I am so far off the right amount that I could probably be considered dehydrated. In order to get enough sleep, I will make a bedtime routine for weekdays and weekends. 

These goals are important to me because in order to set myself up for success in school and support my overall immune health I needed to improve my sleeping and fluid intake habits, along with recognizing when I need to take a break from studying. When I get frustrated with studying is when I know I have gone too far and should have taken a break sooner. It is important to me that I don’t get frustrated because I will be able to retain more information and be more efficient using my time more effectively. I was successful in attaining my goal of taking more study breaks and being more efficient with my studying however, I was not successful with drinking more water and getting more sleep. While I was studying, I would set timers for 30 minutes or less depending on what I was studying. After each block of time I had to take 10 minutes and drink some water, move, or go on my phone. I tried to set timers for going to bed but that simply just did not happen. Often there are not enough hours in the day to be student athlete and get all my homework done. As for drinking enough water I would make myself drink 2 of my yetis before 12 p.m. and then 3 after 12 p.m. Being in class and not really being able to drink water and then not finding time to fill up my water bottle were the two biggest barriers in me not being able to drink enough water. 

Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model

            Prochaska’s Transtheoretical Model is basically people’s willingness to change and readiness to commit to making those desired changes (Behavioral). My willingness to change has slowly declined throughout the semester, because at this point, I am just trying to make it through to the end. It’s sad to say but I don’t care how or what I need to do to make it through as long as my grades are good, and I am alive at the end of it. For next semester I will try to get more rest from the very beginning so that I do not start behind in that aspect of my goals. I want to implement better usage of my planner to be more efficient and effective. When applying this to patient care it is extremely important that I practice what I preach. In order to meet my goals, I will implement more timers, alarms, and better usage of my planner. I will also recognize when I am getting mentally drained. Preventing myself from being mentally over worked will be key to achieving my wellness goals. As I start to get frustrated or annoyed that will be how I know that I am in need of a break. I will also need to put timers on for my breaks because I need to get back into my work in a timely manner before I lose my motivation to actually get the work done. 

Conclusion

            Throughout the semester this class has made me more aware of my self-care habits. It has really reaffirmed the importance of taking care of myself before I can do my schoolwork and in the future be a good nurse. For next semester I will definitely be more disciplined from the start to make sure that I can be successful in achieving these goals.

Works Cited

Behavioral Change Models. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2020, from https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/mph-modules/sb/behavioralchangetheories/behavioralchangetheories6.html