NURS 478 Self Care Journal

Your Name: Hannah Copley Your Buddy: Joe Marelli

Select any evidence-based intervention/recommendation to follow (do this over 8 weeks):

 Sleep at least 7 hours per night before and after a work or school day
 Practice mindfulness meditation for at least 10 minutes everyday
 Complete at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, such as biking under 9
mph, dancing, jogging, or playing tennis; or complete 60 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise per week,
such as running, kickboxing, or jumping rope.
 Participate in two professionally led yoga classes for one hour or longer per week
 Spend up to 2 hrs in Nature or longer per week
 Other (Must get your Clinical Faculty approval first, and activity should be up to 2 hrs or longer
per week)

Complete Weekly journal entries:

Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):
1
9/23 This week I used a mindful meditation app, Buddify, that I had previously downloaded to my phone. I
did 10-12 minutes of guided meditation every day this week.

Comments on Activity:
It’s difficult to make things work with the preceptorship. Being on nights and switching back and forth
between when I’m awake, it’s difficult to plan if I should do the meditation before I go to bed or when I
wake up. Consistency works best for me when building habits so I wanted to do it at the same time each
day but that didn’t really happen this week.
Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):
2
9/30 This week I did guided mindful meditation with the guided app for 10-15 minutes six of the seven days
this week.

Comments on Activity:
Again, I had a hard time figuring things out with my clinical rotation. I do think that the meditations
helped in moments of stress. There was one point when I was precepting that I was really upset by one
of my patient’s outcomes and going away and meditating for a bit really helped.

Buddy Check-In Comments: (Note Key Comments from Conversation)

Joe and I kind of commiserated about the struggles of trying to figure this stuff out with our
preceptorship. It’s so busy between school, preceptorship and family. I’m also trying to work at least
one shift a week at work which was really tough. But we talked through some strategies to fit in our
self-care activity into our week.

M O’C Fall 2018

 Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):
3
10/7 This week I did my guided mindful meditation for 9-12 minutes every day this week.

Comments on Activity:
I’m kind of tired of the guided meditations but when I have tried to do mindfulness meditation on my
own, I get really distracted and I’m not sure it’s particularly helpful. I like the meditations but there are
other things in my day that I feel I get more value out of in terms of self-care.

Buddy Check-In Comments: (Note Key Comments from Conversation)

Joe recommended I give solo mindful meditation a shot and encouraged me to be okay with failing. We
also had some good conversation about why we are so bad about taking care of ourselves. It’s hard to
know if it’s a nursing thing or if it’s a human being thing sometimes but either way, both of us are not
great about prioritizing self-care.

Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):

4
10/14 I did guided mindful meditation for 10-20 minutes every day this week.

Comments on Activity:
My mental health really took a dive this week so I kind of came at my meditation time in desperation
more than in self-care mode, though I suppose that it is still self-care. Because of this it was really easy
to procrastinate doing it, so I did some of it lying in bed, but I did find it helpful in going to sleep, which
can be a doozy when I’m in a depressive episode.

Buddy Check-In Comments: (Note Key Comments from Conversation)

Joe did a really good job of encouraging me to take care of myself this week. Not only through
mindfulness, but through reaching out to friends and family and seeing the doctor, which is on my to do
list.

Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):

5
10/21 This week I did guided meditation for 10-12 minutes for three days and solo mindful meditation for 10
minutes for four days.

Comments on Activity:
One thing I had a hard time with in solo guided meditation was setting a time limit. I found setting a
timer very jarring and it seemed to kind of negate the calming effect of the mindful meditation.
Unfortunately, I have a really bad internal clock and I don’t have the ability to just get done when I get
done because I have a lot going on.

Buddy Check-In Comments: (Note Key Comments from Conversation)

This week, Joe and I debriefed about what worked in my mindful meditation time and what didn’t. I
really did feel like I failed the solo meditation in large part, but he did a good job of encouraging me to
relax about it a bit. Fortunately, I’m not being graded on the quality of my solo mindfulness practice.

M O’C Fall 2018

 Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):
6
10/28 This week I did solo meditation for 10 minutes twice and guided meditation five times for 10-12
minutes.

Comments on Activity:
I found myself really frustrated with the mindful meditation this week. It felt like a really big chore to
do and I really didn’t want to do it. I pressed through though!

Buddy Check-In Comments: (Note Key Comments from Conversation)

Joe and I talked about burnout and the fact that maybe that’s what I’ve been feeling with the
mindfulness. It’s possible that it’s just not the right thing for me. When I’m over with this project, I may
have to seek out another form of self-care to help myself. I just wanted to try something new for this
assignment.

Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):

7
11/4 This week I did guided mindful meditation for 10-20 minutes every day.

Comments on Activity:
While I think trying solo mindful meditation was an interesting exercise, I found that I wasn’t very
successful in staying on task, so I went back to just guided mindful meditation. I might be more
motivated to figure it out if I had any religious motivation for it, but it doesn’t really have any spiritual
significance for me.

Buddy Check-In Comments: (Note Key Comments from Conversation)

Joe and I talked this week about being okay with “failure.” I am definitely a type A person and I don’t
like to admit defeat, but in this case, I was getting more benefit out of the exercise when I did the guided
meditations, so he kind of “gave me permission” to do only guided meditations.

Week Description of intervention implemented this week (include frequency/length of time):

8
11/11 This week I did guided meditation for 10-12 minutes every day.

Comments on Activity:
I really was more successful with the guided meditations and I found them more useful for self-
reflection. I really liked doing meditations before I went to bed because I usually have a hard time
falling asleep and I found it a little easier to fall asleep after meditating.
Complete Survey Below
(Once Completed submit entire document to D2L Assignment Drop box by Due date and add to Your
Portfolio.)

M O’C Fall 2018

 Reflection on Panopto presentation and 8-week intervention:

What did these activities teach you?

I think it did a good job of emphasizing the importance of self-care.

Have you noticed any changes in your life since you began this intervention?
I kind of went through a lot of stuff in my personal life while completing this intervention, so it’s hard
to say if it was changes related to mindfulness practice or other reasons.

Will you do anything differently now? Please explain.

I feel like now I have a tool to use to help me fall asleep more easily when I have a hard time with that
before I go to medication or resign myself to sleep deprivation.

Comments/suggestions:

Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with these statements:
Following an evidence-based recommendation to reduce burnout was valuable to me.

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
5 4 3 2 1

This 8-week intervention will help me implement preventative strategies for burnout in my career.

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
5 4 3 2 1

This Panopto presentation titled: “Nurse Burnout: What this is and how you can minimize it in your careers”
effectively taught me how I can reduce and address nurse burnout in my career.

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
5 4 3 2 1

Completing the Big Five Personality Test was helpful for exploring my risk of nurse burnout.

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
1 2 3 4 5

M O’C Fall 2018