im generally good at recognising that im not coping well or need some ”me time” but if I’m brutally honest with myself, implementing proper self-care is hard for me! i tend to fall into a bad habit of just staring at netflix or overdo it with activity at home. I’m a very typical ‘boom or bust’! when I’m in a stressful period even remembering to take my daily meds etc can be tough, and a spiral down can happen quickly. I’ve found what helps is literally having a daily checklist, sounds silly, but it helps. (take am meds, drink 2 glasses water, stretch back, midday meds, prep lunch for next day, more water, pm meds) then I at least know I’ve done small steps for myself during the day!
it is so so important for us to be good at self care, and encouraging each other as colleagues/teams, so that we all can give of our best to our patients. my current colleagues and I are pretty good at picking up when someone is not coping so well, or if the gernal morale of the team is low. we do regular fun team building events (one coming up end of may) and regular ”spookie” periods. we all get a name of a team member that you spook for a designated period. little ntes of encouragement, a chocolate here and there, face mask, that kind of thing. its anonymous until the end. we all share pics on our team WhatsApp group of what been received and in general everyone loves it. really helps the team! (for anyone interested we use the website elfster to do random draws and create wishlists)
