Developing a Holistic Self-Care Plan for Nurses in a New Nurse Residency Program

The art of nursing is focused on the whole patient. The holism of individuals includes the body, mind, and spirit connection. If one part of this triad is unhealthy, the others may suffer. Nurses provide holistic, individualized care to clients. They strive to function as caregivers who provide health and wellbeing through a holistic approach. In doing so, nurses provide compassionate care that often supersedes the self. The care provided often exceeds their personal self-care needs. Unfortunately, a lack of self-care has the potential to cause damage to the nurse\u27s body, mind and spirit. The purpose of this Doctorate of Nursing Practice project was to develop a self-care plan utilizing holistic self-care tools for nurses in a new nurse residency program. Utilizing convenience sampling, thirteen new nurses decided to participate in the project. All thirteen accepted the 30 day supply of tools, calendar and holistic tool documentation sheet. All thirteen nurses participated in the education and trial of the holistic self-care tools. At the end of 30 days, eight of the thirteen (62%) returned their individual calendar with tools circled and holistic tool documentation sheet completed. The results reflected 100% (8) nurses used the tool Lavender essential oil, 100% (8) nurses used the tool Mandala coloring with music, 62.5% (5) used the tool journaling and 50% (4) had one or more days they did not utilize a tool(s). Therefore, 86% of the 30 days the nurses utilized Lavender essential oil, 44% of the 30 days the nurses utilized Mandala coloring with music, 25% of the 30 days the nurses utilized journaling and 7% of the 30 days no tool was utilized. The results depict the new nurse\u27s active role in timely self-care planning utilizing holistic self-care tools