Self-Care in Scrubs: Navigating Personal Mental Health in Healthcare Professions

By: Destiny Johnston

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Destiny Johnston. I am a 24-year-old nurse who

advocates strongly for those in healthcare to have more valid and accessible resources pertaining to

mental health through my platform Forward Frontline.

When Darcy asked me to write a blog post, I was unsure of what I would write knowing that her platform

and blog are more leaned towards borderline personality disorder and the awareness surrounding it.

After a considerable amount of thought, I realized that even just talking about mental health is something that is worth more than words can describe. Talking about mental health is so vastly spread these days, yet still so stigmatized.

I have been a nurse for the past 5 years and graduated my nursing program at the end of 2019. As you can imagine, with it being the end of 2019, that was a real struggle. I graduated right into the global pandemic we have all grown to know and love. COVID-19.

To say that that did not have an impact on my mental health would be to completely lie. Graduating right into COVID was one of the most mentally taxing things that could have happened for someone going into healthcare. I felt ill-prepared for all the challenges that I would experience because of the situation the world was facing, as well as the deficits in staff that it created.

During my first year or two of nursing, I wanted to try and get myself ahead so that I could find a reliable

job that had a consistent schedule. In wanting this, I completely disregarded my own mental health to

benefit the place that I worked for. I worked double shifts multiple days in a row, worked whenever I was

called, filled in for people when they could not show up, and I tried to do the job of multiple people while at work. You can imagine what comes next: burnout.

I couldn’t see my family, friends, or anyone else due to the restrictions put in place for healthcare

workers. I was isolated, alone, and stressed out to the maximum extent. Unfortunately, I ended up in a bad place mentally and my mental health was completely compromised. I became depressed, felt little to no value in this world, and lost all interest in doing anything besides working. I watched patients become very ill and took care of them until their last days. I held the hands of those who didn’t have family or couldn’t have family in due to the restrictions.

That’s the thing though, nurses are expected to take care of patients whilst ignoring their own personal

feelings or mental health. As nurses, we are expected to see negative things and experience negative

things while providing care to our patients and trying to make their experience more positive. It

sometimes feels as if those working in healthcare are supposed to be like robots with no feelings.

In trying to seek out help, I had significant barriers being a healthcare professional. You think they would

make it easy for those dealing with potentially traumatic situations, but no. I had to jump through many

various hoops throughout my mental health journey to come out of the other side and be able to help

provide those resources to the people I work with and the students that are going into this field of work. I now give workshops in colleges and universities on different tools/coping mechanisms, as well as

resources available should a person be struggling with mental health.

Finding a professional that I could talk to really made things easier to cope with and taking the time to do

little self-care acts also helped. Taking walks in nature, or hiking (my absolute favorite, I have already

done a few this year), cooking, or going to gym were some things that I used to help clear my mind of all

the negativity that may come with my profession.

In saying all this, I hope to bring awareness to the fact that it is okay to have mental health struggles if

you are a healthcare worker. If you are a nursing assistant (care aide), a nurse, a doctor, it doesn’t

matter... You are allowed to have feelings. But also know that there are resources available to you.

Here are some:

• Mental health help line: 1-877-303-2642

• Crisis text line: Text CONNECT to 741741

• Mental health and suicide prevention: 9-8-8

• Text4Hope: Text HOPEAB to 393939

• For first responders:

• Text4Wellbeing: Text WELLBEING to 1-844-990-4343 (To support and build resilience and

improve well-being in first responders)

• Text4PTSI: Text PTSI to 1-844-990-4343 (To support first responders dealing with post-traumatic

stress injuries)

Just know that it is okay for you to take time to reflect and take care of yourself. How are you going to

take care of other people if your cup is empty? Take time to take care of yourself through acts of self-care.

You are more than enough to not feel burnt out, stressed, or sad all the time. Know when you need a break and listen to that body of yours, it knows more than you think.

Thank you to Darcy for asking me to write a blog post here!

I hope that you all have a wonderful day,

Destiny