Caffeine drinks are a lifesaver for nurses with morning shifts or healthcare workers who need to get through demanding work hours. At best, caffeinated drinks can boost energy and put us in a better mood. However, other times, they can cause shakiness or irritation.
Thankfully, there are different drink options to choose from if you need a break from caffeine. Read on to discover drinks that are more tolerable for you.
Although caffeinated drinks can give us sustained focus and concentration during periods of drowsiness, too much of it can also trigger stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. This can make us feel too alert and cause jitters within our bodies, Which are even more elevated in people sensitive to caffeine.
These symptoms aren’t pleasant to experience and can lead to mistakes at work from too much caffeine in the nervous system.
It’s not just coffee that can cause these side effects— energy drinks with a high sugar content can also cause a physical hangover that may leave you feeling tired and groggy.
Types of Caffeine Drinks That Won’t Make You Crash
Fortunately, there are less caffeine-heavy alternatives to coffee if you don’t want to give up your coffee habit. Try these drinks if you want to switch to a different flavor once in a while.
Black Tea
Drinking tea is a great way to reduce caffeine intake. A cup of black tea contains around 50 milligrams, while a regular cup of coffee contains approximately 138 mg.
There are different types of black tea available. Some you might already be familiar with, but if you go to your local grocery store, you’ll probably find other less common types that you can experiment with, such as English breakfast, Darjeeling, or other artisanal blends.
Chai Tea
Also called masala tea, this type of beverage is like black tea but with different spices such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamon that give it a soothing aroma. A cup of chai has around 21 mg of caffeine, and its ingredients can aid in digestion and support energy production in the body. The cinnamon and ginger can also reduce insulin resistance and maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
With its low caffeine content, this drink isn’t likely to give you jitters or any other uncomfortable symptoms. Store-bought chai can contain large amounts of sugar, so it’s best to avoid brands that lower the natural health benefits of this tea.
Earl Grey
Earl Grey tea is a popular blend of black tea and bergamot oil. It has a citrus-like flavor with notes of lemon and spice, although the taste can depend on each person. A cup usually contains 40 to 120 mg of caffeine.
Despite being a tasty, well-known tea, Earl Grey tea has few health benefits. However, some pros to drinking it include lowering blood pressure, promoting weight loss, and reducing total cholesterol.
Green Tea
Another type of tea to try is green tea. This drink is more earthy in flavor and has less caffeine than coffee or black tea, at around 35 mg per cup. Several varieties exist, including Sencha, Jasmine Leaf, and other blends.
Matcha
Matcha is a tea with unique health benefits. This drink is created by crushing tea leaves into a fine, thin green powder. If frothed, it’s been described as having a leafy, grassy flavor with a rich texture.
It also has the most caffeine, with one cup containing 72 mg. However, this tea is different because, unlike coffee, which enters your bloodstream quicker, the caffeine in matcha takes time to be absorbed by your body. As a result, you’re likely to sustain energy for extended periods.
Matcha also contains antioxidants that increase energy, fight oxidative damage to cells, and even promote relaxation in the body. Thus, you’ll feel more focused and calm while energized.
If the taste of matcha is too bitter for you, you can mix the powder with milk and honey or try sweeter variations that match your taste preference.
If All Else Fails, Drink Lighter Loads of Coffee
Drinking coffee can be a hard habit to break, so if you guzzle it every morning and regret the caffeine buzz soon after, start with one cup and notice how you feel with a smaller amount.
Another suggestion is to order a latte or a single shot of espresso only. A shot of espresso has 75 mg of caffeine, compared to 138 mg in a cup of brewed coffee. For a cheat sheet on how much caffeine your favorite caffeinated drinks have, refer to this chart by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Caffeine is great, but too much of it can wreak havoc on your nervous system. Incorporating alternative caffeine drinks into your routine can provide the support you need for your overall health so you can continue to care for others with the same dedication and vitality you bring to every shift.
It’s not always easy to ask for help – especially when the help needed involves support for your mental health.
Through a program called “Code Lilac,” Memorial Hermann Health System aims to provide easy access to mental health support for nurses and other staff and perhaps relieve any stigma associated with seeking it.
According to a press release, the program began at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in 2015 after staff attended a workshop on vicarious trauma. The program expanded systemwide in March 2022. The program is a “multidisciplinary peer-to-peer support program designed to offer emotional support to workforce members who have experienced stressful patient- or work-related events,” according to the release. It’s also among the country’s most extensive and robust hospital-based peer responder programs.
Some 500 Code Lilac peer responders are part of 17 teams trained in psychological first aid. They provide support to both clinical and nonclinical staff.
“Nursing is heavily integrated with the team,” says Leah Blackwell, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, vice president and chief nursing officer for Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center, in an interview. On both the campus and system level, nurses are engaged on the steering committees to make sure that they’re providing that voice of the bedside nurse.
“The thing that I like about nurses being engaged in this initiative is their encouragement and normalization of calling Code Lilac,” says Blackwell, an executive sponsor of the program. “They’re trying to reduce that stigma. We all need support for mental health and well-being. They do an excellent job of trying to normalize Code Lilac with their peers.”
Code Lilac also helps build connections among nurses, notes Blackwell. “It’s great when you have an ICU nurse peer responder who responds to an ER Code Lilac. They see each other across the campus and say, ‘Oh, we’re all the same,’ even if we work in different places. It helps build camaraderie among nurses.”
Code Lilac Providing Relief
Code Lilac “is for a wide variety of work-related scenarios,” said Blackwell. “Whether it’s burnout and you’re just having a hard time getting through the day, compassion fatigue, moral distress, or anxiety. People call because they’re not sleeping well before their shifts.
Whether it’s a patient death that just occurred or a slow buildup of stress, “that’s where Code Lilac can intercede and provide immediate relief or help direct them to the right place on the continuum, whether it’s counselors or other things that we have available.” According to Memorial Hermann, those resources can include individual and group support sessions.
Most often, nurses call a Code Lilac due to workplace violence or moral distress, according to Blackwell. Initiating a Code Lilac can be as straightforward as calling a system hotline or the chaplaincy department. A trained responder may arrive within the hour, according to Blackwell. Or, if a team needs support, sometimes the response will be at the end of the shift when the team can gather.
Blackwell says the peer responders receive comprehensive multi-day and quarterly training on trauma-informed care. The preparation includes role-playing and scenario-based training.
Helping Out on Tough Days
Blackwell notes that the work environment, long hours, and patient care intensity make nursing a high user for the Code Lilac program. “I appreciate having it as a resource to offer nurses on those really, really tough days.”
Nursing is a rewarding profession, but it can leave us feeling physically tired by the end of the day. Whether dealing with difficult patients or being on our feet all day, we can sit and rest. However, sometimes, there’s still lingering tension that we’re unsure how to get rid of. If this sounds like you, somatic exercises can help you focus on your body with slow, deliberate movement. Learn more about how this practice can promote well-being while alleviating physical pain.
What is Somatic Exercise?
Somatic exercise is still exercise, but instead of activities that focus on winning or burning calories, this exercise focuses on enhancing the mind-body connection.
By tuning your attention inward to how your body responds to the movement, you can experience the exercise in a gentler way and feel calmer. Examples of somatic exercise include yoga, pilates, or tai chi.
These exercises can be incredibly restorative since about 20% of Americans experience chronic pain. Nurses are more susceptible to physical aches and significantly lower back pain, according to a 2023 study. PTSD can also be common with nurses who have experienced trauma in the workforce, leading to painful somatic symptoms such as body aches, headaches, and a lack of energy.
How can These Exercises Relieve Stress?
Somatic movement can be helpful for nurses with PTSD, chronic pain, or any healthcare worker who wants to improve their mental health.
When you explore how your body feels during somatic movements, you can notice emotions, thoughts, and feelings you didn’t pay attention to before. This helps increase awareness whenever we’re in fight-or-flight mode and slow down our body’s stress signals before they rise to levels that make us miserable.
Regular practice of this type of exercise can improve mood and release negative emotions such as anger, shame, and guilt. A 2020 study found that people with chronic pain have found that somatic exercise helps them pay attention to their body sensations and self-regulate symptoms more effectively.
To promote better mental health and release stress from your body, here are five easy exercises you can do to feel more at peace. Remember that if you feel any sharp pain, you can skip the exercise or try again another time.
Swaying
Lift your arms and allow yourself to sway back and forth like a reed in the wind. You can close your eyes during this practice. The rocking motion can release tension in the back and ground your body to the floor. Breathe in while feeling what emotions and aches rise during the practice.
First, kneel on the ground and sit on your heels. Reach your arms out with your hands flat on the ground as you feel your lower body muscles begin to stretch. Touch your forehead to the ground, and hold this position for eight deep breaths.
Heel Drops
Start by standing and relaxing your eyes so you’re not putting your gaze on anything distracting. Begin by raising your heels through your toes, then dropping your heels down. Repeat this motion for one minute, paying attention to how your hips and lower back feel.
Wave Breathing
Let your breath be the focus of this exercise. First, either sitting or standing, rest your hands on your thighs. As you take a deep breath, lift your chin while sliding your hips backward, creating an arch in your back.
Take a moment to pause, then move your head towards your chest and bring your tailbone forward. This grounding practice moves your spine like a wave with your breath.
Neck stretches
This exercise is for you if you’re experiencing tension around your neck and shoulders.
As you look forward, gently tilt your neck sideways towards your shoulder as far as possible without straining. Placing your arm on the opposite side of your head to encourage the stretch can help. Repeat on the other side three times.
These are only a few out of many somatic exercises that exist. For other exercise ideas, you can find video demonstrations on YouTube or John Hopkins’s somatic self-care page.
As you incorporate these exercises, notice what practices work for you and what progress you sense. You may feel better and connect more with your body and mind.
National Disability Independence Day on July 26 honors the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990. With the passage of the ADA came opportunities for people with disabilities, including greater access to previously inaccessible public areas and job training skills for employment.
With one in four Americans reporting having a disability, nurses with disabilities exist in the field while providing value in clinics, hospitals, and other areas of work by showcasing the importance of inclusion and diversity, especially in patients with disabilities.
Despite the increased opportunities for nurses with disabilities in the workforce, they are often confronted with high levels of burnout in the healthcare industry. Having to manage their disabilities while dealing with the fast-paced demands of nursing may make them more vulnerable to burnout or even lead them to leave the nursing profession altogether.
So, what are some ways nurses with disabilities can practice self-care to prevent burnout?
Find Accommodations That Work for You
For nurses with disabilities who work in clinical settings, many of them struggle to obtain accommodations, or are unable to do certain tasks that can lead them to quit or think about leaving their job.
It can be hard to advocate for yourself in this situation. Some workers have invisible disabilities or disabilities that aren’t physically apparent to others. Examples of these disabilities include diabetes, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, and mental health conditions.
In this case, consider your situation and decide what first steps to take to ensure you get the support you need.
Here are some other ways you can advocate for yourself at work:
Find personal accommodations for yourself. It might be optional to tell a manager or supervisor about accommodations you need. If you find yourself in this situation, discover ways to make your job easier for yourself. Ask a fellow nurse to tag team with you on a client load, or take more breaks to relax if you need to sit down.
Learn how to communicate what you need. If you do need accommodations from your workplace and leaving your job isn’t a reasonable option, talk with your employer about what accommodations you need. It’s likely that they don’t know exactly what you need, so be prepared to ask for specific accommodations that can benefit you. These can look like assistive technologies such as screen reader software or a modified work schedule that is suitable for you.
The ADA requires employers to provide accommodations for employees who ask for them, so feel encouraged to ask for the help you need to do your work effectively.
Discover How to Self-manage a Disability with Coping Skills
There are many coping skills you can use to manage living with a disability. These skills can significantly help on bad days when it can feel like your disability is keeping you from doing the things you want.
“Self-managing” with strategies doesn’t always mean dealing with all of your symptoms by yourself. You can find a friend, family member, or someone with the same disability to be an accountability partner who can guide you through challenges at work.
Try out other coping skills below and see what works for you.
Be Aware of What You Can Control
Those with physical or mental disabilities can be overburdened by emotions or physical pain. It can be easy to slip into a negative spiral of “I can’t do this” and other thoughts that leave us feeling bad about ourselves. However, catastrophizing only leads us to stay stuck and isolated.
You’re not alone in this type of thinking. Adults with disabilities are five times likelier to have mental distress than those without a disability. However, it’s important to note that thoughts about how to care for yourself in the future are valid and show that you care about your health.
Consider taking actionable steps to help you live a more well-balanced life. Do you need any assistive technology at home? Search for what you need to get an idea of assistance available near where you live. If you’re struggling with your mental health, write down what you’re dealing with through journaling or another mindful technique.
Find an Activity You Enjoy
Spending time on a hobby can help us get out of our heads and engage in something we love to do. If you can’t do something you love because of your disability, find an interest you have and create an activity out of it.
For example, hiking in nature can be good for exercise but difficult for people with chronic pain. Painting landscapes, light walking, or photography are other options for people who want to get outside but can’t always do so.
This is also a good way to meet like-minded people who share similar interests. Yoga, gardening, and reading groups are other common groups, so you might find some near you to share and expand your support system.
Takeaway
Practicing self-care doesn’t always involve baths and long naps. While it can be that way for some, advocating for yourself and taking time to enjoy fleeting moments are other ways to take care of ourselves and ensure that we’re living a happy, rewarding life.
Despite being a vocational profession, nursing can harm your health and overall well-being. The long hours, high stress, and irregular shift patterns can increase your risk of adopting negative health behaviors (like smoking and eating processed foods). They may result in fatigue, weight gain, cancer, and diabetes.
Unfortunately, traditionally marginalized minorities in America also have worse health outcomes than the rest of the population. According to the BMJ, minorities receive significantly worse healthcare in every US state, meaning you may struggle to find quality care despite working in the healthcare system.
These disparities require policy-level changes to address inequities and close the healthcare gap. Until then, however, you can protect your health and manage stress by becoming a wellbeing warrior. Championing your well-being can markedly improve your productivity, too, as you’ll be far more engaged when you feel rested, healthy, and have a positive outlook on life.
Managing Stress
Work stress is prevalent among minority nurses. This undermines many nurses’ job satisfaction and has led Black and Hispanic nurses to say they are 46% more likely to leave their employer than they were in 2008.
Prolonged periods of stress may be the reason why you feel tired all the time, too. Stress and work-related anxiety puts your body into a constant state of fight-or-flight and prevent you from adequately relaxing. If you experience heightened stress, you may find that you cannot fall asleep on time and could miss out on hours of valuable shut-eye.
The root cause of your work-related stress may be out of your hands. If you’re understaffed and overworked, it can be challenging to maintain balance and feel calm during the day. However, that doesn’t mean you should overlook stress-busting wellness interventions altogether. If you’re feeling the strain and need to find some calm in your life, consider taking steps to keep burnout at bay, which include:
Banish blue screens from the bedroom and keep your sleeping area clean, cool, and dark to improve your sleep quality.
Exercise regularly and aim to work up a sweat outside of work at least once daily. Even gentle exercise, like walking around local parks, can meaningfully reduce stress.
Adjust your diet to eat more whole foods and drink more water. This will give you the energy you need to respond to emergencies throughout the day and will reduce your risk of developing chronic fatigue.
Try to adopt a positive mindset and use a journal to record positive affirmations and things you’re grateful for today.
Adopting these habits won’t eliminate the cause of your stress, but they may help you become more resilient in the face of work-related anxiety. This can give you the energy to campaign for change and champion calls for increased well-being at work.
Incentivizing Well-being
Yoga, deep breathing, and a healthy diet will make you more resilient. However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the fundamental issues causing you to feel stressed, burnt out, and fatigued. Addressing these issues directly is critical, as some employers may be unaware of the scale of discontent at your place of work.
You may not be able to campaign for better pay or reduce work hours, but you can champion calls for a better employee incentive program at your place of work. Effective employee incentive programs have many benefits, including:
Improved productivity
Enhanced morale and job satisfaction
Accurate performance tracking
Highlighting these benefits to your employer may help them understand why a benefits program that incentivizes well-being is so essential. This can drastically reshape your relationship with work, too, as you’ll be able to accurately report the number of hours you work, the stress you feel, and the productivity barriers undermining your well-being.
Healthy Hobbies
Making changes at work is the best way to respond to work-related stress. However, you’ll still need to use your free time for sustained career satisfaction. This is why hobbies are so important, as they shape how you spend your time off and will innately boost your health, happiness, and well-being.
If you usually spend your free time scrolling on socials and completing household chores, consider switching things up in favor of hobbies that engage you mentally and support your physical health. For example, if you are passionate about nature and the world around you, consider developing a gardening hobby. Even if you don’t have a yard, you can garden by getting involved with community greenspaces and allotments.
Hobbies that improve your fitness can boost your mental resilience, too. For example, learning new yoga flows and mastering poses can give you a much-needed confidence boost that aids your efforts to feel empowered. This is crucial if you’re experiencing mission drift and need to refind your purpose as a nurse. Focusing on interests outside of work can renew your interest in nursing and help you feel energized when you return to work.
Conclusion
Becoming a well-being warrior can improve your health, happiness, and job satisfaction. Even simple changes like drinking more water and taking up hobbies like yoga can boost your energy and help you avoid conditions like fatigue. Just be sure to advocate for necessary changes at work, as no amount of journaling and positive mantras can overcome a work environment that does not support your wellness.
Communication and collaboration are central to healthcare, and there are many tools for improving teamwork among medical facility staff members. Medical improv is an increasingly popular experiential strategy that adapts concepts and activities from theater improvisation to improve communication-related skills among healthcare professionals and critical outcomes in organizations.
The Background of Medical Improv
Beth Boynton is a nurse, author, educator, consultant, and medical improv expert. In describing medical improv and its impact, Boynton states, “We’ve known for over 20 years that communication, leadership, and human factors are leading root causes of sentinel events, yet many interventions have been unsuccessful in attempting to ensure best outcomes. Medical improv promotes essential competencies experientially where effective learning needs to occur.”
Boynton continues, “Medical improv provides professional development in competencies associated with emotional intelligence, interprofessional and therapeutic communication, teamwork, and leadership. These competencies, in turn, impact patient safety, patient experience, the health and well-being of the workforce, and even cost-effectiveness.”
Although it uses techniques from theatrical improv, medical improv is not focused on performance.
Boynton clarifies, “By taking the focus off of performance and entertainment and putting it on the learning process and healthcare teams’ goals, staff taking part in medical improv training have the opportunity to practice being together in a safe space outside of their usual stressful clinical environments. In this context, they can build caring, respectful relationships, and even laugh a little together as they learn about themselves and each other.”
“Experiential activities are integrated with other teaching methods (e.g., lectures, discussion, and reading materials) to address skill-building and/or outcome-related topics, “Boynton adds.
“The traditional teaching methods provide intellectual context about the topic and the experiential activity provides fun opportunities to practice skills with peers, reflect on one’s own behavior or habits, and discuss relevance to healthcare goals. The combination is much more effective than either of these teaching methods alone, and experienced medical improv practitioners can tweak activities to meet a variety of goals and objectives.”
“Yes And….”
A central exercise in the theatrical and medical improv worlds is “Yes And.” In this exercise, any idea one participant says is immediately enthusiastically accepted and validated by their partners. Rather than countering an idea with “No, but,” which can derail creative thinking, saying “yes and” allows the person sharing to continue thinking aloud without interruption. This strategy can be directly applied to actual meetings and brainstorming sessions to stimulate creativity and collaboration.
In another exercise known as “Radical Acceptance,” participants enthusiastically respond with “Yes!” no matter what their peers may say.
Boynton shares, “Some of the dynamic magic of this process is that some people will learn to listen better at the same moment that someone else is learning to be more assertive. By listening, we teach each other to speak up, and by speaking up, we teach each other to listen — these exercises provide a structure for that.”
Skill-Building with Medical Improv
Discussing the skills built using medical improv, Boynton points out that the experience of medical improv can improve communication, bolster social development, increase emotional intelligence, and strengthen interprofessional collaboration.
“These experiences can also help to reduce stress, burnout, and bullying behavior and increase patience, empathy, and forgiveness,” Boynton points out. “This can all be accomplished while allowing participants to learn how to take ownership of their experience and learn from their communication-related mistakes.”
Boynton adds, “Through exposure to medical improv, healthcare professionals become more able to learn from diversity, contribute to cultures of safety, and enjoy their work. Participants experience improved relationships and teamwork, less bullying, blaming, and burnout. Just as you can feel the tension in the air between stressed-out professionals in a team, participants experiencing medical improv can feel relief from these persistent and pervasive problems.”
In describing her work with healthcare teams and medical improv, Boynton is keen to clarify that every participant’s experience is different, and all come to this type of work from their own level of emotional development and experience.
Everyone is different in terms of their comfort level and the emotional risk that might be involved in developing emotional intelligence, and communication and relational skills. It requires expert facilitation to create a safe enough environment to ensure the best learning experience for everyone.”
Boynton adds, “It also requires familiarity with a variety of activities and the risk level involved. Workshops must be designed to gradually increase the risk level of activities so that people gain confidence in themselves and their peers, and trust in the facilitators.”
In terms of her approach, Boynton elucidates, “I invite and sometimes nudge folks to step into their stretch zones, and I promise to make their experience as successful as possible. It’s also helpful to explain to participants that medical improv is not about improv comedy or telling jokes, and I reassure them that they’re likely to have the most fun if they don’t try to be funny.”
“I welcome all healthcare professionals to explore medical improv resources while also advising that experiencing it is the best way to understand how it works and why it is such an incredible teaching process.”
Boynton concludes, “I see healthcare leaders, managers, and positive change agents as perfectly positioned to learn about the process and integrate activities into their staff meetings. With a commitment to learning how to teach these simple yet profoundly effective skills, this is an affordable and time-efficient intervention that any earnest leader can use for the benefit of all.”
