How to Protect Your Emotional Wellbeing as a Nurse or Nurse Practitioner

When you work as a busy nurse or nurse practitioner (NP), your wellbeing at work has to be a priority. The nurse practitioner role is extremely demanding, with high degrees of stress and emotional involvement.

Nurse practitioners are naturally highly committed, caring, and supportive individuals, but nurse wellbeing can fall behind the demands of patient care.

The good news is, that targeted approaches can help build and protect your mental health in the workplace. Together, these will ensure your physical and mental health at work stay resilient, and you can continue to deliver great outcomes in the profession you love.

Let’s take a look at how strategies ranging from nursing education to workload management support can help safeguard nurse wellbeing.

1. Build Emotional Resilience For Better Health At Work

One of the main skills needed for better emotional and mental health at work is a strong sense of awareness.

Because nurses and Nurse Practitioners are so involved in patient care, they very often forget to look after themselves! In our AAOPM network, we hear our students say that mental health in the workplace can become a real challenge when the nature of the job involves caring for others.

Boost wellbeing at work with emotional awareness

The first step to better health at work is to gain a clear understanding of how you feel, emotionally and mentally, throughout your working day. You can do this by:

• Carrying out a body scan to see if you are holding tension in any area—you may find you are tight in the shoulders and neck for example.
• Check your feelings by reflecting on how you feel, what emotions you are experiencing, and whether they feel balanced. Remind yourself that emotions are fleeting, natural, and important. If you can accept feelings without judgment, this alone is a profound step toward better mental health in the workplace.
• Check your triggers! In nursing education programs at the AAOPM we talk about tasks, patients, and situations that cause anxiety or stress and negatively impact wellbeing at work. With experience, you can learn strategies to manage them. Why not engage with our student network to learn how other nurses and NPs like you manage wellbeing at work?
• Learn how to carry out an ‘emotional ‘debrief’, for better wellbeing at work. This means talking with someone you trust about challenges you are experiencing at work, to process your feelings and avoid internalizing them.

2. Why Did You Choose Nursing? ReConnect Your Purpose

When we’re working hard and risking burnout, it’s easy to forget why we chose the nursing profession in the first place! This is a good time to reflect on your purpose and why you chose to become a nurse or Nurse Practitioner.

By recognizing the incredible role you play in your patient’s lives (and those of the team around you), you can boost your mental health in the workplace.

Celebrate little victories and positive outcomes too, even if they seem minor. This is a surprisingly important route to better nurse wellbeing. Teach it to your junior colleagues as part of their nursing education, when they are starting to feel worn down!

3. Practical Steps to Better Wellbeing at Work: Manage Your Workload

As part of our nursing education program at the AAOPM, we cover the importance of workload for better wellbeing at work. Simply put, overwork benefits no one. Patient care suffers, team morale plummets and Nurse Practitioners end up burning out. 

So try these steps to ensure your energy levels and health at work are safeguarded:

• Delegate wherever possible
• Foster a culture of discussion about mental health in the workplace and collectively find ways to improve nurse wellbeing as a team
• Encourage practice leads to invest in workforce AI and software solutions that automate repetitive and routine tasks to free up work (see our recent blog: ‘How Will AI Transform Nursing in 2025?’)
• Take regular breaks to recharge, even if you just step out for a few minutes. Bonus points if you can get outdoors for a little fresh air.
• Learn time management techniques as part of your further nursing education, so you can prioritize and feel calmer as you work through the day.
• Learn to say… No. All nursing professionals are extremely caring and can risk taking on too much. Learn when it is appropriate to say no, to focus on the key deliverables of your role, and to maximize patient care.
• Regularly review your workload and any wellbeing at work concerns with your manager.)

These tips can significantly boost wellbeing at work, and remind you why you love your profession so much!

4. Invest in Self Care For Better Nurse Wellbeing

A quick way to boost both your physical and mental health in the workplace is to invest in self-care! For better nurse welling take steps to:

• Exercise regularly, ideally time outdoors to benefit from daylight and Vitamin D
• Work on your sleep hygiene, which is vital for nurse wellbeing and health at work. Look out for a more detailed blog on this soon!
• Use your preferred relaxation techniques for greater wellbeing at work and in your personal life. For example, you might walk at lunch, do yoga or pilates, meditate, take up a creative hobby, spend time with loved ones, or walk the dog. Whatever makes you feel calm, relaxed, and balanced is a vital route to happiness and health at work.
• For better health at work… set boundaries! Good mental health in the workplace is far more challenging without these in place. (This is a topic thoroughly covered in nurse education at the AAOPM.) As well as learning to say no, make sure you leave your work… at work. Try a ‘line in the sand’ activity such as having a shower when you get home and changing your clothes so you mentally prepare for your own private time. 

5. For Better Nurse Wellbeing… Invest in Your Continued Nursing Education

This tip for building better wellbeing at work links to reconnecting with your purpose, and quality continued nursing education can help significantly with this goal. 

Continued nursing education allows you to progress your career goals, giving you a better overall sense of wellbeing at work. 

Nursing education also allows you to keep developing your skills and flags up potential specialist routes and new areas of opportunity. In this way, continued professional nursing education also keeps you connected with your purpose! 

If you’re ready to invest in further nurse education in 2025, why not browse the latest specialist Nurse practitioner and Nursing education programs available at the AAOPM?

From medical training to pain workshops, our nurse training will help power up your CV and boost your mental health in the workplace by giving you options! 

One of the fastest ways to better nurse wellbeing is to have a strong career plan, and our NP nursing education programs will accelerate your path, with top-quality accredited training. 

6. For Better NP and Nurse Wellbeing: Build a support network

All of us experience better mental health in the workplace when we have a strong support team in place! So invest in your health at work and build your support team.

Your wellbeing at work can be greatly improved if you have trusted colleagues to confide in, and an understanding manager. Build your network outside work too, so you have social contacts and loved ones to unwind with outside of the practice. Pets are also great emotional therapy!

What Can Practice Owners Do To Help NP and Nurse Wellbeing?

Practice owners can take many steps to help nurse wellbeing and support overall health at work. Here are some ideas to champion emotional wellbeing and mental health in the workplace:

• Support awareness of mental health in the workplace with training, resources, regular discussion of these issues, and support for ongoing nursing education
• Encourage health at work by ensuring staff are not taking their jobs home
• Host fun challenges such as walking steps challenges, baking competitions, or even lunchtime yoga sessions to bring staff together and boost health at work
• Encourage a culture where wellbeing at work is prioritized, by scheduling shifts carefully, creating comfortable breakout and rest areas, and having a supportive culture where health at work is regularly considered.

Support Your Mental Health in the Workplace With The AAOPM

From health at work training to wellbeing at work strategies, the professional network at the AAOPM understands what it takes to protect your mental health in the workplace as a nursing professional.

Our professional nursing training courses take your career plans further, supporting your wellbeing at work as you reconnect with your purpose and passion once again. We run workshops on topics that include nurse wellbeing and mental health in the workplace across the USA on most weekends of the year.

Our professional member network regularly shares tips on topics such as optimizing nurse wellbeing, maintaining physical health at work, and strategies for protecting mental health in the workplace. With these nurse wellbeing resources on offer, isn’t it time you joined us at the AAOPM?