Happy New Year!

I wanted to take this oppor­tu­nity to say hello. I’m Megan. I’ve never blogged before, but I’m excited to be a part of the ONS RE:Connect blog­ging team. I’ve been an RN for almost eight years, all of it in oncol­ogy, and about five of them in the out­pa­tient world. I’m excited to share my sto­ries and expe­ri­ences with you in the com­ing year.

Decem­ber was a busy month for me—my husband’s birth­day is in the mid­dle of the month, then there’s Christ­mas Eve, Christ­mas Day, my birth­day, and New Year’s Eve.

I should men­tion at this point that hav­ing your birth­day fall the day before New Year’s Eve is fun only until you’re about 10 years old. Nowa­days, friends are trav­el­ing back from their Christ­mas vaca­tions or are too far away to go to two par­ties in two days. But I don’t mind. Over the years, my birth­day has evolved into a day just for me—a day to sleep in and recharge my battery.

With all of the crazi­ness the hol­i­day sea­son can bring, it’s nice to have a day just to myself. I tell peo­ple I spend the day tack­ling all of the stuff at the bot­tom of my pri­or­ity list, or, in other words, the stuff that I really want to do but never seem to find the time for. At home spa good­ness? Check. Visit that cute home fur­nish­ings store I drive by every sin­gle day on my way to work? Check. Dis­cover what a man­u­script museum is? Check! (And then kick myself because I just missed the Flo­rence Nightin­gale exhibit.) Add in a trip to the con­ser­va­tory, a new glass exhibit at a local art gallery, din­ner with the hubby at a hot new restau­rant in town, and a movie, and it was a pretty awe­some day.

As oncol­ogy nurses, we preach self-​​care to our patients a lot. It’s equally (if not more) impor­tant for their care­givers. But what about our­selves? Hon­estly, when was the last time you had a day just to yourself—and didn’t pay bills, do the laun­dry, gro­cery shop, etc.? Nour­ish­ing our­selves allows us to be the best we can be for our patients.

What recharges your bat­tery? What would you do if you had even a few unin­ter­rupted hours to your­self? This year, I encour­age you to find time to care for your­self, even if just for half an hour a week. Carve out a spot on your calendar—that’s right, sched­ule it! Make it a pri­or­ity to care for your­self as deeply as you care for your patients.