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10 Reasons Why Nurses Get Sick

Featured Author:

Scrubs Magazine

Scrubs Magazine (www.scrubsmag.com) is a lifestyle website 100 percent for and about nurses. Here you'll find articles written by and for nurses about beauty, money, style, health, and wellness. Scrubsmag.com features active conversations with nurse bloggers ranging from a newly minted nurse to a seasoned RN to a misunderstood male nurse. Follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/nursetweets) and friend us on Facebook (facebook.com/scrubsmag).

More articles from this author:

• Having The Courage To Let Go
• How Do I Deal with Nurse Bullies?
• How Do I Deal with an Unhelpful Charge Nurse?

We clean everything we can get our hands on. While this can be great for fighting off those nasty bugs that can wreak havoc on your immune system, there really is some truth to the saying, “Too much of a good thing is bad.”

Here are the top ten reasons why we get sick despite all that cleaning.

Not Washing Our Hands

We sure don’t practice what we preach all the time do we? C’mon admit it. Do you wash your hands every single time you go in and out of every patient room? Before and after every contact?

Also, are you washing your hands after each contact with a patients chart? How about the bedside glucometer?

Not Enough Sleep

Research has proven that sleep deprivation will lower your immune system. But, even without research on my side, think about how you and your body felt after not sleeping well for just one night! How about a whole string of nights during the week?

Quiz: Are You at Risk for Burnout?

1. What�s more important?

Career success
Family harmony
Falling in love
Being true to myself

Too Much Work

Go right ahead and work those extra shifts. While your paycheck is inflating, your energy reserve is deflating. Guess what happens to your immune system when you get run down? Hey, don’t get me wrong, I like the overtime as much as the next nurse, but there has to be a balance between the extra shifts and taking care of yourself.

Not Drinking Enough Fluids

Who has time to drink? Well, non of us do, but can you say Urinary Tract Infection? I don’t know about you, but when your body is made up of more water than any other molecule (upwards of 65% water), that means something don’t you think?

Not Cleaning Our Stethoscope

This goes hand-in-hand with the hand washing, yes that was an intentional pun. Think about all the times you use your stethoscope and not clean it in between each patient use. Ever let someone else borrow your stethoscope? Where do you think their hands were? Did they clean the stethoscope? Did they wash their hands?