3 Self-care Tips for Physio New Grads
- The Little Physio
- Apr 23, 2019
- 4 min read
Starting your first job as a physiotherapist is rewarding and exciting! There are so many new things to still learn, there is the opportunity to finally be a hands on physio where you can teach and empower clients about their health and wellness. It is a whole new world filled with excitement and probably a bit of anxiety as well.
When I started my first job as a graduate physiotherapist in a private practice, I was working full time late afternoon shifts and rotating weekend shifts. I knew, personally, the hours were going to be a challenge but I decided to give it a go as there was the lure of potential changes in shifts much later down the track.
Quite quickly due to the hours, I knew I had to be organised outside of work to make the most of my non-working hours. It was all about efficiency, energy conservation and managing the things I had control of for self-care.
Broadly, one can think about these self-care components in three categories - sleep, food and exercise. These happen to be some of the basic needs on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. Briefly, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a model separating our needs into five tiers. The idea is that we can only attend to the top most need when our foundational basic needs are met.
Here are some things I found helped me keep a balance whilst working.
Sleep
Try to be consistent with how much sleep you are getting and when you wake up and go to sleep. The recommended amount for adults is 7-8 hours per night. Anything more than 9 hours or less than 7 hours, has been shown to predispose to tissue specific cancer, cardiovascular disease and poorer immune system function.
Unfortunately, sleeping in is just as bad as not getting enough sleep.
Consistent sleep and wake times can be tricky to manage when you have a mix of late and morning shifts. When I started these shifts, I found I was less ‘jet-lagged’ if I woke up and went to bed within half an hour of my morning shifts. Yes, it was challenging to wind down after a late finish but the side effects of going to sleep late then waking up at 6am the next day was just not worth it.
If you are in sleep debt, make up for it when the next most opportune time presents itself by either going to bed earlier or having a nap.
Food
To give myself more time during the week to wind down and to have more mental space, it was all about food prep on the weekend. Food prep on the weekend involved bulk cooking freezable dinners, making all my lunches and snacks, and sometimes components of breakfasts. This meant I could wake up and just grab the appropriate pre-packed food for the day and be off to work.
At the end of the work day, there was little food preparation involved for dinners as a good portion of the weekdays dinners were in the fridge. To capitalise on bulk cooking and avoid monotonous food, a portion of bulked cooked food would be set aside for the freezer. Over a few weekends of bulk cooking, you then accumulate a variety of meals which you can use for lunches or dinners. The bonus of this is once you have a decent amount in the freezer you don’t have to bulk cook every weekend. And it means should you be more social or choose to avoid the kitchen, you can and it won’t ‘throw out’ your week.
Needless to say, keep the meals balanced with the good proportions of slow releasing carbohydrates and fruit and vegetables. Plus, a diet higher in higher in vegetables, fruit, fish and wholegrains may have a positive impact on mental health, such as, depression or anxiety.
Exercise
There are plenty of benefits of exercise for the body. Some of the vast physical and mental benefits are summarised in this video by TREK Group at Latrobe University. Try to meet the WHO recommendations for adults to do your body and mind a huge favour.
Exercise really is a like a magic pill for your body physically and mentally.
Keep up with your exercise but don’t be too hard on yourself if you miss a session. Just get back to it when you works with your schedule.
Admittedly, I struggled with this one a lot in when my full time work hours were all late afternoon shifts. This was because my personal optimal time to exercise was after work to unwind and destress. Getting home after 8pm meant dinner and exercise did not go hand in hand easily. The compromise was to exercise in the morning. So I would try to go for a walk, do yoga or some weights before work. However, when I was burning out, exercise was the last thing on my list as I was too concerned about conserving energy for consultations.
When things become overwhelming, whether that is in the personal or the professional domain, make sure your basic needs are being met first before you stretch yourself out more or say yes to something else. When your basic needs are met, you have the energy and the physical and mental resources to choose to say yes or no to something that is building you as a physio and person. You owe it to yourself first to take good care of yourself to you can then be in tip top condition to serve those that seek your help as a physiotherapists.
Thanks for reading!
Resources for further information
Maslow’s Hiearchy of Needs
Food and Mental Health
Benefits of Exercise
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