In this article you will read about 8 Reasons Why Your Nurse Best Friends Are Just the Best!
8 Reasons Why Your Nurse Best Friends Are Just the Best!
The nurse best friend provides emotional and social support in many small ways throughout the day. They’re there to listen when you need to vent and blow off steam before you explode – and you know they’ll understand and won’t judge or think you’re whining. They care and they offer comfort when they know you’re going through a rough time – at home or at work. They’re a shoulder to cry on and often help you to get things back into perspective with a bit of advice, a joke, or even take you out for a drink after work.
A meme showing three nursing students hugging each other with a meme caption: Nursing School Friends: See You At Yoour Worst, But Accept You Unconditionally Anyways
Nurse best friends are a buffer against stress and burnout. They improve your job satisfaction, support your mental health and, by implication, also your physical health. This has been confirmed in a research study which found that nurses who reported strong connections with close friends at work were less likely to suffer from stress, depression, and burnout.
3. Nurse best friends build your self-esteem
You know those days when things go wrong and you think that you’re just the most useless nurse ever? Your nurse friend comes along, gives you a quick hug and says a few kind words like “Don’t be so hard on yourself – you’re a good nurse”
She might encourage you by reminding you of your strengths or help you to see that the situation really isn’t your fault. When you know that someone values you, it’s difficult not to feel better about yourself.
READ THIS: Effective Tips for New Nurses to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed and Overworked
4. You can trust them
You can share things with your nurse friend – even personal matters – and know that she’ll support and not judge you. Mutual trust is a key characteristic of close friendships, allowing for honest, open and self-disclosing communication. You know that what you share with her in confidence will stay between the two of you, that she won’t blab to someone else and possibly get you into trouble. You can also trust that any advice she gives you, or if she tells you that you’re are out of line, it will be in your own best interests.
5. They make you laugh
Nurses are known for their dark humor – jokes about things that make outsiders shudder. Jokes about what we had to clean up, difficult patients, incessant call bells, or doctors’ and supervisors’ weird behaviors. Through gallows humor, we are able to cope with the stress at work because it distracts you for a moment and releases the tension. Laughter even lowers your blood pressure!
And it’s often your nurse best friend who knows when to come up with a funny line just when you need it most or knows when it’s time for goofing around a bit. Because you’re so close you also share unique humor, coming up with jokes that no-one else gets – which makes it even funnier.
6. They think like you do
Nurse close work friendships develop when people discover that they have shared interests, beliefs, and values. Your nurse best friend and you share the same world view and you value the same things. That’s why she gets what you’re about and can support you so well. It also explains why you can also work together like a well-oiled machine and sometimes not even having to communicate verbally with each other.
READ THIS: YOUNG NURSES ARE THE FUTURE OF NURSING PROFESSION
7. They teach you things
On a more practical level, your nurse best friend can be a teacher and a mentor. You might be unsure of something at work and will be less worried about asking your friend to refresh your knowledge because you know she won’t judge you. Your nurse friends are also there for you when you need guidance or to discuss how to tackle a problem whether at work or at home.
We’ve all had different work and life experiences and nurse best friends learn from each other daily – sharing knowledge and ideas. They help you to be a better nurse!
8. They pitch in when you’re overloaded
Last but not least, nurse best friends will come along and offer their help with actual nursing tasks when you really need it. This might be at that point when you’re so overloaded that you’re in a spin and don’t know what to tackle next. Your friend could come along, assess the situation and suggest that you carry on with charting and med rounds and she’ll take the pending admission off of your hands.
An eCard saying “nursing friendships are a different kind of love, like, I’ll hold the ass cheeks while you clean the ass crack kinda love!”
This kind of nurse friendship! Or she might take over your duties when she knows you’re in a bad place emotionally to give you the break you need to get yourself together. She could even offer to take over your shift when she knows that you need time off to deal with a personal problem.
Value your nurse best friend at work Don’t have a nurse best friend at work? Don’t be afraid of getting close to another person at work. Chat and reach out to others – you might just discover that one person you can relate to and who shares your interests, values, and beliefs – but keep in mind that true friendships take time to develop.
And always remember that friendship is a two-way thing! Be the best friend you can be in return!
Abdullahi Suleiman a Certified Registered Nurse based in Nigeria, an Entrepreneur and Also a Blogger, passionate about Community Development and Cosmetic Nursing
