by hammad | Apr 5, 2023 | Blog, Healthcare
The Healthcare Industry gives both rewarding and challenging experiences to its workers. Our Healthcare Workers are always facing different factors that can affect their overall well-being, such as high levels of stress, long working hours, and emotionally charged situations. However, there is a universal tool that can help ease even the most intense situations while working – music.
Centuries ago, music has been used as a form of therapy and relaxation. It has been shown to have benefits on one’s physical and mental health. According to AARP.org, listening to music directly impacts the brain by tapping into the sections that affect our memory and emotion. In this blog, we will explain the benefits of the most common stress-relieving music genres that will have you feeling calmer, happier, and more focused throughout your day in Healthcare.
Let’s jump into the wonderful world of music.
Classical Music
From students to professionals, classical music has been reliable in terms of giving a calm and soothing effect to its listener. Classic music has been shown to increase concentration when focusing on a task, while reducing one’s level of nervousness and anxiety. Due to the high level of stress, pressure, and emotional exhaustion our Healthcare workers experience in this Industry, listening to a piece of classical music is a great choice for a mood boost!
Here are some of our recommended classical music that you can try:
- “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Johann Sebastian Bach
- “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy
- “Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ambient or Instrumental Music
If you have already tried classical music and need a more modern sound, ambient or instrumental music might fit your taste. This type of music can be helpful when creating a calming atmosphere and help in reducing distractions. A simple search for “relaxing ambient music” or “lo-fi jazz” on YouTube will recommend you a variety of ambient music that you can enjoy.
Nature Sounds
As most Healthcare facilities are found in urban areas, listening to the sounds of nature can be challenging through the sounds of car engines, horns, and other noise pollution within our surroundings. Try searching for different sounds of nature on YouTube or Spotify to transport you to a forest with birds chirping or to a beach with waves crashing, which can be very relaxing and soothing.
Meditation Music
Also known as Yoga music, meditation music will help you feel steady, calm, and relaxed. You might be just sitting for a moment at your station, but your mind is unconsciously meditating and resting while listening to this music.
Own Preference
This might be the best recommendation that we can offer. Your own personal taste in music will always be reliable in boosting your mood as you take care of your patients. Singing along while listening to your favorites, new and old, is a guaranteed way to feel an uplift in positive energy.
In summary, music is that dependable friend we can lean on whenever we feel down. To be well-equipped for the different challenges faced throughout the day as a Healthcare Worker, listening to a few music or songs when there is a quick minute to spare will help release stress and reframe the attention to the present moment.
Enjoy music while working to keep you relaxed and happy. We believe that a healthy work environment is essential to every Healthcare employee, and at AG Globe Services, we make it a priority to find our Healthcare Professionals a work facility best suited for their needs. Contact us for more info.
by hammad | Mar 15, 2023 | Blog, Healthcare, Job Seekers
Mental health is as important as our physical health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), our mental health is also related to our psychological, emotional, and social well-being. Taking care of it is very important because the other three aspects will be affected once it is neglected, resulting in worse conditions. In the Healthcare field, healthcare employees are always vulnerable to different mental health challenges because of exposure to different factors such as patients, drugs, diseases, and the atmosphere. In order to be happy and relaxed while serving our patients, we must take good care of our mental health.
Most Common Mental Health Challenges
There are 4 common mental health problems for our Healthcare Employees:
Burnout. This is a type of work-related stress due to feeling drained most of the time. Feeling tired once in a while is normal but in the healthcare industry, healthcare employees need to attend to different patients in a day and the stress will start to build. Once different problems pile up, you will feel drained, and this means that you are already having a burnout.
Depression. This is a common and serious mental health problem in the industry as well. This negatively impacts how you feel, behave, process thoughts, and the way you act on certain things.
Anxiety. Constant feelings of panic, stress, nervousness, fear, and rapid heartbeat are symptoms of an anxiety attack. This greatly affects the behavior and may feel the want to withdraw from people around you, the work, and sometimes avoid the current situation that the person currently belongs to.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This type of mental health problem is not just for war veterans, even in the healthcare industry this is present. In the recent events of the COVID-19 pandemic, different patients suffer and die from left to right, and our front liners witnessed most of them. This greatly hit them and suffer this type of fallback.
Compassion fatigue. Decreased productivity is one result of this mental health problem. This is mainly caused by job dissatisfaction, heavy work atmosphere, and such. The person having this problem will sometimes take it out on other people in his/her surroundings like patients, colleagues, and visitors which can result in a bad reputation for the team and the hospital also.
How can we improve our mental health?
There are different strategies on how we can improve it such as self-care practices like regular exercise, eating healthy meals in a regular manner, getting enough sleep, and doing a relaxing activity from time to time.
There are mental health support programs that can help you maintain a healthy mind such as seminars or webinars. Listening to experts is one great way to resolve a mental health problem before it gets worse.
Having policies that promote mental health improvement in the workplace greatly helps all employees also. Your employees will feel that they are being taken care of and appreciated as well.
Prioritizing our mental health will help us not just do our jobs happily but will help us also live our individual lives to the fullest. Addressing these challenges at the earliest time possible should be our utmost priority.
Are you tired of the same old work routine and looking for a change? AG Globe Services has got you covered! Don’t wait any longer, call AG Globe Services today and take the first step towards a more fulfilling career!
by scott | Apr 20, 2022 | Blog, Job Seekers
It’s a cliché now to point out how COVID changed everything. From how we work and how we live to how we interact, perhaps no event in the 21st century will create the kind of huge cultural shifts we’ve seen over the past two years.
For healthcare workers, a global pandemic created an unprecedented strain on our systems of care. While physical health was at the forefront of the pandemic, quietly, behind the scenes, the mental health of our nation’s frontline workers suffered. The latest studies report “psychopathologies such as acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorders.”
As a result, unprecedented numbers of healthcare professionals report burnout, which is now recognized in the ICD-11. During the pandemic, one in five healthcare workers left their jobs. Now, here we are two years later, and still dealing with the fallout from this disease.
How can healthcare workers protect themselves from burnout and other mental health symptoms from the pressures of the job? The answer is self-care.
Why Self-Care Matters to Your Mental Health?
As healthcare professionals, we’re trained to put the patient before ourselves. Yet without creating a professional distance, we learn early on that the highs and lows of the job can create serious and debilitating stress. How do you balance care and caring for the patient with care and caring for yourself?
Practicing self-care requires a level of self-compassion that enables healthcare workers to protect their mental health. These techniques could include:
- Relaxation practices such as yoga, meditation, or massage.
- Spending time with your family, family, and loved ones.
- Seeking the advice and support of your professional colleagues.
- Recreational activities and hobbies.
- Regular exercise.
- Journaling or another type of quiet internal reflection.
- Improved diet.
- Seek professional counseling.
- Spiritual practices that calm the mind and body.
- Vacation and time off.
- Getting an adequate amount of sleep.
Practicing self-care to improve your mental health requires frequently checking in with yourself, especially during times of high stress on the job. It also requires avoiding being overly critical about the work you’re doing—something we know is hard for many healthcare professionals. Self-critical thinking is easy to do when the stress is high, but if you can, prioritize and simplify tasks and focus on what’s in front of you. Don’t obsess over things you can’t control, and seek support from those around you.
Remaining aware of what’s going in inside you is difficult when the crisis is all around you. However, taking regular breaks when you can to process how you’re feeling is critical to your mental health. Having an outlet to express your emotions instead of repressing them can also help create better mental health.
What Are the Benefits of Mental Health Self-Care?
Researchers have studied the effects of self-care on our mental health and concluded it provides healthcare workers, “improved physical, mental, and emotional well-being.” Studies also found this kind of inner check-in helps us care more compassionately for our patients. Regular self-care can provide a kind of stability amongst the chaos of a busy shift.
It’s important to mention that this approach to improving your mental health is a practice of sorts. There will be days that are better—and some days will be worse. If you’ve been practicing the art of self-care but still find that the job environment is a struggle, consider giving us a call. There are dozens of jobs out there that you’re probably qualified for these days. All you have to do is take the next step to improve your work/life balance.
We have dozens of open positions waiting to be filled by amazing healthcare professionals like YOU! Browse our open positions today to get started!
