Ever felt as if your joints are locked in place and kind of rickety similar to a bicycle needing a little bit of grease? As if a little bit of movement could break you? And all these topped off with a bit of muscle-numbing at your lower limbs? Don't fret, student nurses! The following are some spine-stretching tips that can help improve your posture and get your blood flowing in all the right places.
It's undeniable that student nurses acquire their daily dose of social interaction through their online classes and household conversations, that's all good and all, but can you guess what makes this a bit of a tricky situation? The majority of hours student nurses spend in a day are spent sitting down and facing their laptops and monitors up to 8 to 9 hours a day. Some students are lucky to have classes that only require one and a half-hour sitting down during synchronous sessions, but they also have schedules that span 3 hours or more.
A sedentary behavior connotes a decrease in physical activities that negatively affects a person's well-being, health, and quality of living (World Health Organization, n.d.). Sitting all day qualifies as sedentary behavior. It deconditions a person's body leading to serious backaches and strains that students complain about after a long day of finishing homework, attending online classes, or accomplishing assessments. Backaches can occur in a person's upper or lower back and experience acute or chronic pain. These simple home-friendly tips can help promote vasoconstriction of your skeletal muscles and improve blood flow of your systemic circulation, waking up your sleepy muscles due to being compressed all day. Here are the following practices you can perform during online classes/sitting at your workstation to prevent any backache (Online Schools Center, 2021):
Stand up or stretch if possible every 20 to 45 minutes.
Walk around during breaks every 30 minutes or an hour; this induces muscle relaxation.
Allow your fingers and wrist to rest. Avoid typing heavily as it strains your wrist.
Sit straight, try to maintain a vertical alignment of your ears, shoulders, and waist.
Listed here are the neck, shoulders, and back exercises you can do during your free time away from your workstations (Online Schools Center, 2021):
Head Side to Side - Bend your neck gently such that it meets your left shoulder. Use the same technique for the opposite side. Press your hand against the side of your head to augment some resistance.
Neck Rotation - Rotate your head slowly to the right and the left.
Butterfly Wings - Sit straight and allow your fingertips to touch your shoulders while directing your elbows to the side. Maintain the position of your fingers and gradually exhale as you pull your elbows in front of you until they touch each other. Inhale deeply as you put your arms back to their initial position
Shrugging - Raise your shoulder slowly such that it approaches the ears. Hold that position for about 15 to 20 seconds. Bring your shoulders down slowly as it relaxes.
Stretching Up - Sit up straight as if a cable or cord is placed on top of your head. Stretch your body slowly in a vertical position. Hold for 20 seconds, then gradually relax.
Shoulder Blade Squeeze - In this exercise, raise your arms in front of your body while bending your elbows and directing your thumbs upward. Pull your elbows back so that the shoulder blades are pressed together. Hold for about 20 seconds before releasing gradually.
Student nurses strive to go above and beyond with accomplishing their studies to improve and develop their skills and knowledge as future Thomasian nurses and be worthy of holding the lamp set aflame by commitment, competence, and compassion. After all, what good of a nurse will become of you if your body's incapacitated? Don't forget that helping and enabling yourself first does not instantly take away your opportunity to help others. Instead, it urges you to focus more on the recipient of your care. I hope you have a lot of fun testing out these spine-stretching tips I laid out for you and somehow help you decide what practices will work best for you.
SOURCES:
World Health Organization - Europe. (n.d.). Stay physically active during self-quarantine. World Health Organization - Regional Office for Europe. Retrieved November 13, 2021, from https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/publications-and-technical-guidance/noncommunicable-diseases/stay-physically-active-during-self-quarantine
Online Schools Center. (2021, April 19). Aching Back Among Online Students - Prevention Tips and Tricks. Retrieved November 13, 2021, from https://www.onlineschoolscenter.com/tips-ease-online-student-aching-back/
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