Recommendations to facilitate self-care practices among professional nurses

BACKGROUND: Nursing is regarded as a caring profession, with a core focus on providing care to others to improve or maintain their health. As a result, ongoing research is conducted to provide recommendations for improved clinical outcomes, which professional nurses would usually execute. However, despite the continuous changes and challenges within the nursing profession, little effort has been made to unveil explicit guidance on how professional nurses should engage in self-care practices to promote and sustain their well-being. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe recommendations to facilitate professional nurses' empowerment in practising self-care as a lifestyle. METHOD: A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was employed to obtain rich data from 10 purposively sampled professional nurses. Unstructured individual interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using Colaizzi's method. RESULTS: The main study uncovered three themes, but this study explored only one: professional nurses' urgent need to break free from the vicious, depriving cycle of not practising self-care. CONCLUSION: Sustainable recommendations are needed to empower professional nurses in self-care practices.Contribution: This study provides clear and cost-effective recommendations on what professional nurses can do to promote self-care practices.