The importance and challenges for nursing staff to adopt healthier lifestyles and how to support ourselves.

Collaboration: RCN Mental Health Forum and C3 Collaborating for Health Charity

Nursing teams are crucial for supporting patients and communities to be as healthy as possible. Work pressures, long working days and lack of access to healthy food and challenges for stopping smoking make it difficult however, to adopt healthy behaviour. This all impacts on our physical and mental health. C3 Collaborating for Health have worked on various nurse-led projects for nurses addressing this. 
This session will: 

• share some of these findings and the strategies identified to help nurses that are fundamental to preventing many diseases and promoting better health
• use research and experiences from various C3 nurse-led projects including the impact of obesity in nursing which identified health behaviours in nursing teams and strategies to support being healthier
• draw on current work looking at smoking within nursing teams, especially in mental health nursing.
• showcase what members of the nursing team have told us about what is important to them, their opportunity to make healthier lifestyle choices and the impact on themselves, their health, family and their work.

It is open and relevant to all members of the nursing team, across the NHS, community and independent health and social care. The session will provide practical tools based on evidence from the research, plus an opportunity to reflect on individual health behaviours and the challenges for changing behaviour for the positive.