Your teen's physical well-being can play a big role in how your teen feels emotionally. Help make sure your teen eats healthy and gets enough physical activity in throughout the day.  Stock your fridge with healthy foods and serve nutritious meals throughout the week. Keep fruits and vegetables on-hand for snacks. Make meals rich in whole grains and lean proteins like fish and poultry. Avoid having beverages high in sugar or caffeine in your home, as both of these substances can lead to an increase in anxiety. Encourage your teen to get in some physical activity each day. Consider taking a nightly walk together as a family. Have your teen join a sports team or sign up for physical education courses in school. You can also enroll your teen in a yoga course, as yoga has been known to help reduce anxiety for many. Sleep is often a major concern for teenagers. Between seeing friends, homework, and extracurricular activities, your teen may not be getting enough sleep each night. A lack of sleep can make anxiety worse. Talk to your teen about good sleep habits, and help him or her establish a nighttime routine.  Encourage your teen to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. The body will adapt to a regular sleep/wake cycle and your teen will begin to feel tired at bed time and energetic in the morning if he or she has a regular routine. You may want to set a rule in your house about the use of electronics. The light from cell phone and laptop screens can be stimulating, resulting in your teen having difficulty sleeping. It can be helpful to have your teen power down his or her cell phone and laptop close to bedtime each night. . If you want your teen to learn how to cope with anxiety, try to model positive behavior yourself. Show your teen effective ways to deal with stress in day-to-day life. Your teen can learn from you how to cope.  Remember to be positive throughout the day. When you're in a stressful situation, try to practice positive self-talk and self-love. For example, say you forgot about a deadline at work. If your teen sees you're stressed about this, say something like, "I know I screwed up, but everyone makes mistakes and this is an opportunity to learn."  Set aside time for yourself each day. Your can show your teen how important downtime is by giving yourself some rest and relaxation at the end of the day. For example, you can make a point of having a cup of tea every night after dinner.  Learn to say no. Teens are often anxious due to over-commiting themselves. If you're very busy one week, let the dishes sit in the sink overnight. If you don't time to be on this year's PTA board, let someone take the reins. When you're feeling anxious or stressed, it's important to stay connected with others. Make sure your teen makes time to hang out with family members and friends despite struggling with anxiety.  Allow your teen to have friends over. Provide a warm and hospitable environment for your teen's social circle. Let your teen know it's okay to invite friends over as long as his or her friends are respectful of house rules. Make sure your teen spends time with the family. Try to have a sit down family dinner at least a couple times a week. If you're going to see relatives in town, bring your teen along. Encourage your teen to open up to others about his or her stress and anxiety. It can be helpful to open up to others and ask for support during times of stress. You can help your teen a lot by encouraging him or her to have a positive outlook on life. Try and get your teen to feel positive about the future. Encourage him or her to pursue passions and interests. Support your teen's wishes and dreams, letting him or her explore ambitions for the future. Many milestones of teenage years, like going to college and completing high school, can cause anxiety. Try to get your teen to view such milestones with excitement instead. You should help your teen think of ways to relax when he or she is feeling stressed. There are a variety of coping mechanisms you can help your teen practice to help keep anxiety away.  Deep breathing, meditation, yoga, and other exercises that keep you grounded in the present can be great ways to combat anxiety. Consider taking your teen to classes that teach these techniques, or finding guided meditation or yoga routines online. Distractions can be a helpful way to cope with anxiety. If your teen is feeling stressed, encourage him or her to find fun distractions. Offer to play a board game or card game if your teen has had a long day. Find a relaxing movie or TV show to watch with your teen. Encourage your teen to write out his or her worries. Journaling about anxiety can help get troubling thoughts of your head.
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One-sentence summary -- Encourage healthy eating and exercise. Teach your teen good sleep hygiene. Be a good role model Help your teen connect with others. Encourage positive thinking. Find ways to relax.


Usually after your orientation is over, your preceptor and manager will meet with you to see how you feel and comment on your needed improvements. No one is perfect. Expect criticism and don't take it personally. Everyone has room for improvement. Internalizing all of this will make you a better nurse. Depending on your specialty, your hospital will send people conferences in the area. Try to go to these to help you advance your skills or hear the most up to date practices. You should try to attend as many as possible to help with your career. You should always be reading about your work. Keep a book by your bed. Look up things you don’t know after your shift, or during them if you have time.  If you kept your nursing school books, it is smart to keep them in visible sight. You can also visit websites that have evidence based practice guidelines updated all the time. Nursing is a team effort, and you will not survive for very long if you try to do everything on your own. Especially get to know your nurses aides, housekeepers, and charge nurses. Be kind to everyone. The most liked people are the people that are nice and treat everyone the same. If you are a secretary or the MD, you are a key part of the team. Greet everyone with a smile and if you ask them to help you. Let them know it is not because you cannot do it yourself.  Your nurse aide has her own very important tasks to do that you may not even know. Be respectful to everyone’s job, but know that they are there to help you if you are overwhelmed. Treat physicians with respect and not like a friend. When giving them information about the patient, use the SBAR tool and have a pen ready for a verbal order. Giving them the SBAR gives the physician the full story of the patient. Remember, you may have a handful of patients, but they have many more.
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One-sentence summary --
Ask often for feedback. Continue learning. Know the members of the health team.