Mental Health Status and Mental Health Self-care Practices of Nurses in a South-west State in Nigeria: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2021), self-care refers to all actions that individuals, families, and communities engage in to improve their health, avoid disease, reduce illness, and restore health. Self-care is a deliberate self-care plan, involving self-management, self-compassion, self-efficacy, self-regulation, and self-monitoring. Thus, it consists of both self- regulatory activating and inhibiting practices (often referred to as stress-relieving hobbies), including chat box, exercising, journaling, eating healthy, meditating, maintaining outside interests, friend-building, and praying, among others (Moilanen, et al., 2023; Purdue University Global, 2023; Tachias and Ferguson, 2019; Peprah, et al., 2019).