Takeaway
To calm down after work, create an end to the workday—step outside for a few minutes and put your phone away. Small rituals help your body reset so it can be refreshed for the evening and the next day.
Lifelong learning in clinical excellence | April 16, 2026 | 4 min read
By Nettie Reynolds, MDiv, interfaith chaplain
A decade ago, in my first year as a hospital chaplain, I was also a single mom of two teenagers who were still adjusting to my new work and to their parents’ divorce. They needed me to be present when I was home, especially on the weekends when I wasn’t on call.
One afternoon, we were heading out to a Pokémon movie. I was standing at the door, digging through my purse for my keys, when my son, who was 11 at the time, looked into my open purse and saw my pager. “The pager is staying here, right Mom? You’re off, so we don’t need it beeping at us, right?” It was said with frustration and worry. And it was the word we that stopped me.
Work followed me home
Until then, I’d thought of the pager as part of my work. Something I carried when on call, something I set aside when I wasn’t. But at that moment, I understood my kids had been living with it too. They knew its sound. They anticipated it. It had already become part of the atmosphere at home.
That was the first time I understood that work was following me home in many ways. So, I started putting the pager in a basket by the front door on the weekends I wasn’t working. I made a point of turning it off and placing it there where they could see it.
The body that stays keyed up
Frequently in my work as a chaplain, I had conversations with clinicians, surgeons, ICU nurses, emergency physicians, EMTs coming off long shifts, and others, who told me their bodies stayed keyed up long after they’d left work. They described the same feeling in different ways. The sense that they had to always be on. Always ready. They knew this was part of what made them good at their work. It kept patients safe, and it helped them catch what others might miss.
But they didn’t know how to come down from it. They went home, sat down, and were unable to relax. A steady hum in the body. A sense that something might happen, even when nothing was happening. The pager was quiet. The shift was over. But their bodies hadn’t gotten the message.
Hypervigilance
What we call hypervigilance isn’t just a mindset. It’s something the body learns. That constant state of readiness can eventually contribute to what we describe as compassion fatigue. Without a transition, the body keeps going. Muscles stay slightly tight. Attention stays outward. The system remains oriented toward what might happen next. It doesn’t distinguish very well between a crashing patient and a phone lighting up on the counter.
Scrolling and secondary exposure
In these days of social media, healthcare professionals, like everyone else, try to decompress by sitting down and scrolling. News. Social feeds. Sometimes clinical forums. It looks like rest. It feels like a break. But the body doesn’t experience it that way. It is more input. More to take in. There’s a growing understanding of this as a kind of secondary exposure. You’re not in the room anymore, but your system is still taking in distress, urgency, and intensity. So, there’s a second wave of vigilance. But not from patients; from the world you carry in your pocket.
Social media and stress
In fact, a 2025 study published in the “Journal of Psychiatric Research” found that higher social media use among healthcare professionals was associated with increased stress and didn’t improve perceived emotional resiliency. When clinicians can’t come down from vigilance, the impact isn’t just fatigue. It shows up as disconnection, from family and from self. Over time, the body and mind protect themselves the only way they can, by numbing, detaching, and slowly burning out. This isn’t a personal failure. It’s an occupational reality.
Creating a visible end to the shift gives your body and mind something they can recognize. Limiting the second wave of input helps reduce the constant scanning your system has learned. Giving yourself somewhere to go, even for a few minutes, allows your body and mind to begin to settle.
Time off isn’t just time away from the hospital. It’s time to replenish the parts of ourselves that the work draws on. When we invest in our lives outside of medicine, we’re also investing in our ability to keep showing up within it. This is what will continue to support both resilience and the long-term sustainability of work.
What helps reduce hypervigilance:
1. Step outside before you go home.
Even a few minutes of fresh air can interrupt the clinical environment your body is still carrying. No phone. No calls. Just a pause.
2. Move your body.
Walking, stretching, even jumping up and down can be helpful.
3. Limit the second wave.
Give yourself a boundary around scrolling on social media and news, especially after long shifts. Even a small reduction helps the nervous system calm down.
4. Expect it to take time.
Coming down from hypervigilance takes time. It’s just our physiology. But practicing the above will help.
This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.