Nurse By Day, Twitch streamer By Night.

27 July 2024

Watching countless Turkish TV shows about doctors and healthcare fuelled my childhood dream of becoming a doctor. I vividly remember hosting make-shift GP services in my bedroom, using one of my dad’s white shirts and giving my family members appointments to come for an assessment. My ethnic parents were taken aback when 5-year-old Naz declared her intention to make every parents dream come true by going to medical school. From then on, birthday gifts were healthcare-related: on year a stethoscope, the next a pink doctor’s kit. Ever call to my grandparents included promises of curing their diabetes and hypertension.

As I grew older, my confidence weaned, and I convinced my parents that pursing nurse was the smartest route. Exploiting their lack of familiarity with the UK educational system, I agreed that a three-year nursing degree would provide medical knowledge and experiences, after which I could apply to medical school. They believed it, and so did I.

Upon completing my nursing degree, I realised that becoming a doctor had been my dream, not my family’s. During my three years of study, I experienced both the highs and lows of healthcare, leading me to abandon the idea of medical school. Instead, I learned to embrace a nursing career, which I pursued for six years. While I found numerous issues with the UK healthcare system, nursing had shaped me into the person I am today. I was often advised and told by senior colleagues that I will lose my compassion, but in exchange become a stronger nurse - but I’ve met countless people, heart their stories, treated them to better health and most importantly, advocated for my patients. I treated every patient as if they were a family member, and that’s how I maintained having compassion through the years.

Nine years ago, I began watching Twitch streams at 5 am while preparing for 13-hour hospital shifts. Streaming intrigued me, and I gradually started planning how to become a Twitch streamer myself. Despite scepticism from friends who argued it had nothing to do with nursing, I pursed it. My Twitch career officially began on June 24 2022.

Balancing nursing and streaming was initially manageable because streaming brought meaning to my life. However, the gruelling schedule lead to burnout. I worked until 5 pm, hit the gym, completed household duties, ate for 30 minutes and started streaming by 7 pm. Streams often ended past midnight around 3 am, leaving me with only a few hours of sleep before my nursing shifts. This exhausting routine strained my relationships with family and friends. Despite the challenges, streaming brought me immense joy. On days off, I tried my best to stay connected with family, manage my chores and run errands, but most of my time was spent on editing clips and planning streams. Even during burnout, I remained happy.

Today, I manage my time better, allowing me to enjoy both nursing and streaming while maintaining balance in my life. Here are ways I manage a double (or several) life, and things I wish I knew before becoming a Twitch streamer.

1. Have a stream schedule.

   Having a consistent stream schedule is beneficial for several reasons: building an audience, trust and reliability (gives people a place to return to), routine development, goal setting and achievement, community growth, professionalism, work-life balance and high quality content planning.

2. Engagement is crucial.

Do not feel like you’re too cool to read chat and engage with your community. Engagement with chat is one of the most important things you need to understand as a streamer, it’s a way you build a community, build personal connections, receive feedback for space for improvement, entertainment value and building a positive reputation.

3. Build yourself a brand.

Having a strong branding when streaming, or creating content, is beneficial for several reasons, such as creating an effective way of helping viewers quickly recognise and remember your channel. Consistent visuals e.g. logos, colour schemes, overlays, make your stream stand out. Other reasons why having a brand is important involves: professionalism, differentiation and marketing.

4. Networking.

Not only is networking a good quality to have while streaming, it is also essential in day-to-day life. Networking provides benefits such as collaboration opportunities, having a support system, learning opportunities, resource sharing, career advancement and building relationships.

5. Content and life planning.

I am a sucker for planning and organising weekly schedules, monthly expectations and simple little to-do lists. Apps I generally use for planning involve Notion, Procreate and my Notes App on my phone. Having a plan provides clarity and helps you focus on what you need to prioritise. It stimulates decision making skills, time management and in all honesty, reduces stress. Making schedules has allowed me to do both streaming and nurse, at the same time, in a healthy manner.

6. Take regular breaks.

I don’t mean to state the obvious, but taking a break is something I had to learn the hard way. Now I don’t feel a high level of guilt when I take days off (from work or streaming) when needed. Taking a break improves your work ethnic and productivity, prevents burnout and increases your creativity.

7. Don’t focus on numbers.

Streaming is a business, and I understand that we need to look at analytics in order to see a pattern or improvement. However, obsessing and focusing too much over numbers can lead to anxiety and stress. Constantly monitoring metrics can make you feel pressured, decrease the quality of your content, impact your authenticity, and even de-motivate you. By not focusing solely on numbers, you can create a healthier, more enjoyable, and sustainable experience for yourself and your audience.