0:04

Welcome to the ambitious nurse podcast,

0:07

where I provide tips, tools,

0:09

and resources for the experienced nurse

0:12

to put in your career bag to

0:14

help you be a better person, a better

0:16

leader, a better professional, and

0:18

most of all, a better nurse. I'm

0:21

your host, Bonnie Meadows, a career

0:23

coach, and a clinical nurse specialist

0:25

with over 18 years of experience

0:28

in healthcare and nursing. It's

0:30

my passion to help experienced

0:33

nurses develop their careers to

0:35

impact healthcare and their communities.

0:41

Hello everyone and welcome back.

0:44

This episode is for

0:46

those who love what they do. They've

0:49

discovered it's not that they don't like

0:51

what they do. Or you may or

0:53

may not necessarily know whether you like what you

0:55

do., This may be an episode where

0:57

you're still trying to figure out what is the

1:00

issue? This is for those

1:02

who love what they do or like what

1:04

they do, where they work, but the work

1:06

circumstances have made them uneasy

1:08

and it makes them feel like it's a bad

1:10

situation, a situation that they don't necessarily

1:13

want to be in. There are some things that

1:15

have occurred and they have

1:18

come to the conclusion that they might

1:20

need to make some other decisions, but

1:22

they are stuck in what those decisions

1:24

are. And sometimes it may

1:26

not necessarily be that you have to make a

1:29

move. It may be

1:32

more so that you just have to

1:34

change your perception or

1:36

change up some things that you need to

1:38

do versus actually leaving

1:40

the job. So how do you make that

1:43

decision on, is it time for me to leave

1:45

the job or is it time for things

1:47

to change up just a

1:49

little bit? I said in a

1:52

previous episode that there was

1:54

data out there from a survey

1:56

that said that there was a large percentage

1:59

of nurses who actually liked the work

2:01

that they did. They just felt like

2:03

there was some things within the organization that

2:06

needed to change, but sometimes it's

2:08

you that needs to change. Sometimes

2:11

it's you. So I am

2:13

here to talk about how every

2:15

person can try to make

2:17

the best out of a bad situation with

2:19

just some good nurse motivation. Sometimes

2:22

you need just a little good motivation

2:24

or, a refreshing about the career,

2:27

and a new perspective. So in

2:29

this episode, you'll learn how to make the best

2:31

out of what seems like a bad or

2:34

uncomfortable situation. The

2:36

other day I was speaking with a client and

2:38

she was talking about she wanted

2:40

to, I would say in air quotes,

2:43

do something different. And that's

2:45

usually what most of my clients come

2:47

to me and say, I just wanna do something different,

2:49

or I need to do something different. That's

2:51

the key for me to start in

2:54

my questioning. And I have a line

2:56

of questions that I usually ask my

2:58

clients initially to get to the

3:00

root of their angst,

3:02

whether it's more so they

3:04

have reached a plateau and they need to

3:06

grow somewhere else. Whether

3:08

it's more so the work environment, but

3:10

they wanna stay in what they're doing or

3:13

whether it's more so they have different

3:16

expectations of what should be

3:18

expected, and we need to talk through what

3:20

do those expectations, what should they really

3:22

look like? I find that a lot of

3:24

nurses, they get anxious and an uneasy

3:27

feeling about where they are

3:29

in their work situation. Especially in this day

3:31

and time when there can be shortages

3:34

and you may be working short staffed

3:36

or you're working with travelers or you come in

3:38

and you're not working with your people. I

3:40

tell people all the time, I don't

3:43

come to work to work. The majority of the

3:45

work that I do as a clinical nurse specialist, although

3:47

much of it is clinical, 40%

3:50

of it is clinical, 60% of

3:52

it is admin that I can do at

3:55

home. 40% of it

3:57

is me going in and

3:59

working elbow to elbow with the nurses

4:01

and doing some problem solving about

4:04

their work environment and

4:06

then taking that and

4:08

either developing a process improvement

4:12

strategy around it and helping them to

4:14

develop, because I mainly provide the tools

4:16

and then some advanced level thinking.

4:18

But a lot of times I'm relying on them and,

4:21

encouraging them to think through

4:23

their own processes to develop

4:26

a workflow that is best for them and that

4:28

meets the needs of the patient. So

4:30

I have foundational questions,

4:33

as I said, that I usually go through

4:35

when I'm trying to help nurses figure out

4:37

what's their next step? What

4:39

is it that they feel this unease about

4:41

that they need to do something different?

4:43

I'm a master at having these uneasy

4:46

feelings and then trying to figure

4:48

out what is this? Is it

4:50

that I'm just anxious and biting

4:52

at the bit to do something new? Am I

4:54

bored? What is it about

4:56

this situation that makes me

4:59

uneasy? Or it just feels like I

5:01

don't feel like going to work today. Like, what is

5:03

it? So first I ask,

5:05

well, what do you ultimately want to do? Some

5:08

people know, and some people, they

5:10

have an idea when they come into nursing,

5:12

and then when they get in, they

5:15

kind of see the landscape, and then you get

5:17

a taste of different things. When you're

5:19

in nursing school, you only see

5:21

and only hear about a few things,

5:23

and those things, they perk your ear up but

5:25

a lot of times it's things that most people

5:28

already do or already

5:30

know about. For example, the

5:32

two routes that you mainly hear about is

5:34

either going to be a nurse practitioner or going

5:36

to be a nurse manager. And I will say

5:38

coming out of nursing school, I

5:41

thought that I was going

5:43

to nurse practitioner school. I kind

5:45

of thought that that was gonna be my route. Then

5:47

I actually changed and decided,

5:49

I'll just try to go to med school. And

5:52

then I figured out, I like nursing better.

5:54

I think I've grown here. I

5:56

wanna make the best of my nursing career. Some

5:59

people know, some people don't. Then my

6:01

next question is, well, do you wanna stay clinical?

6:04

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not quite

6:06

ready to leave. Most people are not quite ready

6:08

to leave the bedside, but they're starting to think,

6:10

and I don't think that that is

6:12

a bad thing. I don't think that it's a

6:14

bad thing for you to not be quite ready to leave

6:17

the bedside. In fact, I encourage

6:19

people, if you are starting to have

6:21

an inkling about the fact that you

6:23

want to possibly do something different

6:25

a few years down the line, don't wait

6:27

until you're ready, ready.

6:30

If your next step is, I

6:32

might want to go back and get my degree, then

6:34

you need to start looking into that right now. Not

6:37

two years down the line. Oh, I'll be

6:39

ready. No, you need to prepare right

6:41

now, or you may want to

6:43

go ahead and apply and take

6:45

a class or two, at least make a

6:48

decision on what is my master's program

6:50

going to be? And then

6:52

even if you're not ready to move

6:54

on, especially if you're an ambitious

6:56

nurse, you've always

6:59

got to actively be working towards

7:01

something and sometimes that actively

7:03

working towards something is just going back and

7:06

getting a master's degree. So

7:08

my next question is usually, do

7:10

you wanna return for another degree? This particular

7:13

client, they did plan to

7:15

pursue another degree, but I could tell

7:17

she just wasn't quite ready for

7:19

that just yet. There was something

7:21

that was missing. As we kept

7:23

talking, I brought up the fact that I

7:26

didn't think that she was ready for a change. And she

7:28

agreed. She loved her work and

7:30

the people that she worked We started going down

7:32

the list of, what's holding you back? What do you like,

7:34

what do you not like? And that's where

7:37

this subject and question came in.

7:39

What do you do when you want something different

7:41

or the work environment is not what you want

7:44

it to be, but you want to stay?

7:46

Because she was like I love the people I work with. When

7:48

I come in, when I see my crew, I'm

7:50

like, oh yes, this is gonna be a good night. And that's

7:52

when I feel like, yeah, I still love what

7:54

I do. So here are some things that I

7:57

encouraged her to do. And then I will

7:59

tell you at the end when I

8:01

followed up with her, what her response

8:03

was. First focus

8:05

on the positives. Your situation

8:08

is all about your perspective, and

8:10

that can be hard to do. You hear

8:13

and see a lot of things out there about, creating

8:15

a gratitude journal and

8:17

things like that. I think that that's

8:20

great. I think it's pretty much saying

8:22

the same thing that I'm saying of at

8:24

least focus on and

8:26

start to think about what are those things

8:28

that I like about what I do. Because

8:31

even as you're thinking about those things, they

8:34

help you to make decisions later

8:36

on in your career when you're trying

8:38

to make a decision about

8:40

what is it that I really love about

8:42

nursing? These questions help

8:45

to drive your professional

8:47

brand to pretty much say, okay,

8:49

I've learned these things along the way. This

8:51

is what I feel like I like, and

8:53

then from here I will grow my

8:56

career from that place. I've

8:58

talked about professional brands before and

9:00

how it is important to develop

9:03

a professional brand, but sometimes it's

9:05

not easy to do when you've not had a lot

9:07

of experience beyond the bedside or

9:09

you've not encountered enough,

9:12

areas beyond the bedside. Especially

9:14

if you still don't have a passion for

9:16

a thing. The field is

9:18

still wide open for you. So think

9:20

about the pros of working where you

9:22

are. What makes a great

9:24

day at work for you? What made a great

9:26

day at work for her, no matter what the circumstance

9:29

was, was the people that she worked

9:31

with. She still loved the people that she worked

9:33

with. She loved what she was doing as

9:35

a nurse. So I asked her to

9:37

make sure she figures out a way to focus on

9:40

those positives about the situation. Secondly,

9:44

find a balance between work and life.

9:46

I find this very often when I talk

9:48

to my clients and they're like, I'm stressed

9:51

out. I've got so much going on. I'm

9:53

over it. I really like what I do,

9:55

but I'm tired. I don't know if

9:58

I need to find something different, but I just need to

10:00

do something different. I'm like, just take some time off.

10:02

And more than likely, they've not taken time off.

10:05

Some of them, just need a break. If

10:07

you don't like your current situation, it's

10:09

up to you to take action. Take

10:12

action, take a break, and

10:14

that's easy for me to say when people are calling

10:16

you and asking you to come into work.

10:19

But coming from someone who

10:21

worked at the bedside for seven, eight

10:23

years, and yes, did work in an

10:25

environment where you were getting calls every

10:27

day about coming into work. Yes,

10:30

that is pressure. But once you know

10:32

what your boundaries are, then you work within

10:34

that pressure. For example, I

10:36

knew I just wasn't one to work a

10:38

whole lot of overtime. I just wasn't. You

10:41

can move me around a day. All

10:43

of these other things. And not saying that

10:45

I never worked overtime, because I did, but

10:47

I was very selective about when I worked overtime

10:50

because I knew it was gonna lead to burnout

10:52

for me. Money is not

10:54

necessarily my core motivator. My

10:56

time is my core motivator.

10:59

Freedom in my time, a

11:01

I always was very adamant

11:04

about taking a vacation and

11:06

knowing when I needed to pull back from

11:08

activities to get some time and space away

11:10

from work to really reflect.

11:13

Take my mind off of work so

11:15

that I can be refreshed in coming back into work

11:17

and have a better attitude about

11:20

work. I always knew when I was

11:22

hitting my breaking point, when I would start

11:24

to get snippy with other people and

11:26

start to not like going to work. If I

11:28

started taking more days than usual, not

11:30

necessarily call outs. But just taking

11:33

more days than usual. I knew it was time

11:35

for me to take a long stretch off just

11:37

to kind of refill, revise, renew,

11:40

and help to refresh my perspective

11:42

of work. Plus, once you take

11:44

a certain amount of days off, after a while you're

11:47

like, I gotta go back to work so I can make more money so

11:49

I can go back on vacation again. And then,

11:51

the other thing that you can do when

11:53

you're trying to find that balance between work and life,

11:55

and you're one of those people who has to always have their

11:57

hands going in things, I'm one of those

11:59

people. Find another hobby. Is

12:02

your work in nursing all you do?

12:04

Even if your hobby is getting involved

12:07

in your professional organizations, what

12:09

are you doing outside of work

12:12

that takes your mind away from

12:14

the work? What are you doing?

12:16

Think about that and that will help you to find

12:19

that balance between work and life, and

12:21

that allows you to take action because

12:23

it's not all on the people at

12:25

work. You have to start with you

12:27

and you being in control of what

12:30

you can control and what you can control is

12:32

taking a vacation, pulling back from

12:34

activities at work that, you

12:36

may need to pull back from to give yourself some

12:38

space. You can control finding a

12:40

new hobby to shift your mindset and

12:42

shift your mind into something else. Number

12:45

three is mend any broken

12:47

or stressful relationships with management

12:50

or coworkers, if possible. If

12:53

you've not talked with your boss about

12:55

how to improve your work situation, then

12:57

don't leave. If

13:00

you love the work and you've tried to

13:02

talk to your boss about the situation,

13:05

and there are ways to talk about it without

13:07

talking about but it is important for

13:09

us to communicate when we don't wanna be somewhere,

13:11

or when we are in a position to where we

13:13

just feel like we need to do something different. They

13:16

can help you walk through that. If it's

13:18

a trustworthy boss, if it's not necessarily

13:20

a trustworthy boss, then

13:22

there are some ways to finesse

13:25

around having that conversation. And

13:27

I do as a coach, help

13:29

people to walk through that conversation to

13:31

not make it about them, but make

13:33

it about the situation, and then

13:36

from there you can kind of get your answer. If

13:38

you're later in your career and you've had a

13:40

boss or two or whatever the case may

13:42

be, you kind of know who you're

13:44

working with. You know, if this is

13:47

someone who you can be upfront with

13:49

versus someone you can't be upfront with, and

13:51

they are just like a brick wall and whatever

13:53

you tell them, it's just gonna go in one ear

13:55

and out the other. That's when you really have

13:57

to make a decision for yourself, but

14:00

I always told nurses, my

14:02

colleagues and my clients, that

14:04

it is very important for you to

14:06

say what you need to say regardless of

14:08

whether you feel like they're gonna take action

14:11

or not. Whatever that thing is

14:13

it's a stressor for you, give

14:15

them an opportunity to fix it. And

14:17

if they don't, then you know, it's time

14:20

for you to move on. Sometimes we

14:22

don't have good relationships or just don't like

14:24

our bosses or our coworkers. Again,

14:26

that goes back to I come

14:28

to work to socialize. I

14:30

spend most of my time at work, not at

14:32

home. If it's not a peaceful

14:34

situation, and you don't feel like

14:36

it's a trustworthy situation

14:38

to where if you have that conversation,

14:41

it's going to go somewhere, I

14:43

give you permission to go ahead and start looking

14:45

for something else. Just in case you

14:47

needed it. Some of us just need permission.

14:49

I'm one of those people sometimes. Just give me

14:51

permission to be able to make this decision

14:54

and I'm doing it. And then this

14:56

might be a little strange, but ask

14:59

for more responsibility. This kind

15:01

of goes back to finding a new

15:03

hobby or a new thing. Maybe

15:05

you don't have enough to do. Maybe

15:08

you're a little bored. Maybe you need

15:10

a project to work on. You

15:12

can't complain about your environment if

15:14

you're not putting in the work to make your environment

15:16

better. The statistics that I

15:18

talked about earlier is that 40%

15:21

of nurses practicing clinically require

15:23

changes to be made to stay at

15:25

their current job. They're the ones who are least

15:27

satisfied, but you can't go to work and then come

15:29

back home. If you're not satisfied,

15:31

but you love the work that you do, then

15:34

make the effort to take on a little

15:36

bit more responsibility because it's

15:38

up to you to have ownership over your patient

15:40

population and the work that you

15:42

are assigned to do in this

15:44

space and time. And I'm not talking about

15:46

your patient one and two or

15:48

patient one through five, or patient one through nine.

15:51

Your assignment and purpose for

15:53

this moment is the job

15:55

that you have, so it is

15:57

up to you to make the best

15:59

out of a bad situation. If

16:02

there's help that is needed, if there's

16:04

a process that needs to be improved,

16:07

it goes over much better when

16:09

it's coming from you as a peer than

16:11

when it's coming from the manager. I

16:13

learned very early on, whatever decisions

16:16

I can make for my manager, for my own

16:18

workflow, I'm gonna make them, because once

16:20

they make 'em it is not gonna be good. It's

16:23

not. So whenever they're asking you

16:25

for your input and asking you to

16:28

work on a project, jump at

16:30

it unless you already got five other

16:32

projects. Now don't do that. But if you

16:34

just got one or two help out, it's only

16:36

going to help your work environment.

16:39

You're gonna have people who are gonna complain and

16:41

not gonna wanna do, but that also

16:43

gives you a taste of leadership when you're

16:45

working on projects because these people don't

16:48

report to you, so there has to be a level

16:50

of respect as to whether they're going to do what

16:52

you've asked them to do. So it

16:54

helps you to grow also in the

16:56

meantime when you volunteer to work on

16:58

projects and take on a little bit more responsibility

17:00

that will, one, be of benefit to

17:03

the patients, but also of benefit to

17:05

your work environment. My next point

17:07

goes along with what I said earlier,

17:10

and it's making your voice heard

17:12

backed with evidence and solutions

17:15

for the company or for the

17:17

patients. Pain points. Like

17:19

if the patients are complaining about things or

17:21

the hospital wants something that

17:23

is specific to whatever is in your

17:25

area and they are giving you the opportunity

17:28

to create whatever it is that needs to

17:30

be created, that is evidence-based

17:32

and you know, something that is evidence-based, you've

17:35

read it in a journal, whatever the case may be.

17:37

Help provide that solution and work with a

17:39

team to get it done. So

17:41

this goes back to asking for more responsibilities,

17:44

but it allows you to take control to

17:46

come up with solutions for

17:48

the work issues that you encounter that probably

17:51

make work in general, a bad

17:53

situation or an uneasy situation for

17:55

you. Here's a news flash.

17:58

The hospital is a business and

18:00

you will hear me remind you

18:02

of that several times over and over again. Those

18:04

who know how to do it, operate as

18:07

a business. Nurses know how

18:09

to do it along with those who have gotten a

18:11

Master's in healthcare administration or an MBA

18:13

with a focus in healthcare. But your

18:15

voice needs to be at the table. You

18:17

want them to operate as a business, and

18:19

then you operate in your specialty

18:22

of doing what you need to do to

18:24

take care of the patients. But the two

18:26

need to marry one another. Good

18:28

processes, good structure will

18:31

help not only in your workflow,

18:33

but in the sustainability

18:35

of the hospital and them operating

18:37

in the best way that they need to operate. Lastly,

18:41

I'm gonna say be sure to practice

18:43

self-care and make it a priority. So I'm

18:45

going back to take time off as you

18:47

need it. Take time to reflect.

18:49

Take a break. I've seen in the

18:52

past couple of years, some nurses have

18:54

taken a break and gone to a

18:57

position that is not as fast paced

18:59

as their current environment, and then

19:01

got into the slower pace and decided they wanted

19:03

to come back to the hospital. So sometimes

19:05

it's better to just take some

19:07

time off instead of leaving completely

19:10

and then going to another job and then coming

19:12

back six months later. But have

19:14

a plan of what your next move is going

19:17

to be. Think about that. So if

19:19

you wanna change in your work environment,

19:21

but you're not ready to leave yet,

19:23

work on your perspective. Take

19:25

some time off, pause, do some reflection,

19:28

evaluate if you're doing enough to

19:30

be a part of the solution versus being a

19:32

part of the problem. By taking on

19:34

new projects that would help enhance

19:36

the environment. Work to

19:38

reduce stressful situations with

19:40

your coworkers and your boss, and

19:43

above all else, take care of yourself

19:45

and fill your cup. This will

19:47

give you the opportunity to come to

19:49

work with a better mindset. Don't

19:52

make a permanent decision in

19:54

a temporary situation. Some

19:56

of you really need to take a break or

19:59

you need something outside of work to draw your attention

20:01

away from work. And if you

20:03

feel like you left your old job too

20:05

early, it's never too late to go back. Grace

20:07

is available for you. That's one

20:10

thing I've been saying a whole lot. Grace

20:12

is available to you.

20:15

So to follow up on the client that

20:18

I had this conversation with, we

20:20

had a follow up conversation, about a month later

20:22

and she said I really thought about our conversation

20:25

and what you said, and I decided

20:27

I do like what I do, I

20:29

don't need to do anything different but she

20:31

said what I did decide to do, because

20:34

she had maxed out on her PTO. So

20:36

once you maxed out on your PTO, they just

20:39

it out to you. And that's what they did.

20:41

And so that's when she decided it

20:44

was time for her to take some time off.

20:47

So she took some time off and

20:49

then she decided to go part-time.

20:51

That way if she wanted to work extra, she

20:54

could just work extra whenever she wanted. She

20:56

was like, now I come into work, I'm refreshed.

20:58

I'm glad to be here. I don't have things

21:01

weighing on me like I used to. I'm

21:03

a much better person, so that's

21:06

my first two points, and my last point was

21:08

really about you taking care of you, knowing

21:11

that the work will always be there, but you have

21:13

to take care of yourself first so

21:15

there's optimal care for the patient.

21:18

We came into this to help

21:20

patients, to help people get

21:22

better, but you can't do that if

21:24

you are worn out. If you're coming in

21:27

with a terrible attitude, you just can't. Don't

21:29

try to work your way through it, fake your way through

21:31

it, whatever the case may be, figure it

21:33

out so that we can be all better at

21:36

the bedside. Or maybe it's

21:38

just time for you to move on. That's

21:40

it for today. I hope you

21:42

enjoyed this episode. Let me

21:44

know your thoughts. Let me know what ways

21:47

do you have to, kind of combat

21:49

this feeling that you have or

21:51

let me know how this resonated with you. You

21:53

can find me on LinkedIn with my

21:55

full name Bonnie Meadows. You'll

21:57

find me as a cardiovascular clinical nurse

21:59

specialist. So just let me know your

22:01

thoughts and I hope to hear from you.