0:05

Welcome to the Ambitions 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

0:37

. So

0:43

this is the last episode for

0:45

our walkthrough

0:47

of self-awareness as

0:50

an experienced nurse , for nursing

0:53

career growth and

0:55

to develop your nursing career path

0:57

, and so I'm going to jump right

1:00

into it . There will

1:02

be a little bit of a repeat , but

1:05

to me it just helps to

1:07

bring the full picture together when

1:10

I am just repeating

1:12

just a little bit more information from previous

1:14

episodes to help you pull

1:16

that full picture together about

1:19

self-awareness and

1:21

how it applies in nursing . So

1:23

I'm going to jump right in . The first

1:25

thing I'm going to say is , when you're

1:28

walking through a process of the how

1:30

just apply the

1:32

nursing process , we're going to

1:34

assess , we're

1:36

going to determine outcomes , we're going

1:38

to determine , like , our interventions

1:40

, and then we're going to evaluate

1:43

all of those pieces in

1:46

. That's what we do when we do the how

1:48

we're walking through the nursing

1:50

process . The first thing I'm going

1:52

to do is start by

1:54

assessing . So that goes to my number

1:56

one . Start assessing

1:58

the gap between your current situation and

2:00

your desired future situation

2:02

and career goals . And I said this in the last podcast

2:05

episode . But if you

2:07

do not know what your future

2:09

career goals are , if you're like I have

2:11

no clue , that's okay

2:13

too . There's something

2:16

that is guiding you there , in

2:18

whatever direction . That is . You

2:20

just need to sit down with someone and

2:23

talk through it so that you can understand

2:25

what are your career goals or

2:28

what is your future situation . It

2:30

doesn't necessarily have to be a job

2:32

, but what is the mission that

2:35

you are on ? What

2:37

is your mission ? What is your vision

2:39

? What do you ? How do you see

2:41

yourself impacting the

2:43

profession ? How did you see yourself impacting

2:46

the profession when you came into the

2:48

role , and is it ? Oh well

2:50

, I wanted to become a nurse because I

2:52

wanted to be a CRNA . Okay , well

2:54

, in that space , what do you

2:56

want to do as a CRNA ? Oh , I want to take care

2:58

of patients . There's got to be more

3:00

than that . If you're listening

3:03

to this podcast episode

3:05

, you want more . What is that

3:07

more ? How does it go

3:09

beyond ? Because , once

3:11

you get there , it's like

3:13

, okay , well , if you're ambitious

3:16

which I'm assuming that you are

3:18

if you're listening to this podcast episode , if you're listening

3:20

to this podcast , you want

3:22

more . More doesn't always

3:24

mean advance . It

3:27

might mean outward growth . So

3:30

what does that growth mean to

3:32

you ? And I am going to do a podcast

3:34

episode on what is the difference

3:37

between career advancement and career growth

3:39

, because those are two different things , and

3:42

I had this conversation with a coachee

3:45

of mine . I had an understanding

3:47

of it , but I wanted to get her

3:50

words of what it means and

3:52

it was spot on one and it really

3:54

helped me to tease out . Okay

3:56

, this is something that needs to

3:58

be talked about . Advancement and

4:01

growth , two different things . More to come

4:03

. So , one

4:05

, assess that gap . Two , you

4:08

develop it by being

4:11

more aware of your psychological

4:13

needs , which can increase your

4:15

motivation by helping you to discover

4:17

the rewards that you truly desire

4:20

. You want more joy . Do

4:23

you feel like you want to do more with your hands

4:26

? Do you want more flexibility

4:28

in your schedule ? Do you want the

4:30

opportunity to help others a little

4:32

bit more ? Like ? I've gotten

4:35

to the point in my career where

4:38

I want to be able to help others

4:40

to do their work better . So

4:42

what is that thing for you Like ? That

4:44

is my goal . How can I help you ? How

4:47

can I help you , as listeners , do your

4:49

work better , obtain your goals

4:51

in your career ? In my regular

4:53

job , it's how can I help these

4:56

nurses work better , be

4:58

better professionally , grow

5:01

better . How can I help

5:05

to impact each and every nurse that I

5:07

come in contact with so

5:09

that we are able to grow a better nursing

5:12

profession ? That's my goal

5:14

. It's not tangible , it's not

5:16

I want that thing over there , but

5:19

that is the psychological need that fills

5:21

me , because I enjoy helping

5:24

people to find their peace and their joy in the

5:26

work that they do . Third

5:29

, I'm going to have you to

5:31

write down a series of questions

5:33

in your how

5:36

do I develop self-awareness

5:38

? I'm going to walk through

5:40

these questions and I want you

5:42

to answer them for yourself

5:44

and then , once you answer

5:47

them for yourself , I

5:49

want you to send

5:53

me a message in

5:55

my DMs on LinkedIn to

5:59

let me know what you come up with . First

6:01

question so here's the questions

6:04

that you're going to ask as we

6:06

talk about how to develop your self-awareness

6:09

, because these are the questions that

6:11

I ask coaches . They're

6:13

not always in this series . A

6:16

lot of times it just depends on how the conversation

6:18

is flowing . I may not

6:21

ask all these questions . I may not get to all of these questions

6:23

. They may already answer these questions

6:25

for me , but it helps me

6:27

to guide them . I'm here as a

6:29

guide , I'm not the answer

6:32

. I've just been blessed

6:34

and gifted with the

6:36

vision to help guide people

6:39

in their career path . So one and some

6:41

of these questions I've been asking all

6:43

along . First

6:45

question what drives you ? What

6:48

is your passion ? I'm going to pause . You need to have out of sheet

6:50

of paper . If you're driving , obviously , you will not have

6:52

out of sheet of paper . That's

6:55

cool . If you're walking , just think about it . What

6:57

drives you ? What is your passion ? Number

7:02

two what do you want

7:04

your life to look like in the future ? What do you want

7:06

your life to look like in the future In

7:09

general ? If you've

7:11

got kids , then once they graduate from school or

7:14

once they are done with school , then what do you

7:16

like ? What does that look like five years from now ? What

7:18

does that look like 10 years from now ? Do

7:21

you want to be a speaker and speaking

7:23

across the nation ? Do you want to be on board

7:25

? Do you want to be like

7:27

? What do you want your life to look like in

7:29

the future ? Do

7:31

you want to be more impactful in the community ? Do

7:34

you want to be more impactful in your , in your life , in

7:37

your faith area ? What

7:39

do you want your life to look like in

7:42

the future ? Do you

7:44

like people ? Yes , this is a valid question

7:46

. It's a valid question Do

7:49

you like people ? Because if you

7:51

really don't like working with people

7:53

like that , there are nursing

7:55

careers in which you can

7:57

support others without

8:01

being forward-facing . There

8:04

are some of you who really

8:06

should be forward-facing and you're not

8:08

, and there are some of you who are forward-facing

8:11

and you really should not be forward-facing

8:13

other people . You really

8:15

should be an admin support

8:18

to others . Let's

8:20

think about that . And you can be

8:22

an admin support to others in

8:25

various ways . You

8:27

can do it as a nurse , scientist , in

8:30

doing research projects , in doing statistical

8:32

analysis , like there's

8:35

just there's different things that you can do . Don't

8:37

limit yourself . Do you

8:39

wanna work in the community or in

8:42

acute care ? Are you in

8:44

acute care ? But you have a desire

8:46

to do work in the community and

8:48

just to be out and about in the

8:50

community doing nursing but

8:52

you're like , oh , it just doesn't pay , well

8:54

, so I can't do that . Okay

8:57

, well , what can you do to fill

8:59

your cup in the meantime ? Or

9:01

are you out in the community and you

9:03

really wanna work in the hospital but

9:06

somebody's pulling you into

9:08

that other space or not

9:11

? Somebody's pulling you . Your life just works better

9:13

now in

9:15

this space of

9:18

having this type of schedule

9:20

. Don't limit yourself

9:22

. There are some things that you can do to

9:24

fill your cup now until

9:27

you can get to that point of being

9:29

in the acute care space . What

9:31

are your beliefs and

9:34

what are your core values ? Those

9:36

are two separate questions , but

9:39

they are important , as we as

9:41

nurses can work in so many different

9:43

secular

9:45

and sections of healthcare that

9:48

we need to

9:50

know what our beliefs are and

9:52

what our core values are , because

9:55

as we work for other organizations

9:58

that may not align

10:00

their mission

10:02

and vision and , whatever the case

10:05

may be , may not align with your beliefs

10:07

and your values , that's a

10:09

stressor . Understand

10:11

those things . What

10:13

is essential for my family life ? And

10:15

that kind of goes back to that . I

10:18

can draw on that other example that

10:20

I talked about earlier

10:22

. Or when I was offering

10:25

free sessions about

10:27

a month ago . I had a few

10:29

people that I

10:31

had some conversations with , and one our

10:34

goal was she wanted more autonomy

10:36

, to be able to

10:38

make more of an impact

10:40

within her family . She

10:43

had a high level of self-awareness

10:45

of I need to work in

10:47

an autonomous environment . I

10:49

love what I do , but I need to work

10:52

in an autonomous environment . How

10:54

can we work to get there and

10:56

what are those things that I can do to

10:59

work autonomously ? So

11:01

we talked through a few of those things

11:04

and she had a good

11:06

list of action items that she

11:08

could go ahead and start implementing

11:10

, because that is what

11:12

her family life was her focus . But , yes

11:15

, she wanted to work on her nursing career . Number

11:17

one priority was family . Number

11:19

two , how do I still grow in

11:22

my career with my family

11:24

? And then the last

11:26

. Lastly , in this list of questions

11:28

, I want you to examine

11:31

your life compared to Maslow's hierarchy

11:33

of needs . I will have a link to

11:35

Maslow's hierarchy of needs in

11:38

the show notes so

11:41

that you can start to look at how

11:43

does it apply to

11:45

my life and to my career and

11:48

my career growth ? I don't want

11:50

anybody to ever feel like I

11:53

can't do just because

11:55

of where you might be now in life

11:57

. Do what you can

11:59

now , because that

12:01

helps to fill your bucket , even

12:04

if it's just a little bit , so

12:07

that later you will

12:09

be ready to step into

12:11

, and it'll be easier for you to step into

12:14

those things in which you want

12:16

to do once your capacity opens up

12:18

. So I want you to take the time

12:20

to examine your life experiences

12:23

, your work experiences , your

12:25

school experiences , to get an idea

12:27

of what you may be interested

12:30

in . Take all of those questions and

12:32

then take some time to

12:35

examine and that'll give you a better idea of

12:37

what you might be interested in to help you to drill

12:39

down to your nursing niche . Lastly

12:43

, I want you to look up and I

12:45

will have a link in the show notes of

12:47

strengths , weaknesses , opportunities

12:49

, threats and analysis and just

12:51

do an analysis of

12:54

your current life , whether it be work

12:56

, whether it be home . Somebody

12:58

who is single , who does not have a lot of responsibilities

13:01

, they might be able to go a little bit

13:03

faster than someone who

13:05

has like five kids , but somebody who

13:07

has like five kids might have a big

13:09

, a whole support system . So just don't

13:12

judge anyone or

13:15

think that , oh well , so-and-so

13:18

might be able to do all those things because they don't have

13:20

any children , well , you don't know what their other

13:22

responsibilities are . Or , oh

13:24

gosh , they got like five kids . They might

13:26

not be . No , just unbiasedly

13:30

strengths , weaknesses , opportunities

13:33

, threats , obstacles

13:35

. See threats has just obstacles

13:37

or barriers , because

13:39

those are outside things that

13:41

may hinder you from moving

13:44

forward or it may

13:46

slow you down . Sometimes

13:48

the outside threat is us . Let's

13:51

just put that out there

13:53

and then , once you

13:55

have written all of that down

13:57

, send me a message on LinkedIn

14:00

. I am Bonnie Meadows

14:02

, nurse career coach . You

14:05

find me on LinkedIn . Send me

14:07

a message . Let me know what

14:09

you thought of the episode and what

14:11

you thought of the self-awareness series . Let

14:14

me know what you came up with in your

14:16

analysis and

14:18

then , if you feel like this

14:20

really resonated with you , you wanna talk

14:23

through it a little bit more . I have

14:25

a link in the show notes in which

14:27

you can jump

14:29

on a call with me in which

14:31

I'm offering one-on-one coaching

14:34

calls to help walk through

14:36

this process of developing

14:38

your self-awareness so that you

14:40

can discover your nursing niche

14:42

and then help

14:45

you develop a plan

14:47

for your career path . I'm

14:49

so excited to have you here , so

14:51

excited to walk through this with you Next

14:54

in the next series , still

14:57

continuing on the Nurse Career

14:59

Path series and next we're

15:01

gonna start to tackle building

15:03

confidence and imposter

15:06

syndrome . So hope you stay tuned

15:08

, thanks . Thanks

15:12

for joining us this week on the Ambitious

15:14

Nurse podcast . To review

15:17

the show notes and any links mentioned

15:19

in today's episode , please go

15:21

to theambitiousnursepodcastcom . If

15:24

you enjoyed this conversation , follow

15:26

or subscribe so you don't miss a

15:28

future episode . Also

15:31

, please consider leaving a rating , review

15:33

and or comment about what

15:35

you want to hear . This helps

15:37

more nurses , just like you find

15:39

this podcast . Thank you for joining

15:42

me , bonnie Meadows , on the Ambitious

15:44

Nurse podcast . I look forward

15:46

to chatting with you the next time and

15:49

remember you don't have to grow your career

15:51

alone . As iron sharpens

15:53

iron , one person sharpens

15:55

another . Thank you for letting me sharpen

15:57

you as you take this knowledge to

15:59

sharpen the next .