0:56

As always , I

0:58

am speaking on

1:00

a topic that I've kind of been somewhat

1:04

avoiding for a

1:06

little while because I didn't

1:08

think that it was time

1:10

yet to start talking about

1:12

it , but I've had a moment

1:14

to get on a couple

1:16

of calls with some nurses and

1:18

really figure

1:21

out or discuss

1:23

or find what is

1:25

it that you're truly struggling with when

1:28

you are the one who is teaching other

1:32

nurses and empowering other

1:34

nurses to be

1:37

better at the thing , whatever that

1:39

thing is , for me it's improving

1:42

your careers and making

1:44

sure that you are able to have a career

1:47

that is impactful and that has purpose

1:49

and not that what we do on a daily

1:51

basis as nurses doesn't have a purpose

1:53

. But some of us feel

1:56

pulled and called

1:58

to a greater work in nursing

2:00

and

2:03

we feel like we can do more than what we're doing

2:06

. And I've been there . I'm

2:09

still there , like I'm still growing . I'm

2:11

still , but there've just been

2:13

events that have happened

2:15

in my career that

2:17

, as I tell you all of the time

2:20

, that I believe that I can share

2:22

those lessons that I've learned , and

2:25

even lessons that I've learned in coaching

2:27

others through

2:29

to help them to better

2:31

their career , to find joy in nursing

2:34

, to find that peace that they

2:36

are looking for

2:38

in their everyday work while

2:41

growing their career , work

2:44

while growing their career . And so in doing

2:46

that , what I call market research

2:49

, I

2:56

even put out a call to the email list . So if you are not subscribed to the

2:58

email list , please do below . There are some opportunities for you to do that

3:00

, but I reached out to the email list to see if there

3:02

was a few people who wanted to jump

3:05

on a call and just

3:07

tell me what you're struggling with , because

3:10

I have my ideas of what you're struggling

3:12

with , as I have

3:15

struggled with several things

3:17

within my career path

3:19

and in growing my career . But

3:22

my struggle may not be your struggle , or

3:24

I may have been able to

3:26

work through that thing so much that I

3:28

don't think about it , and

3:31

that

3:33

is definitely what I found

3:35

, and so I want

3:37

to make sure that I am bringing you information

3:39

that is relevant , that meets your needs , so

3:42

that I can help to clear any

3:44

roadblocks . Like

3:46

that is my passion . What

3:49

frustrates me the most is when a nurse stays

3:52

someplace because

3:54

of reasons that they don't have to stay

3:56

and they're miserable

3:58

and they're stuck and they're frustrated

4:01

. Like that frustrates me , because

4:04

to me , that keeps the profession stagnant

4:06

, because it then starts

4:08

to bleed everywhere else . We

4:11

can do so much great work and

4:13

we are doing a lot of great work , but

4:16

I believe that there are more nurses

4:18

who can step into

4:21

more of the work

4:23

that they are feeling pulled and called

4:26

to do , the greater

4:28

work , the greater impact that they want to make

4:30

. But you can't

4:33

see the forest through the trees . I

4:35

can see further , but

4:38

I needed to figure out what is it that's causing

4:41

you to not be able to see

4:43

, that's causing you to not be able to see more of what and

4:45

believe more of what I believe . And

4:54

so , in my research , I found a resounding reason why people are not growing

4:56

their careers , or what's causing them to struggle in the process of them

4:58

wanting to grow their careers

5:00

, their

5:10

careers . Several things that stood out feeling stuck , overwhelmed with just the amount of

5:12

work that you do on a daily basis , that you don't even have time to even think

5:14

about your next steps

5:16

. Fear of

5:19

failure for stepping

5:21

out , or fear of

5:24

I might not get anything

5:27

, any schedule that's better than what I have

5:29

now , or whatever

5:31

the case may be . Or I may not be able to have

5:33

the seniority that I have now , or I may

5:35

not be able to do the whatever , and

5:38

so you're fearful that where you

5:40

, you might go someplace that's worse than

5:42

where you are . So you

5:45

just stay where you are , uncertain

5:47

about the right direction to go . That's real

5:49

. That's really real . I've

5:52

been . I've definitely been there more

5:54

times than not . The

5:57

fear thing I definitely got you back

5:59

Uncertainty about where to go

6:01

next . I've been

6:03

there about

6:08

where to go next . I've been there and I've learned how to work through uncertainty

6:11

and still have peace , dealing with bad leadership . So

6:13

you got bad leadership support and

6:15

you just you don't

6:17

even know that there's anything different or

6:19

that you can have anything different than

6:22

the terrible leadership that you're dealing with , and

6:33

then just the daily task of everything just weighing on you . It causes you to be

6:35

settled and stuck and stagnant and you don't even think about the fact that

6:38

you should be doing

6:40

something different . Or you're like I

6:42

could , but

6:44

I really like what I do . I

6:47

mean that's great and all . There are a lot of things that

6:49

I really love to do , but

6:52

the question is , is that

6:54

my place of growth ? And so

6:56

within that , I

6:59

also want to help

7:02

you to understand where

7:05

I come in as

7:07

your resident nurse career coach . A

7:10

nurse career coach can help you with so

7:12

many of these issues , but

7:16

a lot of times we don't put that together

7:18

, and so I'm going to walk

7:20

you through three ways . A

7:23

nurse career coach can help you in

7:25

growing your career . Because

7:28

we don't that's not something that we hear about every

7:30

day , or we think

7:32

, oh , I can figure it out , it's easy Because

7:34

you know you're thinking like nursing

7:37

, it has like the

7:39

regular paths . But , honestly

7:41

, once you get past an

7:44

hourly position and

7:46

you start to go into more salary positions

7:48

or salary exempt positions or positions

7:51

that are more so regular

7:54

eight to five , seven

7:56

to three . Once you start

7:58

to work past that , the waters get a little

8:01

bit muddy and you have to have a little bit

8:03

more strategy around your plan , and

8:06

so that's where a nurse career coach can

8:08

help . So let me go ahead and

8:10

start with number one . A

8:13

nurse career coach can help you to reduce

8:15

overwhelm . What is that

8:17

? So , when you are dealing with

8:19

burnout , you sometimes

8:21

don't even know that you're dealing with burnout

8:23

. The overwhelm leads to burnout , but

8:26

you may be experiencing signs

8:29

and symptoms that

8:31

are signs of burnout and you don't

8:33

know it . But you

8:35

know something's not right . Like you

8:37

don't like going into work

8:39

. Yeah , you like the work that

8:42

you do , but you don't like going to

8:44

work . You might not like

8:46

going in the building . Like I've been there . I

8:48

don't like going in the building . I like the

8:50

work that I do . I just there's something about

8:52

it . I just don't like there's

8:55

some resistance here . I

8:57

don't . I don't feel great about like Pete we

8:59

joke about oh , it's Monday . I

9:01

don't feel like this , that and the other . And

9:03

like

9:10

you can make progress and that you have a purpose

9:12

in going into work . Like you looking

9:15

forward to something at

9:17

work , and so a

9:19

career coach can help you to

9:22

one , identify

9:24

if you're in burnout and

9:26

to help you to find

9:28

ways to manage that burnout

9:31

. If where you are is

9:33

not like if you don't want to leave where you are you want

9:35

to grow like if you don't want to leave where you are , you

9:37

want to grow but you don't want to leave . So how

9:39

do you manage that stress

9:42

? Because you do see other things that

9:44

you do want to do in life , but

9:46

you can't do them because you're burnt

9:48

out , because you're drinking

9:50

from a fire hose in the work that you are

9:53

doing on a daily basis drinking from a fire hose in the work that

9:55

you are doing on a daily basis . A nurse career coach can help you

9:57

with developing time management

9:59

strategies , help

10:05

you with strategizing the work that you do on a daily basis , help you to really even

10:07

identify should I be doing this or should I not

10:09

be doing this In

10:11

a way that doesn't compromise

10:13

your integrity , that doesn't compromise

10:16

your work life , that

10:18

doesn't compromise your growth , the growth that

10:21

you are working towards . Nurse

10:23

career coach can help with that . They can also

10:25

be a sounding board and a listening ear , because

10:28

sometimes you just need someone

10:31

who is not in

10:33

the situation , to

10:35

hear you talk through

10:37

it , and sometimes even you talking

10:40

through , because then they start to the nurse career coach

10:42

. They start to ask questions . I ask questions

10:44

of people and there

10:46

are certain questions that I ask and they're like hmm

10:48

, I didn't even think about that or

10:50

huh , I haven't thought through that , about

10:56

that , or huh , I haven't thought through that . But it's to lead you down a path of making

10:58

a decision . What a nurse career coach will not do is make

11:00

a decision for you . That's

11:02

not what they're here to do . They're

11:05

here to coach you through making

11:08

a decision for yourself , understanding

11:12

the options that you already have in

11:14

front of you , and then

11:16

, if you want further advice , they're

11:18

going to give you and help you to work

11:20

through some strategies . But

11:23

they totally are able

11:25

to provide an

11:27

impartial objective

11:29

perspective , perspective

11:38

so they can help you identify potential obstacles that you need to overcome

11:40

in order to reach your goals . Even

11:43

if your goal is more

11:45

time freedom , even if your goal

11:47

is more autonomy , they

11:50

can help you with all of that , even if it's

11:53

figuring out how

11:56

to approach your boss about a

11:58

thing , whatever that thing

12:00

may be . Even if it's figuring out how

12:02

do I get on the projects that I really like

12:05

to do to grow , even

12:08

if it's figuring out oh , I

12:10

want to do that thing . So what can I do in my current

12:12

role in order to be able to feel

12:16

better equipped , build confidence

12:18

to apply for this other thing that

12:20

I'm looking towards doing

12:23

? So

12:27

that's number one help you to reduce overwhelm . They're

12:30

helping you to kind of tease

12:32

out your current situation

12:34

, work through reducing stress

12:36

, seeing

12:43

things objectively and then helping you to build strategy around just your

12:45

current environment . Because if we can't get you seeing

12:47

past and clearly through what

12:49

you're currently in , then

12:51

you're not going to be able to clearly

12:54

grow , and then you're going to make

12:56

what I call this infamous

12:59

quote that I always hear or

13:01

that I've heard not always , I actually haven't heard

13:03

it in a while , but when I heard it before

13:06

it just stuck with me . You

13:08

end up making permanent

13:10

decisions in a temporary situation

13:12

. Now , sometimes that's necessary

13:15

, but you need to be able

13:17

to , before you even make that permanent decision , figure

13:19

out , see your way out . Number

13:21

two a nurse career coach

13:24

can help you with skill development . We've

13:27

talked about this in , or

13:29

I've talked about this and mentioned this in several

13:31

episodes

13:33

, especially in pertaining to doing your self

13:36

assessment and developing self-awareness

13:38

. When you start to look

13:40

at your strengths and then your

13:42

opportunities or

13:45

sometimes we say , weaknesses . Here's

13:48

where a nurse career coach can look at

13:50

your opportunities , weaknesses and your

13:52

strengths and then say , well

13:55

, what would you like to do ? And

13:57

if your opportunities

14:00

don't match up with where

14:02

you are looking to go , possibly

14:04

, then they'll say they'll

14:06

pretty much help you out and say , well , you don't need

14:08

to work on that . If here

14:10

is where you're going Now , if

14:12

you want to go here , if

14:14

you want to go to this clinical role , then yeah , you

14:16

need to work on that . But if you're looking

14:19

to step away from the bedside and go to something

14:21

that's not a clinical role , then you don't

14:23

need to work on that . That

14:26

is that foresight that a

14:28

nurse career coach can have , and

14:31

so they will help you to identify

14:33

not only identify those skills for

14:35

growth , but they're also

14:38

helping you , helping

14:40

to pull out like your unique talents

14:42

and skills and helping

14:44

you to figure out how to leverage them for your

14:46

career growth . And then they

14:48

will help you to develop strategies

14:51

on how to grow

14:53

that skill . What's the best

14:55

way to grow that skill ? Do

14:58

you need to take a class ? Do you need to talk

15:00

to someone personally what

15:03

books do you need to read ? And

15:05

that strategy is to grow skills to

15:08

expand where you are or

15:10

to grow skills to be

15:12

able to make your next move . Lastly

15:16

, last thing , they

15:18

are there to help you to make a plan . If

15:21

you don't have

15:24

a nurse career coach that is strategic

15:26

and they're very cookie cutter in their method , then

15:29

that is not a nurse career

15:31

coach to me personally

15:33

. They should have a strategic

15:36

mindset to be able to see

15:38

things very globally

15:40

, even if they have no

15:42

clue of what goes on in your organization

15:44

that you currently work at or the organization

15:46

that you are going to . And

15:49

here's a few ways that they will

15:51

help you to make a plan . One

15:54

if you're transitioning to a new role

15:56

or specialty or

15:58

you're looking to take on a new role within your

16:00

organization , they can

16:02

help you to navigate that transition

16:05

process , prepare

16:07

for the interviews

16:09

of what you should expect and

16:12

then identify any gaps

16:14

in your skill

16:16

or knowledge that you need to address

16:19

with in

16:21

that transition . Or maybe you don't even

16:23

know . You know you want to step outside

16:26

of or do something totally different

16:28

. Then they'll help you

16:30

to identify certain job

16:32

postings that would be good

16:34

for you to prepare for , maybe

16:37

even career fairs , networking

16:40

opportunities , professional organizations

16:43

you might need to get connected to when

16:45

you are transitioning from maybe

16:48

one specialty to another , from

16:51

a role that's totally different

16:53

. Maybe you're going from specialized

16:55

to general , or from general to specialized

16:58

, or maybe you're going to

17:00

a totally different setting . You are in a clinical

17:02

role Now you want to go into risk management

17:05

, or you're in a clinical role and now you want to go into

17:07

quality , or you want to go

17:09

into safety , and

17:11

, yes , you can qualify

17:13

yourselves for those type of roles . Coming

17:16

from the bedside , coming from a

17:18

clinical space , you

17:20

can do it . Two under

17:22

make a plan is they will help you

17:24

in developing your leadership skills . So

17:27

, again , they're identifying areas

17:30

of improvement that

17:32

you will need in order

17:34

to be an effective leader . Remember

17:37

, leadership and management are not , they're

17:39

two different things . So

17:41

, career coaches they may or may not

17:43

help you with learning how to deal with

17:46

disciplinary actions

17:48

of such . That's

17:50

not my specialty . But I can

17:53

tell you when you need to go to HR and when you don't . I

17:56

can help you , as a career coach

17:58

, to develop as a leader

18:00

, because a leader

18:03

, according to John Maxwell , is

18:05

a person of influence . Leadership

18:08

is influence . That

18:11

is my special sauce of

18:14

helping you to develop

18:16

your influence in

18:18

situations , because

18:20

all of my leadership roles

18:22

have been leadership of

18:24

influence , not of management

18:27

, although there are some managers

18:29

who I've given advice to about

18:32

dealing with people so I

18:34

tend to be very versatile

18:36

. As a career coach , I've

18:39

just had a lot of opportunities to talk to

18:41

different people , to be in different situations

18:44

, to help people walk

18:46

through that process and

18:49

then , lastly , under , make a

18:51

plan . The nurse career

18:53

coach can help you to clarify your goals . So

18:56

if you kind of look at how

18:58

I walked through this , I

19:00

said first you need to reduce your overwhelm

19:02

I'm coming back to clarifying your career goals . You need to reduce

19:05

your overwhelm . I'm coming back to clarifying your career goals . You need to reduce

19:07

your overwhelm so that you can then

19:09

identify your skills

19:11

for development and

19:13

then from there you can make a plan

19:15

. But until you reduce your overwhelm

19:18

you're not going to be able to make a

19:20

solid plan and

19:23

identify your true career goals

19:25

. It's like Maslow's

19:27

hierarchy of needs that

19:30

stress and that overwhelm like that is

19:32

the baseline of your safety

19:34

net , as the bottom of

19:36

your psychological and physiological

19:39

needs that need to be met before

19:41

you can do anything else , and

19:44

so once you get to this point , they

19:46

can then help you to clarify your career goals

19:48

. So if you're one of those people who's like , yeah

19:51

, I don't really know what my career goals are at this

19:53

point , then you either may be at

19:55

the point of being stuck

19:58

and overwhelmed , or

20:00

you've gotten past that place . You

20:02

kind of see what skills and

20:05

opportunities that you have , but you

20:07

just are not aware of the opportunities

20:09

that are available for

20:11

you to advance , to

20:14

grow , and that is where

20:16

the career coach can help you to

20:18

see oh okay , you have these

20:20

skills and abilities , here's some options

20:22

for you and here's where you

20:24

might wanna go with your goals , according

20:27

to those things that you find that you have a

20:29

passion for . This

20:31

can be done in ways of them helping

20:34

you to identify long-term

20:36

goals and short-term goals , and

20:40

so this process is especially helpful for

20:42

nurses , who are feeling stuck and

20:44

unsure of their next steps . They

20:47

need to develop a job search strategy

20:49

, or either you're working

20:51

through to build confidence in your

20:53

abilities , and so that's

20:56

where a nurse career coach can help

20:58

you to clarify your

21:00

career goals . So

21:02

, walking back , through three

21:04

ways a nurse career

21:07

coach can help you . They

21:09

can help you with reducing overwhelm , developing

21:12

your skills and

21:14

making a plan for your career

21:16

. Overall , a career

21:18

coach can be a very valuable

21:20

resource for nurses who are looking

21:23

to advance their careers , overcome

21:25

obstacles or just simply gain

21:28

clarity on professional

21:30

goals . Like there is just peace

21:32

from at least having

21:35

clarity on what is

21:37

my next step . Otherwise

21:39

, you just have a stirring there and you

21:41

just don't know what to do with it . That's

21:43

where a nurse career coach comes in , and

21:46

so I want to invite you to

21:48

join me on a one-on-one

21:51

call where we can work through these things

21:53

. We can work through figuring out how to

21:55

reduce your overwhelm . We can work through your

21:57

skill development . We can work through

21:59

making a strategic plan

22:02

for your career . We

22:04

can work through your fears , your anxieties

22:07

you have about anything

22:09

, or if it's just one of those

22:11

things of I don't know what I need

22:13

help with , but I know I need help . Feel

22:16

free to join

22:19

a call with me and we can walk

22:21

through those next steps to

22:23

help you move forward and grow

22:25

your career . See you next time

22:27

. Thanks

22:31

for joining us this week on the Ambitious

22:33

Nurse Podcast To review

22:35

the show notes and any links mentioned

22:37

in today's episode . Please go

22:39

to theambitiousnursepodcastcom If

22:43

you enjoyed this conversation , follow

22:46

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22:48

. Also , please consider leaving

22:51

a rating , review and or comment

22:53

about what you want to hear . This

22:56

helps more nurses , just like you

22:58

find this podcast . Thank you

23:00

for joining me , bonnie Meadows , on

23:02

the Ambitious Nurse Podcast . I

23:04

look forward to chatting with you the next

23:06

time . And remember you don't

23:08

have to grow your career alone . As

23:10

iron sharpens iron , one

23:13

person sharpens another . Thank

23:15

you for letting me sharpen you as you

23:17

take this knowledge to sharpen the

23:19

next .