According to the ye’ol interwebs, it appears that 1 in every 3 nurses leave the field within the first 5 years. Why do you think that is? I believe it is mainly due to two factors. Unrealistic expectations and forgetting or not knowing your why.
It sounds so cheesy, but it really is that simple. What is your why? Maintaining your focus on why you are looking to get into this field or why you got into it in the first place could help you moving forward. Knowing what fills up your cup and what you excel at can also lead you into other areas of nursing ultimately shaping your career path organically.
Like most nurses, I got into the field because I love helping people. I spent my time giving my energy to others to help them anyway I could, it made me feel good. I got in trouble at school in the first grade because I would finish my work and then go desk to desk helping the other kids. I don’t have to tell any nurse that it isn’t always that easy. It is easy to get wrapped up in administrative nonsense, management issues, staffing issues, and toxic work environments. All those things are killjoys and can easily cloud your why. You just have to figure out your why and stay on course to keep that in the forefront of your mind.
Let me give you some examples:
I was that nurse dubbed “mean patient whisperer”. If a patient was cantankerous or difficult to manage, they were given to me. It was known that I had a “way” with them. Did I enjoy having difficult patients all day? No, it was exhausting! I did, however, have an ability to get through to them and meet them on their level so I felt an obligation to take them. My “way” with them allowed other nurses on the floor to have a better shift and that patient to have a better day.
I worked as an IV nurse and would get paged to start or replace IVs all over the hospital. I was good at it and enjoyed it. I loved the challenge of a patient telling me “no one gets my veins”. Challenge accepted! I have always stayed away from pediatrics. Not because I hate kids, I have 3, but because my heart just could not take it. I did not have what it takes to be a pediatric nurse and I have nothing but awestruck respect for those who can hack it. My body filled with dread when the ER would call for a pediatric IV. I stared at that pager thinking of ways to get out of it. I did not want to go. I contemplated quitting my job, that minute, just to avoid having to do it. But the same thought would come into my mind every time this happened. I was very good at IVs. Large patients, small patients, dehydrated patients, IV drug users, chemo patients….I was magical with an IV catheter. I can stop this child from being poked over and over. I can swallow hard, go do it, and move on with my day. I could be the reason that child no longer feared getting IVs. I could give peace to that parent feeling helpless as their baby is poked and prodded. And being that person made me feel good.
I had a patient who was a newly diagnosed diabetic. This patient would need to be on insulin when he went home and would need to learn how to inject himself. This patient hated the new diagnosis as well as needles. He would tell each nurse that he did not need to be taught how to inject himself because his daughter was a nurse and she would be managing his injections. He refused education and was clearly in denial about the whole situation. By the end of the week, I was able to get him to draw up his own insulin and inject himself. I think I was a nurse for less than a year at that point and I still remember it as one of my best moments.
Working in the ER you must move quickly. However, when a patient needs to be admitted, you can sometimes sit on that patient for hours waiting for a bed to become available up on the floor. When I got the admit orders for the patient, I would do the admit note that the receiving nurse would normally be expected to do. I already asked most of the questions and could very quickly get it done. This particular note needed to be done and signed within the first 30 minutes of being admitted which could be quite stressful when the receiving nurse is already drowning. Plus, the receiving nurse already had to do a receiving note AND a shift note (yes, 3 notes!) so me doing that admit note really helped them out. It took me maybe 10 minutes because again, I already asked most of these questions, so it was a matter of putting the information that I already had into the note template required. Doing this also helped the patient because the receiving nurse could focus on getting them settled into their room and not stress about all the documentation they had to do right away. Doing this helped the receiving nurse and the patient but it also made me feel good to be able to help them out.
These situations did not come up every shift, but I found opportunities to connect with my patients on a deeper level as often as possible. I found that I really loved the educational aspect of nursing more than anything else. I felt like education empowered the patients more and ultimately made them feel less like things were being done to them and more like things are being done for them.
Helping my peers made the whole shift flow better and it me feel good. Remember, I got into this to help people and that included my peers. I have worked with some toxic nurses so I get why this may be difficult, but I challenge you to try rising above and extending help where you can and see if things don’t improve. I did not create some magical wonderland where we were all best friends and skipping around each shift, but I can say that my efforts were noticed and felt. I made a small difference in the flow of the shift for my peers and it made my day that much better as well.
I knew that these encounters with my patients and peers really made me feel good about being a nurse, so this was my why. When I had a crappy shift and boy have I had some doozies, I would remember my why. I started this blog because of my why. If I can inspire or educate anyone to love their profession or find their passion for nursing again then I have done what I set out to do. So, what is your why? What things do you excel at that you could use to help others? Keeping your why at the forefront of your mind may help navigate you through some pretty rough territory. It may also illuminate opportunities for you to make your days, and the days of your peers and patients, a little brighter.