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Who You’ll Hear
Kati Kleber, MSN RN – Nurse educator, former cardiac med-surg/stepdown and neurocritical care nurse, author, speaker
Elizabeth Mills, BSN RN CCRN – Highly experienced neurocritical care nurse, current Stroke Navigator for a Primary Stroke Center
What You’ll Learn
- Being Prepared
- Communication
- Advocating for yourself
- Giving grace
“Putting the needs of yourself over the wants of others is self-care”
-Unknown
Be practically prepared
- Do laundry ahead of time
- Plan meals, or at least your meals and snacks for work
- Set out what you need to so that you’re not frantically searching for things right before leaving – starting a shift frazzled is too much stress
- Have a back-up set of scrubs at work
- Prioritize sleep + Eat well + Exercise
- Create a sleep-friendly environment (good sheets, supportive mattress, dark room)
- You must take extra time and care to get quality sleep before 12 hour shifts – go to bed when you need to, even if it’s early
- Don’t mistake exhaustion as something to be proud of – it’s not! “Ugh I only got 2 hours of sleep last night…”
- You can easily make a mistake if you are not well-rested – your mental clarity will be compromised if you are sleep-deprived. Seriously.
- Set yourself up for success for eating well
Communication
- Essential to communicate expectations to those with whom you share life
- Easy to get frustrated when someone fails to meet unsaid expectations
- Even really good communicators mess up and miscommunicate
- Share the work so you’re not in a constant state of being overwhelmed, meeting the wants of others before the needs of yourself
- Be quick to forgive and slow to anger
Advocate for yourself
- No one will do this for you – you must do this for yourself
- You may need to tell people no, which is challenging for people-pleasers
- As nurses, we live our lives to care for others so it can be challenging for us to advocate for ourselves sometimes
- You may get called for overtime or to come in and help on your day off, but know your limits and don’t be afraid to say no
- Think about sustainability
- Know when to say no, know when to say yes
Give yourself some grace
- Transitioning from nursing school to bedside nurse is challenging mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually
- You are learning a large amount of new information quickly, want to make a good impression, and your body is adjusting to shift work
- At the beginning, work will be more exhausting because you are unable to quickly do things independently
- You can’t chart, start an IV, hang meds, draw labs, bathe a patient, round with an MD, etc. all quickly like your experienced coworkers can
- Don’t compare yourself to them as you’re learning – they are experienced and can do many things fluidly. It’s frustrating when it takes forever to do simple things but it will get easier. You will get faster.
- Being disciplined early in your career will make it easier in the long run; you won’t have to break yourself of bad habits
- Have people around you who support you that you can go to when you need to process work situations
Resources
- The Simply Reason Nurses Should Put Themselves Before Their Patients by Nacole Riccaboni, BSN RN CCRN-CMC
- Should Young Doctors Be Allowed to Work 24-Hour Shifts? by Healthline
- Why Working Three Days a Week is Utterly Exhausting by Brie Gowen, RN (this is not to scare you, but to let you know how intense working 3 days/week and you truly need to take time for yourself)
- Self-Care Strategies for Nurses by Marsha Battee RN (aka the Bossy Nurse)
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