https://www.infirmiere-canadienne.com/blogs/ic-contenu/2024/10/15/quatre-strategies-essentielles-pour-les-infirmiere
How you can thrive and grow despite uncertainty and challenges
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To a novice nurse, it may seem daunting to take that first step into building a career. Although there is a lot of uncertainty, there are also plenty of opportunities.
In my first decade of nursing practice, I had the privilege of working in a wide range of practice settings, including ambulatory family practice, long-term care and management. Today, I work in acute and palliative care and am a student once more. Although I cannot claim expertise in each of these fields, I can say I have a lot of experience moving from one role to another.
Courtesy of Carlo Mikhail L. Magno
“The idea of trying different practice settings and roles remains tempting. As it should! Nurses have a large scope of practice and there are a wide range of roles to consider. Go forth — grow and diversify,” Carlo Mikhail L. Magno says.
To a novice nurse, it may seem daunting to take that first step into building a career. In our post-pandemic world, nursing continues to face challenges with retention, staffing ratios, and other issues (Baumann & Crea-Arsenio, 2023; Silas, n.d.). Although there is a lot of uncertainty, there are also plenty of opportunities.
Finding the perfect role as a nurse may not come easy. It is overwhelming even, especially for new graduates. As a nurse, you have a wide array of options: from clinics to hospitals, from long term-care facilities to public health, and from urban to rural community practice settings. There are also non-bedside roles and remote jobs for nurses, such as research, informatics and education. Nursing specialties or patient population groups also come into play.
Recently, a group of students starting their nursing career reached out to me as part of their coursework and asked what advice I could give to ensure that they succeed. This question led me to think about the early days of my own career. I remembered my experience with other novice nurses during the peak of the COVID pandemic, who were overwhelmed by their new job. Once during this time, I helped train newly hired nurses who did not show up after their first day, an unfortunate example of how important it is to get things right. Even with the pandemic behind us, nursing students are worried. When I went back to school recently for an RN bridging program, I met several classmates who are anxious about where they want to work and whether they would easily fit in.
Here is some advice for all the nursing students and new graduates who are worried and afraid.
Find a mentor
If you’re a novice nurse who is struggling, my advice is to find a mentor to help you brave the water a little bit longer. Everyone starts as a novice nurse. No matter what specialty or rank they have now, they all started somewhere. If a task scares you now, avoiding it will only postpone the inevitable. What happens when you encounter a similar problem in the future? Any new job you take on will be uncomfortable at first, but the reality is that all nursing roles will likely be daunting initially.
Finding a mentor, or a senior nurse who is willing to help you, is one of the best ways to absorb as much knowledge in your current role as you can. Ask them good questions about how to manage time and prioritize tasks. Observe how they equip themselves to function even under stress. If a procedure is unfamiliar to you, watch how they perform it and then have them stay with you for your first try. Take the initiative and be willing to learn.
Learn skills and build experience
Thankfully, with nursing, a lot of skills and knowledge are transferrable from one practice area to another. The nursing process is a beautiful thing because it’s how we ensure that our actions, regardless of our practice settings, are based on sound scientific reasoning. For example, the therapeutic communication skills you hone in one role will be applicable regardless of the practice setting you find yourself in. As another example, assessment will always remain an important skill, and honing it will be a great way for you to grow professionally. Even if you move away from the bedside, you will still need to gather data properly before you can plan and implement actions.
Experience builds up your character and portfolio as a professional. Enduring a few months in your current role may be a good thing before you move on to your preferred position. Having experience under your belt lets you market yourself better so you can pivot to your desired new position. Nursing is a continuously growing field, and there is always something new for you to learn. There is always something you can improve.
Gain new perspectives
Your experience from one role — even one you don’t enjoy — may offer a new perspective to your next position. There are many examples of this. Learning techniques to deal with an upset and confused older patient has some similarities with dealing with a younger adult with delirium. Having to inject vaccinations in an uncooperative child can help you handle the stress of injecting a flailing adult. Working in a community care setting can teach you about the social determinants of health and help you understand why people repeatedly get admitted to hospital for the same problem.
Having diverse experience will broaden your knowledge base and make you a better teacher when dealing with patients. You’ll have a better understanding of what happens along the health-care continuum, making you more confident when, for example, telling a patient to seek advice from their family doctor versus going to the emergency department, or teaching patients how to seek community health advice and resources after hospital discharge.
Don’t burn your bridges
Maintaining positive relationships and leaving employers on good terms can help you land better roles. An exceptional and detailed referral on how you performed in your previous role can be what seals the deal for your new application. Creating a trail of established professionals who know your character and work ethic backs up your resumé. If you end a job abruptly, you lose the chance of somebody confirming what you are capable of. Additionally, potential employers might consider your quick resignation as a point against your adaptability and flexibility.
Thrive, don’t just survive
The idea of trying different practice settings and roles remains tempting. As it should! Nurses have a large scope of practice and there are a wide range of roles to consider. Go forth — grow and diversify. Additionally, if a job is taking a toll on your health, then find another job.
Take care of yourself so that you can take care of others. Just be mindful that a little bit of patience and strategy can help you and your career in the long run. Finding the perfect job and the perfect environment to thrive in may take some time, but there are ways you can survive until then.
References
Baumann, A., & Crea-Arsenio, M. (2023). The crisis in the nursing labour market: Canadian policy perspectives. Healthcare, 11(13), 1954. doi:10.3390/healthcare11131954
Silas, L. (2022, January). Canada's nursing shortage at a glance: A media reference guide. Retrieved from https://nursesunions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/nurses_shortage_media_ref_guide_comp.pdf
Carlo Mikhail L. Magno, RN, works in the family medicine/palliative unit of the Moncton Hospital. He is a member of Horizon Health Network’s regional clinical order set review and approval committee in New Brunswick.
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