Every nurse can innovate. Assess your own strengths and weak- nesses, and then choose to participate in the opportunities that spark your interest.
People gravitate toward certain areas, melding their experiences with their own interests. Be open to new experiences. Be willing to accept opportunities by turning weaknesses into strengths.
In 1995, health care problems resulted in my own reconsideration of nursing as a career. But I reframed the problem into an opportu- nity. I thought, "Health care problems could be an opportunity for nurses who were willing to work toward positive change." I knew that in order to be successful, I would need better skills of influence.
If you feel limited regarding skills of influence, master them. These are learnable skills. I learned public speaking by joining Toastmas- ters. You can too. I learned to write for publication by joining a local writers group. You can do the same. Use the nursing shortage as motivation to learn new skills, and to change your work environment.
Health care problems are an opportunity for nurses who are willing to work toward positive change.
Ask yourself what issues are most important.
Do you want to focus on building a more respectful workplace?
Do you want to lobby for more autonomy?
Do you want to participate in marketing?
Identify the skills that you will need to learn. Make a plan, take action, and then go ahead and learn them.
No time? I learned these skills while I was working 44 hours a week as a nurse, taking call 1 day a week, driving two teenage children to all of their activities, and going to graduate school one night a week for 5 years.
I devised the "hour-a-day plan," spending 1 hour a day on my project 6 days a week. I did my homework when my daughters were doing theirs. Try it. You will be amazed at what you will be able to accomplish.
If you are willing to accept these opportunities, you might need to examine the way that you learn. Knowing their own learning style helps people to become more successful students.
Focus on the following actions to maximize your personal and professional growth:
• Nurture your natural curiosity.
Become a lifelong learner.
Be persistent.
Nurture Your Natural Curiosity
We all were naturally curious as children. As we mature, we tend to lose this childlike curiosity to different degrees. Nurturing your natural curiosity reconnects you with your creativity and provides you with new opportunities. Your patient safety record will probably improve when you exercise your natural curiosity because it prompts you to follow up on your hunches. Have you ever noticed something odd about a patient? Has natural curiosity led you to
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check out those symptoms? Haven't you averted medical errors when your curiosity compelled you to check things out?
Using your natural curiosity also keeps you young at heart. A curious mind rejuvenates people, keeps them young, and promotes healthy living.
One way to start restoring your professional curiosity is by brain- storming, which can be done individually as well as in groups. How?
Choose a topic that interests you.
Choose a day when you have a few hours of free time.
Find a quiet spot.
Clear your mind, and open it to new ideas.
Write down all of your ideas without judging them—you can weed out the impractical ones later.
Suppose that you witness an incident of disrespect and want to take action. Start brainstorming and see how many action ideas you can generate. I came up with the following 13 ideas in just 3 minutes.
You could probably generate many more ideas if you take more time. Write down every idea first.
Sample actions to respond to disrespectful behavior:
1. Build staff self-esteem.
2. Use humor.
3. Be assertive.
4. Talk with the offender privately.
5. Talk with the nurse manger.
6. Talk with senior management.
7. Ask senior management to come to the unit and witness the offensive behavior.
8. Write an article about respect in your newsletter.
9. Recommend that the education department offer classes on anger management.
10. Work with other departments, and take group action.
11. Address this issue at your professional association.
12. Collaborate with physicians.
13. File a complaint with the offender's licensure board.
Now, give brainstorming a try by yourself. Clear your mind, then take 5 or 10 minutes to brainstorm about one of the following topics, or choose another topic:
Increasing nurse productivity
Working with management as partners Using nurses as risk managers
Recognizing nurses as marketers
Take out a sheet of paper and number it 1 to 25. Write your topic on the top and start brainstorming, writing all of your ideas down.
Afterwards, prioritize your ideas by numbering them one through 25 according to how much they interest you. Then review the top five and consider how much each topic is needed by your organization or the health care industry. Then choose one or two ideas to pursue further and to take action.
Become a Lifelong Learner
Nurses need to keep learning throughout their lives. Articles in every industry worldwide recommend that employees be lifelong learners.
It is the best way to manage change and to remain employable.
Nurses who have failed to expand their skills have contributed to the nursing crisis. Health care is a rapidly changing industry. Nurses need to keep up clinically, but they also need to become just as proficient with skills of influence such as communication, negotiation, and persuasion.
Be willing to step outside your comfort zone. Too often, people feel reluctant to try new skills because they enjoy a feeling of security within familiar environments. So they wait to change until they have to. They consider their comfort zones as secure sanctuaries and limit their chances for success. Learning new skills provides intellectual stimulation. People need intellectual stimulation to thrive not just survive. As a result, lifelong learners tend to be among the happy people because they continue their journey of personal and profes- sional growth throughout their lives.
Be Persistent
When you learn a new skill, it is easy to get discouraged. Everyone experiences doubts when others exceed their skill level. It is all right to take "baby steps." The secrets to succeeding with learning new information are to be persistent, use positive self-talk, and reward yourself every now and then.
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The process of learning something new can be slow in the begin- ning until you reach a critical mass. (You must put forth a large effort for a small reward; after you reach the critical mass, you will achieve larger rewards with smaller efforts.) Eventually, you will have learned enough to start feeling competent. You will need more practice to achieve excellence, but you are on your way at that point.
Use positive self-talk along the way such as, "Of course I still make some mistakes, I am a beginner at this." "No one was born with this skill. Everyone was a beginner at one time just like me." "Eventually, I will be an expert in this skill."
Give yourself a reward after you have succeeded with one of your baby steps. Take an afternoon off, get a manicure, and plan lunch with a friend. Rewards help you to enjoy the process and celebrate each level of your success.
Remember, opportunity knocks, and it is knocking loudly on nurs- ing's door. But nothing will happen until you take action. You must open the door to opportunity if you would like to enjoy this kind of success.
TURNING PROBLEMS INT O OPPORTUNITIE S Tips for Clinical Nurses
Be creative
Rethink common practices
Look for an easy way without sacrificing safety or quality Read widely
Question the status quo
(continued)
Tips for Manager s
Use group brainstorming
Maintain strong connections with senior management and communicate nursing input
Increase the return on your human resource investment Support staff problem-solving
Encourage group projects to take advantage of synergy
Teach analysis and synthesis of issues Look for input from other industries Value multiple solutions to problems Focus on future needs
Prioritize health care challenges Tips for Educators
Part IV
Looking to the Future
CHAPTER 15
Benefits t o Groups Outsid e Nursing : How CEOs, Physicians, Trustees, and Managed Care Professionals Can Help
Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
—Stephen R. Covey
WHY NON-NURSE S SHOULD B E INTERESTED IN SMART NURSING
Health care needs many perspectives to solve the nursing crisis.
Consumers, physicians, CEOs, and trustees are more effective if they have a good understanding of nursing issues. This understanding promotes better management and more effective interactions with nurses.
The stakes are high: Health care costs are increasing, and the medical error rate has escalated. Many nurses have left health care, and physicians are also being squeezed by the system. CEOs and trustees have the frustrating task of retaining their nursing staffs while at the same time trying to balance their budgets. These prob- lems are especially difficult in health care's current environment of financial cutbacks.
Health care companies administer Medicare and Medicaid pro- grams with mixed reviews. More government involvement in man-
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aged health care is a strong possibility. Whether this trend continues depends on how well facilities resolve their present challenges. With- out better outcomes, Americans may prefer to have a single, non- profit agency administer health care. Private managed-care organizations may find reduced demand for their services and may have to fight for survival.
Consider some of Smart Nursing's benefits to various non-nurse groups: