Our purpose isn’t just to do the work, it’s to love the work.
Anyone can work, anyone can do tasks and check off boxes of a day to day routine.
But this isn’t why we went into nursing, to check boxes and finish tasks.
We went into nursing to care for patients, that’s the bottom line.
And yes, we learn to do this by learning tasks but we all know it is so much more than that, that’s just what gets us in the door.
We learn the skills and grow the skills with experience. We look for the nuances in an assessment, we put together the pieces of the puzzle with diagnostic tools, reassessment, and connection with the patient. And then we help the patient to gain self-efficacy.
Sit with that for a minute.
What we do changes peoples’ lives.
And by changing their lives we change our own, it’s inevitable.
Even if you don’t work in direct patient care, this still holds true. If you work in management, your charges are the precious nurses who are caring for the patients. If you are in education, you are still impacting the lives and abilities of nurses and patients.
The ripple effect continues.
So why is this important to remember?
As you read this you may have difficulty connecting back to this version of yourself. You may intellectually know this all to be true but your lived experience feels more overwhelmed, overextended and exhausted than uplifting and fulfilling.
You can’t seem to find the rainbows and daisies.
Let’s see if we can get you feeling better despite the demands of the work we do.
First, nothing has gone wrong if you feel overwhelmed and overextended. This is 100% normal (if you don’t believe me, talk to your coworkers.) You are not broken. It doesn’t mean that you have to step away from this role that you have dedicated yourself to. Feeling like this is the normal progression of continually doing the hard work of helping others. It’s normal because the primitive part of our brains is constantly searching for danger, for things that can go wrong. Add this to actually doing this for our patients or staff as well and it can seem very scary and overwhelming.
But we don’t have to stay there. Let’s keep going.
So first, recognize it as normal. Don’t make it mean anything negative about you (or about the work if- if you can manage that).
Then, remind yourself why you are a nurse, why you chose this line of work: to make a difference, to help other people, to decrease suffering in the world, to support health and vitality… to bring hope and support to those in need.
Now here is the key: look for the ways you did this today. You may have saved someone’s life or you may have been the one person who actually listened to what they had to say. Both are equally important. You may have prevented some catastrophic outcome or you may have patiently educated someone for the 3rd time about how and why their medications work.
How did you connect with someone who needed you today? I know for a fact that you didn’t get through your day without doing this multiple times.
This isn’t just important to remember so you can feel less stressed, it is important to remember because actively loving the work you do is what will allow you to keep doing it. Loving your job is like being in a committed relationship, it takes hard work, intentionally looking for ways to improve things, forgiveness and love. It takes overlooking shortcomings.
Keep dedicating the time and the energy, give yourself credit for the difference you make. It is all worth it.
Loving your job is possible AND if feels so much better than overwhelm.
Are you too fatigued to even try these types of strategies? I understand because I have been there too. You don’t have to do it alone and you don’t even need to figure out how to do it. Reach out to book a call. Even if we aren’t a good fit to work together, the hour won’t be wasted. In that time I can help you get clarity on why what was once easy for you to do is now sucking the life out of you, and what steps specifically can be taken to reverse that trajectory. You can love the work you’re doing. Click here to schedule a time today.
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