Doing Your Inner Work as a Nurse

Nurses spend a great deal of time providing care for others, and even in non-clinical roles they carry many psychoemotional weights on their shoulders. Nurses give physical care (including that which is immediately life-saving), compassionate connection, and spiritual succor, often in the form of motivational conversation and nurse-to-patient teaching.

What is a powerful way for us nurses to empower and elevate our understanding of human behavior, the human condition, and the nature of suffering? By assiduously doing our own inner work throughout a long lifetime of giving, loving, and feeling.

Jump Aboard the Nurse Wellness Express

Once upon a time, I was talking on the phone with a colleague who is not a nurse himself but who interacts with nurses on a regular basis in his professional life. His comments about nurses and their self-care (or lack thereof) were extremely thought-provoking.

Give A Nurse A Break

If you've been a nurse for a while, it's likely no surprise that many nurses fail to eat, drink, go to the bathroom, or otherwise take care of themselves while at work (especially in acute care settings). In fact, you may yourself be one of those nurses who's suffered a UTI or other negative sequela as a consequence of poor self care.

So, in light of the fact that we focus so much on patient satisfaction these days, what would it take to focus just a little bit on nurse and employee satisfaction? What would it take to (literally) give nurses a break?

What's Nurse Career Coaching, Anyway?

When I encounter nurses online, or at meetings and nursing conferences, they often want to know what career coaching for nurses is really about and if it can truly help them. I generally reply that, yes, career coaching can be a powerful resource for most nurses, and I describe what I actually do in my role as a coach.

Of Flu Season and Nurse Martyrs

Nurses are often notorious for being martyrs, caring for others when they really need to be caring for themselves. And when flu season strikes, many nurses may heed the call of duty rather than the call of their own bed.

Scrubs Blog Carnival: Thriving As A Nurse

I am thrilled to be hosting the Scrubs Magazine Blog Carnival for Nurses today, and it's an honor to provide the readers of Digital Doorway with a glimpse into the quality and depth of talent that exists among the nurse blogger community.

Today's theme is "thriving as a nurse", and I have no doubt the entries will inspire and move you in myriad ways. (Note to reader: the bold and italicized title of each blog will lead you to the specific entries for the carnival.)

Enjoy!

Nursing and Happiness Are Not Mutually Exclusive

Many recent clients who have come to me for coaching are curious how to actually get what they want. Sometimes it seems we nurses are simply convinced that we need to work too hard for too many hours without being happy. This seems like a given in the profession, and some nurses see no way to create satisfaction and balance in their personal and professional lives. So is it possible to be happy as a nurse?

Evolving As A Nurse: The Work of the Soul

The evolution of a nurse and his or her career is a very individual experience, and this experience expresses the spirit, nature and personality of the nurse in question. And when soul is infused into that journey, the entire tenor of the journey is deeply and irrevocably changed.

Nurses: Compassion For The Self

Nurses, when you consider the level of compassion with which you treat your patients, do you also consider the possibility that you can treat yourself with that same compassion? Do you feel that you deserve it?

Nurses: Surviving Versus Thriving

Many nurses talk about needing to survive. And what are they surviving? Their shifts? Their home life? Their financial responsibilities and constraints? Their marriages? What does it mean for a nurse to reject simply surviving in exchange for actually thriving?

The Obesity of Americans--and Nurses

It appears that the American Medical Association has decided to designate obesity as a disease. So, if one in three Americans is now classified as being obese, does that mean that one in three nurses is obese as well?