Hello Queen,
My name is Kate, I am a Nurse, Mom, Wife, and Entrepreneur.
I have been a nurse since 2015. My experience ranges anywhere from ICU to IR.
I understand where you’re coming from, and I’ve been there before. I was that burned-out, overworked, stressed-out, overstimulated woman who knew she wanted something different. But what the hell do ya do?
At first, I thought the answer was to go back to school. And I did.
However, after almost completing my DFNP, I realized I needed to do some inner work. After pouring myself into everything self-development, I finally figured it out.
This podcast and site are the fruits of all my labors. I must share what I have found with other women who are feeling the same way I was.
My promise is to always inspire and motivate you to reach for more. Listen to “you” and what “you” is saying.
You did not waste your time. You are right where you should be. Right now is perfect.
What The Heck Does Fulfillment Mean To You?
In this episode, we are going to explore the feeling of fulfillment.
In the last episode we touched on creating habits and how I managed to build up my morning routine, I suggest you head over to Inspirern.com and check out this and many other episodes. Just click on the Show Notes tab at the top.
Alright, let’s talk about the idea of fulfillment. As a nurse, I often hurd me and others say that they didn’t feel fulfilled. Now I’ll tell you that fulfillment for me was a lot of feeling around being appreciated for what I was actually doing, which was saving you or your loved ones’ lives. I wanted to feel useful, I wanted to feel like I was making a difference and I wanted to know 100% that my blood sweat, and tears were not wasted in nursing school. Basically, I wanted to feel like I mattered and to me, that is what made me feel fulfilled in the nursing field.
So, when I was burned out and stressed out I would often say nursing was not for me because ultimately it wasn’t making me feel fulfilled.
But fulfillment actually means, the achievement of something desired, promised, or predicted.
So we can break this down in so many ways but if you feeling unfulfilled what are the desires, promises, or predictions you want?
Essentially this is going around to the first episode of the Inspire RN podcast where we explored what your dream life looks like and how to start building that picture.
So in today’s episode, I have gathered a few tips to help us achieve fulfillment.
Let me tell you, when I started researching this topic, I was very overwhelmed with the amount of suggestions on Google. But as I continued to read on, a whole lot of them really made sense.
So let me prepare you, all of these tips can work both in and out of the hospital setting. You can carry these tips with you along your entrepreneurial journey and I suggest you really take some time to sift through these.
So, without further ado, here we go
TIPS To Fulfillment
Tip 1:
Practice gratitude. Being thankful for what is in your life now, opens the world. It allows you to see the positive side and be able to appreciate what you have. In the hospital, we really do have to deal with a lot of difficult situations. If you have a difficult patient’s family member at the bedside you may feel very overwhelmed and think how the heck am I grateful for this situation, but you must look for a positive piece. I am grateful that I have my coworker here to support me and have my back, I am so thankful for my coworkers.
The hospital is almost like a black hole we need to make sure that we are using our tools so it does not drag us down. Finding things to be grateful for is a great first step.
Tip 2:
Find challenges to conquer
I always feel very fulfilled and like I am in my rightful place when I can conquer a challenging situation or skill. For example, I have always wanted to learn how to place ultrasound-guided IVs. In our hospital system, you would need to call the RRT staff to place your lines. I always felt like If I learned I would be able to be so much more useful. Well, I was finally given the opportunity and I have honestly excelled at it. It makes me feel so good when I am able to help a patient who has been poked so many times, the gratefulness they show to me really fills me with pride.
So next time you’re at work, maybe you have been wanting to master CRRT or the new IV kits. Practice. Absorb and learn.
When you are able to grow and master new skill sets you are able to see your value easier.
Tip 3:
Connect with others and be present.
We don’t get to do this very often when we are short-staffed, or when we have a heavy patient load. it’s really hard to connect with our patients under these circumstances and unfortunately, they are not that rare. If you get a window, take that time to be present, be with them, and connect. I know this will only happen about 10% of the time but if we try to make this happen and connect with our patients when we can, we will see our satisfaction in our career choice grow.
You know it’s true, we have all had those moments with that one patient that just confirmed why we become a nurse. Remember those memories and let’s try to duplicate them more often.
Tip 4:
Always be looking for happiness.
Joy is everywhere. Like I said above the hospital has a lot of sadness and negative feelings surrounding it. But there is joy there and just like finding gratitude we need to be on the lookout for joy as well.
Tip 5:
Accept what you cannot change.
This has been really hard for me at times. We all have that love for some aspect of nursing, but there are things we cannot change.
When I am confronted with something that I feel very strongly about and I cannot change I often feel very intense emotions. I will feel so angry and frustrated and it just becomes this ball of negativity.
We cannot change the system. We cannot change our patient’s lives, we cannot make everything rainbows and sunshine. But we can change how we take it on. We can use our tools to look for positives, look for things to be grateful for, and try to improve ourselves or the unit in a way that is possible.
Remember nurses we have a lot of power. If there is something you feel so strongly about, Use your nursing skills, your knowledge your motivation and make a change.
Let me say one more thing on this topic. I know I talk a lot about leaving the bedside and my entrepreneurial journey here, but I do love being a nurse, I love helping others and I love those rare moments where I know my knowledge and skill set that I have worked my ass for has changed someone’s life. That brings me joy and fulfillment. I also know that I have always had something inside of me saying I am meant to build something. So, I am here to remind you that if you also have that little fire burning it is unfair to yourself to put it out. You must listen to yourself and remember that we are all different and we all have unique skills to bring to the table.
Now go out there and look for that sunshine the next time you’re at work, LOL is that too hippy for you? Take these tips along with you and remember one day at a time.
In the next episode, I am going to be going into my journey in depth and explaining how the heck I got here. Make sure you follow the podcast and head on over to inspirern.com to check out show notes and as always subscribe to the tribe. Love you all and see you next week.
Finally, Remember that you are doing something different so you can have something different.
Tips were found at Inc.Com
