What Color Is Your Stethoscope?

- Career Advice For The Nursing Profession -

A Web ConferenceJune 5, 2008

This EXCERPT includes:Professional Development & Preventing Burnout

Your PresenterMary Lee Pollard

Presenter Bio –Mary Lee Pollard

• Currently Associate Dean of the Excelsior College School of Nursing; responsible for all aspects of the Associate degree program

• Clinical interests are in adult medical-surgical nursing and critical care

• Earned a Bachelors degree in Nursing from Syracuse University, and a PhD in Educational Theory and Practice from the University at Albany

Professional Development

Mary Lee Pollard, Presenter

Professional DevelopmentThe American Nurses Association Agenda

for the Future (2002) states:

Professional Development encompasses a lifelong learning process that requires nurses to become self-motivated and, as a result, promotes nursing competence

Lifelong Learning is Not an Option for the Professional Nurse• The practice of nursing is dynamic,

meaning that knowledge changes almost daily

• What is thought to be effective and supported by strong evidence today may not be true tomorrow

• Nurses need to maintain constant vigilance for professional development

Four Categories of Professional Development

• Continuing education requirements for board licensure

• To earn specialty certification and/or recertification

• Employer mandated professional development

• Self-directed, self motivated professional development

Why Invest in Professional Development?

• To achieve a higher degree of professional fulfillment

• To increase your opportunities for influence and control over your practice

• To maximize career autonomy

• To expand career opportunities

Knowledge Changes Everything

• Professional development is the ultimate personal continuous quality improvement program

• It is common among nurses for whom nursing is a career and not simply a job

Why Should I Return to School?

Higher education improves:

– The practice care environment

– Career fulfillment

– Career opportunities

– Patient outcomes

Why Should I Become Certified?• Certification acknowledges achievement

beyond licensure

• Certification is associated with improved patient outcomes

• Certified nurses report they have increased confidence, control, credibility and competence

Preventing Burnout

Mary Lee Pollard, Presenter

Reality Shock

• Is the phenomenon and the specific shock-like reactions of new workers when they find themselves in a work situation for which they have spent several years preparing, and for which they thought they were going to be prepared - and then suddenly find they are not (Kramer, 1974)

Role Stress• Is the consequence of disparity between

an individual’s perception of the characteristics of a specific role, and what is actually being achieved by the individual currently performing the specific role (Lambert and Lambert, 2001)

New RNs Typically Experience

• Reality shock in the initial few weeks in their new roles

• Role stress during the first 6 months of their new practice

New RNs Entry Into Practice is Typified by:

• Fear of failure• Fear of total responsibility• Fear of making mistakes• Concern about their technical skills• A sense of being unprepared• Disappointment in their ability to live up to

their ideals of nursing practice

Sources of Role Stress for New RNs

• Unrealistic expectations of clinical staff• Lack of support (or perceived lack of

support)• Fear of causing harm to patients• Changes in work shifts and schedules• Unfamiliarity with new work environment• Theory-practice gap mismatch• Caring for large groups of patients

Sources of Role Stress for New RNs

• Interactions with physicians• Lack of organizational skills• Receiving inadequate orientation• Experiencing interruptions• Having to rely on others• Administering medications• Striving to be the best

Prolonged Stress in RNs is Linked to:

• Heart disease, hypertension, sleep disorders and depression

• Decreased job satisfaction• Disrupted personal relationships• Reduced concentration and impaired

decision making• Higher absenteeism rates• Conflicts with co-workers

Prolonged Stress Will Result in Burnout

• A syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach and Jackson, 1986)

Signs and Symptoms of Burnout

• Loss of motivation, ideals and hope

• Depression

• Emotions are blunted

• Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness

• Increasing isolation

Signs and Symptoms of Burnout

• Irritability

• Easily frustrated

• Feeling trapped

• Cynicism

• Apathy

Burnout Behaviors at Work

• Everyday on the job is a bad one

• Caring about work seems like a total waste of energy

• The majority of your day is spent on tasks you find either mind-numbingly dull or unpleasant

Burnout Behaviors at Work

• Nothing you do appears to make a difference in a workplace full of bullying, clueless, or ungrateful supervisors, colleagues and clients

Preventing Burnout

• Seek advice from peers/colleagues

• Join a professional nursing association• Maintain or improve your nursing skills• Initiate change on your unit or in your

institution

• Set personal and professional goals, and evaluate progress regularly

Preventing Burnout

• Volunteer in the community• Treasure special moments with your

patients• Use your vacation time• Seek out a mentor• Participate in professional development

activities

Maintaining Work-Life Balance

• A survey of nurses showed that work-life balance was ranked as the number one source of job dissatisfaction (Green 2005)

• There is no absolute definition of work-life balance, it varies from person to person and changes over time

Achieving Work-Life Balance May Require Using New Skills

• Saying no

• Asking for help

• Delegating

• Learning new skills and/or hobbies

Work-Life Balance• Is a goal to be achieved, but it is also a

work in progress that is different for each of us at different times in our lives

• It is important that we identify what we need to be productive and happy, and that we take whatever steps we can to move us closer to achieving balance

Closing

Maribeth Gunner Pulliam, Presenter

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“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

- Howard Thurman

Thank You …and Best Wishes!