Talk about death, be kind and trust your instincts: tips for new nurses

Don’t be afraid to question senior doctors

Never be scared to question a doctor, however senior they may be. We are our patients’ advocates and can protect them from potential mistakes. A good doctor will respect you for this. If you feel something isn’t right but are not confident enough to challenge a situation yourself, go to someone you know, trust and respect – watch how they deal with it and learn.
Emma McLellan, staff nurse in the ICU, Manchester

Learn to trust your gut instinct

I believe good nurses are really tuned into their gut instinct and new nurses should learn to trust it. A nurse’s gut instinct is their deeply grounded knowledge base developed in practice, their critical awareness and what they have learned from previous situations plus an overall sense of knowing the patient well. You’ll just know something doesn’t add up, or you may convinced there’s something more going on, so make sure you go that extra mile to cover all bases. Maybe, for example, all of a patient’s baseline observations are normal, but you just sense that there is still that underlying thing you can’t put your finger on – monitor them really closely because you’ll often be right.

Death is a part of nursing – talk about it with patients

Death is a regular part of nursing. Patients need someone to talk frankly about death. We plan births for nine months, but talking about death always seems awkward and hard. One of the best things you can do for a patient who is nearing the end of their life is to give them opportunities to talk about their death and how they would like it to be. Being able to give advice and support to help them get their affairs in order can relieve a lot of their pain and worry. It is possible to have a good death but the conversations have to be had.

When death is unexpected this is very hard to deal with. I worked in an accident and emergency department for 10 years and learned that life and death is unpredictable. I have seen many patients and nurses struggle with the last words that they said to that person, so I try to adopt the approach of being kind. Really think about what you say during emergency situations – it is likely that patient can hear you right to the end – even if the rest of their body is not responding. Use their name, talk calmly to them, explain everything you do as you are doing it. Speak to them as if they are awake.
Christine Bushnell, advanced nurse practitioner, nurse partner in a GP surgery and trainer, Harrow

Read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2017/mar/15/trust-your-instinct-talk-death-tips-new-nurses

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MULTI-PASSIONATE. WHEN YOU REFUSE TO CHOOSE JUST ONE.

Multi-passionate. It’s a gift and a curse at the same time. I know because I’m multi-passionate and most of my life I didn’t understand the benefit of it. As a child, I didn’t have an answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I had 10. As I grew and experienced more that answers grew too.

To the outside non-multi-passionate world it can look like non-committal, to a girl who didn’t get being multi-passionate it equated to fleeting happiness. Here’s why. I’d get into something, throw myself into it then I’d feel the pull to focus on another passion, throw myself into to it. You get the gist.

To someone who’s multi-passionate it feels like a constant pull in different directions. The pull to do, be, have and experience many things. This pull is innate its part of who we are. There’s no changing it or denying it and the pressure to change leads to unhappiness.

In society, there’s a spoken and sometimes unspoken (depending on who you’re with) rule that says “commit and stick it out, no matter what”. Great, if you’re a single passion kind of person, but it doesn’t work for us multi-passionate people. The only way around it is finding a way to weave multiple passions into what we do and find space for the rest.

So how do we weave multiple passions into what we do? Here’s how I did it and what I discovered along the way.

1. I stopped trying to pick one. I stopped trying to find my “1” special gift I could give the world. I accepted I have various passions and I just need one vehicle to deliver them in.
2. I got crystal clear on my strengths. I took the StrengthsFinder® test. I realized that one of my strengths was the starting of things, jumping in. I learn by doing. This helped me understand my passions better. I love the beginning of building businesses. I’m not a procrastinator. Hence, to others it may appear like I’m jumping around but I do the things others only think about. I learn that it’s not for me by doing it.
3. I accept that there’s a bigger calling for my life and that my passions were going to serve as the drive, excitement, and motivation to deliver that calling to the world.
4. I listed my passions and got clear on my purpose. I made a list of all the things I’m interested in and all the things the world needs. I narrowed down and married the two.

Read the full article here: http://www.thechangeblog.com/multi-passionate/