Category: Guest Column

Patient “Likes” and Mental Health of the Nurse

Should it matter if your patient likes you or not? Everyone talks about mental health and how social media can be damaging to it but we forget about the nurses and care-givers who provide care.

How the ever increasing patient likes and feedback can also be damaging to nurses as well.As long as you provide excellent care to your patients, should it matter if they like you or not?

“My patient likes me…” said Nurse Angela

“My patient remembered my name…I am so happy!” Nurse Agnes mentioned to another nurse.

I feel this should not matter as it creates an unconscious competitiveness between nurses vying for the likes and attention of their patients. You could almost compare it to Facebook or Instagram likes where the number of likes (in case this patients) help build or destroy the confidence of that nurse.

What about nurses that may not be as outgoing as their more extroverted colleagues, do they get to hide in the shadows? It is for a reason that the popular social media sits like Instagram and Facebook are taking the “likes” away. It does have a way of affecting mental health.

In my opinion, I feel that patient likes should not reflect on the abilities of a nurse. We all know that people can be fickle and a patient’s like or dislike may depend on their current mood and what happens at that moment.

 

Continue Reading

Working with Millennials

Working with Millennials

In 2016, millennials composed a third of the workforce in the US, making it the largest generation in the labor force today. With ages ranging from 21 to 36 in 2017, millennials are starting to take on leadership roles, as well.

So much has been said about this generation, especially by the ones that came before it, in terms of work ethics, values, and belief system. Millennials grew up at a time of 24-hour news, exposing them to events from all over the world, and as they entered the new millennium, they witnessed the 9/11 tragedy; and then later on, were taken to the information age and technological revolutions. All these contribute to this generation’s different worldview and multifaceted set of beliefs.

Indeed, it can pose a great a challenge for organizations, which are still predominantly led by baby boomers, to manage such a complex group of individuals. In dealing with millennial workers, one must understand this generation and how they are different or even similar to the others.Millennials

Mentorship

Millennials appreciate regular feedback, and this comes from their need for constant growth and learning. They feel more valued when they get feedback from their superior – whether positive or negative. Since they grew up with high expectations from older generations, millennials also want praise and encouragement for them to have a sense of progress and importance; but above all, millennials prefer managers who are transparent and dependable and whose practices are fair and ethical.

Working with Teams

While millennials have a good sense of their individuality, they work well in groups. Evidence has shown that millennials believe that business decisions are better made when there is a variety of input provided by individuals. However, the study also showed that this belief is not at all unique in millennials as Gen X employees equally believe the same.

Work-Life Balance

Millennials value work-life balance for they know that it is beneficial to their mental health. Across all generations, mental health must be top priority in the workplace. A surveysuggests that millennials felt more stressed and under pressure than their baby boomer counterparts, and this is due to factors such as low pay rates and high entry-level workloads.

Being Challenged and Embracing Change

Being the most educated generation to date, millennials are always up for challenges and are ready to take on changes within the organization, provided that they are shown transparency and inclusion in the decision-making.

Integrity and Ethics of the Business

survey conducted on millennials showed that they put much value on how businesses put their employees first, as well as their solid foundation of trust and integrity. Employee satisfaction and fair treatment ranked number one among values that millennials look for in a business, while ethics, trust, integrity, and honesty came in close second. The Department of Labor implements more than 180 labor laws, covering various workplace activities for millions of employers and workers. These labor laws cover employees’ wages and hours, compensation and benefitsworkplace safety, among others. Millennials are particular with the ethical and legal practices of organizations they associate with, so they put prime consideration on this aspect.

Social Responsibility

In valuing an organization, millennials look for authenticity and meaning. They go for companies that hold the same values as they do, and rally around the causes they feel strongly for. A study found that millennials look for reputation-related attributes in businesses when looking for jobs. These attributes include caring about employees, environmental sustainability, community relations, and ethical products and services.

As millennials continue to saturate the workforce, as well as the consumer market, businesses must be more adept in the millennial belief system and workplace behavior. Any organization can benefit from knowing their employees well and creating an environment that best suits their employees’ strengths and potentials. Good employees make good leaders, and millennials will soon take the majority of the business leadership seats. It is then optimal to master the art of dealing with the millennial worker.

 

Read More at HoganInjury.com

Continue Reading

Mental Health: Nursing & quitting vs Physician suicides

Suicide and nursing are very rarely said in the same sentence. Burned out doctors choose suicide as a way out; burned out nurses just quit!

You see, nurses see quitting differently- they see quitting as a way of regaining sense of self; physicians more often times see quitting as failure. It is not! This mindset needs to be changed.

Mental Health

Quitting is NOT always failure though society has programmed us to see it that way. Rather quitting should be seen as an individual mentally recognizing that a situation is beyond their mental, physical or emotional capabilities to cope and hence they CHOOSE to quit.

When nurses get burned out, they think of a way out- whether trying another specialty or aspect of nursing or just leaving nursing profession completely. They do not automatically think suicide.

Continue Reading

When it is ever okay to discuss pay?

When is it ever okay to discuss pay? The norm has always been to be quiet on pay and not discuss it. Human resource (HR) frowns terribly upon discussing pay among colleagues , but is it really all bad?

Here are pros and cons of discussing pay

  1. Knowledge is Power– The more information you have, the better able you are to negotiate. If you don’t know then you cannot ask for what you rightly deserve
  2. Motivating Factor– For most people, having information is one way to jump start them on what they need to do, which is one of two options- either remain where they are or go somewhere else to get better payDiscussing pay
  3. It eliminates Discrimination/Unfair Practices– if everyone knows everyone’s pay, it makes it harder to discriminate and pay different rates to different people for the same skills/experiences or jobs.

The cons

  1. Jealousy/Competition– Not everyone has the same level or years of experience which are often times factored into the pay scale. So discussing pay can bring up these emotions which may make the work place a bit tedious.
  2. Less Productivity: if workers are focused on what others make, it may lead to jealousy above causing loss in productivity as the workers may feel slighted and less inclined to perform

It is beneficial discussing pay when you are from different geographical areas or work places. It is very helpful to people who have plans of moving or simply want to make a comparison going forward.

As a parting word, at all times, make sure that what you earn is what you deserve (or more) for the skills/experiences that you provide.

Continue Reading

Long Term Care Nursing- A Culture of Toxicity

With the new nurse graduates, I decided to share this as a way of forewarning them of what to be aware of. I got the same advice when I graduated but sadly did not listen. Please don’t be me, learn from me!

Long Term Care (LTC) is NOT for the faint of heart. To thrive in  Long Term care, you have to be prepared to eat or be eaten- it is a toxic enviroment. My journey into LTC started as a new nursing graduate. Prior to that, I had heard of many horror stories but I chose to ignore this believing that I could overcome. Of course,  I had all the energy of a new graduate nurse with all the dreams as well. I was wrong; the stories were true- LTC is toxic.

From the corporate office whose only goal was how to spend the minimum amount of money while reeling in the profits to my co-workers who were also evil as all get out.

LTC was the place where I lost my new grad innocence- it was the place where I learned not to trust any co-worker.

LTC was brutal

  • It was brutal in the way co-workers stabbed each other in the back just to get ahead and sometimes simply for the heck of it
  • It was brutal with the revolving door, constant turn-over and having to work short
  • It was brutal in the way you had to avoid pitfalls of which there were many

LTC was poorly managed

  • It was poorly managed through the poor caliber of people hired to run the place. The Administrator that was only concerned about cliques, the DON that only wanted to supervise from a distance; the unit managers that had alternate personalities, it was rough.

LTC was a hell hole

  • The residents could also make life miserable for you with all the false stories that were told

I use was, because I refused to be burned any longer. I got out of LTC and went into home health. Now I care for my patients, as they should be cared for, one at a time too.Be warned, if LTC is where you choose to be, make sure that you go into it with your eyes open wide. It is not for the feeble. LTC will drain the life out of you if you let it. Be the wiser, RUN from Long Term c.

By Saren K

Continue Reading