Episode Transcript
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Are you feeling stuck in yourcurrent clinical environment?
Do you want to make a change inyour nursing career but not sure
what to do next?
Exhausted, burnt out, and maybeeven ready for different
leadership?
I'm Bonnie Meadows, a BoardCertified Nurse.
Clinical Nurse Specialist,Influential Leader, Career
Coach, and Well Being Coach.
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Being in the nursing andhealthcare profession since
2004, I have felt stuck andunsure about what was next for
me.
I wanted to be fulfilled in mypurpose, to have a voice at the
table.
And to be a resource for others,I kept telling myself I wanted
more, but didn't have thedirection I needed until I found
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clarity and career growthstrategies for experienced
nurses like me.
In this podcast, you will find.
Simple tactical steps that allowyou to gain the clarity you
need, solutions for how to groweven without supportive
leadership, and guidelines forsetting boundaries at work so
that you can grow purposefullyin your career as a nurse with a
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graduate degree who makes a hugeimpact in the profession.
So get ready to trade yourscrubs for yoga pants.
Pop in those earbuds and let'schat.
It is time to officially startwinding down the year.
We are pretty much at the end ofthe year.
During this time I start torelax just a little bit.
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Even as an ambitious nurse.
I can only go hardcore for aspecific time.
I am very much even keeled.
I don't like emotionallyswinging hard one way.
And then another way.
I don't mind relaxing.
And I don't mind working.
But I can't do both for anextended period of time.
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And so I enjoy this time of yearbecause my mind starts to say,
okay, we're relaxing.
We are trending downward.
In my 20 years of nursing veryearly on in my career, it would
be.
Patient volume swings to wherearound this time of year, I've
always been in surgery in somesort of surgical setting.
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But this one even happened inthe medical areas also.
But.
The volume of the patients wesaw, What's trending downward.
Cause not too many people werehaving surgeries.
There were even times when Iwould be working in the CT ICU.
CBR you, what was, what we callit back then?
I would come in on a weekend andit would be one patient in the
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unit.
The only reason we had that onepatient and didn't close down
the unit is because no one elsehad the skillset to take care of
that one patient.
That patient would be extremelystable, like very stable.
It was that one patient.
They weren't intubated.
They just needed to bemonitored.
Um, But again, no one else hadthe skillset to take care of
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that particular patient.
And a lot, I'm telling all thesecrets, but.
Um, when that patient fellasleep, we would make sure that
we had everything checked off.
We would continue to monitor thepatient, continue to check in on
it.
And then we would have like thislittle TV playing in the
background, like playingChristmas music, movies or we
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would pull out a book.
Let's just be real.
Like, this is what we weredoing.
There was only one patient, youhad to have two nurses in the
area.
Those were the good old days.
I don't think that those thingsare happening in this day in
time, as far as they'reliterally being on only one
patient in the unit.
But there would be times.
When we would have no patientsand we would get called off,
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some people would be mad aboutit.
I wouldn't be mad about it.
Because I like to, again, gohard, go hard in the paint and
then I'm relaxing.
There would also be times whenour volume was high and we
needed people to work overtime.
I would work overtime,sparingly.
I don't mind working overtime,but I'm not going to change my
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schedule to work overtime.
Let's just say that if I'm free.
I'll do it.
If I'm free, I have the mentalcapacity to handle it, to deal
with it.
But if I'm overly stressed, I'mold do my three days and then
I'm gonna go home and catch anap.
I was never seen though as notbeing flexible as all she wants
to do is just go to work andcome back home and do our job.
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Yeah.
Like, this is something that Imentioned all the time.
Maybe not enough.
But I am very adamant about.
People seeing and understandingand you showcase thing.
That was you, you firstunderstanding what is it?
That is important to myleadership to see.
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So they can see that I am allin, on the work that I need to
do because I am.
But then what is it that.
I just don't need to even worryabout because it's not important
to them.
And it ain't important to me.
And how do I protect myself?
Set boundaries.
It's more so about settingboundaries and understanding
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what's important to them.
Versus what's important to you.
Making sure that you're on thesame page and sometimes you're
not but you do those things thatare very important.
To make sure that the work getsdone, it gets covered.
Patients get taken care of.
And so I said all of that tosay, I am.
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Not an all work and no play typea girl.
That is not me.
And so as we go into the end ofthe year, I want to talk about.
Those things I am doing, andhopefully this will give some of
you some ideas.
If you are one of those peoplewho feels like you have to go
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hard in the paint all the time,you have to be doing something.
Hopefully, this will give yousome ideas on some things that
you can do.
To either reset, get back intowhat you were doing, that you
may have fallen off of.
Pick these things back up.
I will say many of the things Iam mentioning.
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I have fallen off of, and I feltit.
Like I felt my mind always beingon or, not really being able to
sleep well.
I recognized it when I got COVIDearlier this year.
Mid this year.
It's my first time ever havingCOVID.
Literally my mind could onlythink about one thing.
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Prior to that week, I wasthinking about 10 things at one
time.
But that week my mind was socloudy in.
It literally, all I could do isjust lay in bed and watch
movies.
Because I could only do onething at a time.
That was the first time Icouldn't look at my phone and
watch a movie and read somethingat the same time.
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That's really not what we'resupposed to do.
Like our brain is really likewhen we're.
And it at its optimal state, weshould only be doing one thing.
People call it multitasking.
Oh yeah, I can multitask.
That's not really.
Helpful.
It is not helpful.
Because as you can't prioritizeone thing over the other.
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And you're going to misssomething and I have to remind
myself of that.
That is really not helpful tomultitask.
But you go faster.
When you focus.
On just one thing.
You get that thing done and thenyou move on to the next, I have
to constantly remind myself ofthat.
And so I am here to help thosewho are ambitious, who want to
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go hard in the paint, who.
Might feel like taking avacation as a joke.
Here are some things I am goingto focus on a little bit more.
As I wind down the year andenjoy this season of giving.
The season of being with familyand with friends.
And this season of S it shouldbe, it could be some celebration
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for many, for some, you'reworking, you might be working
through some loss.
Even in that it's important tofigure out what brings you joy.
Not necessarily to not reflecton your losses, but what was
joyful about.
That person or thing.
That you can make a good memoryout of.
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Here are some things that I amgoing to do.
Some play, shall we say?
That will help me with honestly,some self discovery.
Some enjoyment.
Many times when I'm relaxed.
That is when I'm the mostcreative.
After, about another episode,I'm going to take a break.
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I will be taking a break fromthe podcast in December.
Have my birthday in January.
And I will be back on the potwith podcasts episodes in mid
January.
So I'll do about one or two moreepisodes, then we are going to
pause.
Take a break.
And pick back up in January,number one thing that I'm going
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to do is travel.
My travel during the holidays isnot extensive.
It is going to visit familymembers.
Thankfully.
My family members I get alongwith.
I understand that that doesn'thappen with everybody.
So if you can travel to see somefriends, Exercise your
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boundaries, protect your peace.
Go and visit friends who mightprovide that more family
atmosphere say, okay, I do haveto go and visit.
I'm going to go and visit forthis set time and then make sure
you buffer in those people thatyou really want to see.
You really want to get lovefrom.
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So that you're not alwaysfeeling like.
You're being pulled on one Andyou're not exhausted.
During this time, I'm going towatch sports.
That sports is my drama.
I don't really watch any othertype of TV.
Well sports and Christmasmovies.
Watch some TV we'll watchsports.
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Football on Thanksgiving.
Basketball on Christmas,although football has crypt its
way into.
Christmas and.
Then some college footballplayoffs, that's my jam during
the holidays.
Those are the things that I justlike to shift my thoughts
towards.
That's my drama that I get into.
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Over the holidays and, whatbrings me joy?
Music.
I love Christmas music.
I'm already starting to listento it.
I usually love to listen to iton the unit.
I'm definitely diving into that.
Walks, I need to get out andwalk more than I do.
One of my goals is to focus onmy health.
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And not that things are fallingapart.
But I've always been of.
A mindset that you need to catchit before it gets to falling
apart.
You don't need to catch it whenyou get signs and symptoms that
has fallen apart.
But when you know, you're offtrack you need to get back on
track.
And I know I'm off track.
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I want to get back into a goodrhythm of at least going for
some walks, making sure I'mgetting some strength training
in during this time off andestablishing some good routines
with that.
Doing some exploration with myhusband and my son.
We have some holiday events thatwe like to do.
We are establishing traditions.
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And so we will do that duringthis time, of holiday and rest.
That's a lot of what I will befocused on.
Just establishing thosetraditions.
And then lastly, These are thethings that are on the top of my
mind.
What are the top things that arelike immediately, I'm like, oh
yeah.
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I want to do that.
Lastly planning and goalsetting, somebody might think,
oh my gosh, like you do that torelax.
I absolutely do.
And wish I could do it more thanI do and need to spend time on
it more than I do.
I heard someone say thatplanning for one hour saves you
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about 10 hours worth of time.
And I would agree with thatplanning and following through
with the plan now.
You plan so you can followthrough with the plan.
Sometimes I don't follow throughwith the plan, but many times, I
have to take a long time becauseI'm very big picture.
I will write out a big picturethat I have to come back to and
get more detailed.
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Then I'll get more detailed andit's still high level.
I have to come back to it andbreak it down.
So that I have.
Solid goals.
And plans for the year and forthe first quarter.
And so I plan on coming up with.
And I've done.
I've, I've, I've gone overboardwith planning in the past.
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And as I've been winding downthe year, I've been trying to
think about how I'm going tomake my goals simple.
These are all.
Lifestyle goals.
Like it hits every area of mylife.
Or the areas that really need agoal.
This year, I'm going to dothree.
Personal goals.
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Three.
Professional goals and threefinancial goals.
When I come back in January tothe podcast, I will let you know
what I've come up with thosethree goals.
I will give you an idea of whatmy milestones are, what the
routines are, what the actionplans will be around those goals
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and the habits and routines thatI am using to build out and
carry through with those goals.
This is a work in progress.
I have found because I've beensetting goals intentionally the
last five to seven years.
It is a work in progress.
Part of my work in progress is Ihad to find the gold system that
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really worked for me.
That is a huge part of theprocess I feel like I found the
goal setting process that worksfor me.
And now I need to work the plan.
And so that is how I will roundout.
This all work and no play makesBonnie a Dole person.
And so I am going to take sometime to travel, to watch some
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TV, some sports, some Christmasmovies.
To listen to music, Christmasmusic.
To make sure I get my workoutsin.
Walk, explore with my husbandand my son.
And focus on planning and goalsetting as we go into 2025.
My call to action to you is whatare you going to do?
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Too.
Have what I call recovery time.
In my wellbeing practice, Ifocus on compassion.
Presence and recovery.
It is time for rest andrecovery.
For me.
I believe for everyone aroundthis time.
It's a good time for rest andrecovery, even if it's for a
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short period of time.
But what will you do?
During this time.
To recover.
From all of the stimuli, all ofthe inputs, all of the, gotta do
this.
Gotta do that.
Yes.
Even during the holiday time.
Even more so during the holidaytime, because some of you may be
thinking, oh, my family has thisplan.
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We have to do this.
We have to do that.
Find a way.
To get protected time.
So you can recover and be thebest you can be.
See you next time.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
If so, would you take 30 secondsand share it with another nurse
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who may be unsure of where to gonext in their career or maybe
need some career clarity?
Also, please leave a quickreview for the show on Apple
podcast.
It brings me so much joy and somuch encouragement to know this
podcast is helping you.
Now go get the career you wantand not the one you settle for.
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And I'll meet you back here nextThursday for another episode.
See you soon!