Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Sometimes we stay there so long.
That we start to pour out morethan we are getting back.
And we are expecting the oldtimes to be like they were and
they're not.
And that's okay because thatshakeup is there for a reason.
(00:25):
It doesn't always mean you haveto leave, but sometimes we have
our feelings a little bit toodeep in it.
We have our ego a little bit tooattached to the work and the
job, and it's likely time foryou to pull back and consider
some other things.
(00:47):
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 boardified clinical nurse specialist,
influential leader, careercoach, and wellbeing coach.
(01:08):
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 forothers.
I kept telling myself I wantedmore, but didn't have the
direction I needed until I foundclarity and career growth
(01:31):
strategies for experiencednurses like.
Me.
In this podcast, you will findsimple tactical steps that allow
you to gain the clarity you needsolutions for how to grow even
without supportive leadershipand guidelines for setting
boundaries at work so that youcan grow purposefully in your
career as a nurse with agraduate degree who makes a huge
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impact in the profession.
So get ready to trade yourscrubs for yoga pants, pop in
those earbuds and let's chat.
Welcome back everyone.
It's good to be here with youthis week.
This, episode will be a littlebit more conversational.
Just been ruminating on somethoughts really based around
(02:18):
conversations that I've had withpeople regarding their careers
conversations that I havecoached other people through.
This one part in particular ismore so something that, I've
seen a few of my friends gothrough and we've had to kind of
coach our way through.
(02:38):
Um, what's next for them if youhave been on a job for a long
time and, uh.
You are, and it could be ahospital, a system for a long
time, and you're feeling theneed for change, but the thought
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of leaving behind all of thehard work and dedication that
you've put into that currentrole or organization is holding
you back.
This episode is for you.
I am here to help you navigatethis transition and explore new
career opportunities that don'tfeel fearful.
(03:21):
I want to help you understandwhere you are, why this might be
occurring, and what you can dodifferently.
I am just gonna level it out andsay it's okay to stay in that
position for a long time.
Although I'm a person who likesto move around, not frequently,
(03:42):
but I like to move around andget a taste of different things.
I have colleagues who like tostay in one place, and that's
fine.
I think that's great.
However, when you're there, Iwant you to make sure that
you're getting as much out ofthe opportunity as the people
(04:03):
you're serving.
Sometimes we stay there so long.
That we start to pour out morethan we are getting back.
And we are expecting the oldtimes to be like they were and
they're not.
And that's okay because thatshakeup is there for a reason.
(04:30):
It doesn't always mean you haveto leave, but sometimes we have
our feelings a little bit toodeep in it.
We have our ego a little bit tooattached to the work and the
job, and it's likely time foryou to pull back and consider
some other things.
(04:53):
It's okay to stay in a positionfor a long time, but make sure
you're putting in your effortselsewhere when you can.
So although you're with thisjob, you definitely want to
expand your efforts beyond yourcurrent job for whatever your
(05:14):
capacity allows i'm really bigon operating within your
capacity.
Now some people think, oh, Idon't have the capacity.
And really you do, and you don'tfind out until you're forced to
find the capacity.
You don't wanna be limited tojust one thing and then end up
(05:36):
stuck and known only for thatone thing.
So for example, I'm a subjectmatter expert.
In cardiac, cardiac surgery inparticular and in telemetry, EK,
G.
But there are other things thatI do.
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There are other skills that Ihave also, and so people know me
for like one, one group may knowme for one thing, another group
may know me for another thing.
But when you are.
Expanding your repertoire, inthat way, it helps people see
(06:21):
your skillsets in differentways, and it actually creates a
little bit of variety in yourcareer.
And so I call this not puttingall of your eggs in one nursing
job basket.
Because there are so many facetsof you and really using all of
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those facets of yourpersonality, of your skills, of
what you would like to develop,that's really what brings joy in
your career.
It's doing the different things.
It's not necessarily staying onone track, only being known for
this one thing and only doingthis one thing.
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And being the one go-to for thething.
Trust me, if you're doingsomething that is unique that
not many other people have theskillset for, don't worry.
You'll still be the go-to personfor that one thing.
Or if you're just really good atit, and maybe there are other
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people who know how to do it,they could do it.
You would still be the go-to forthat thing.
But I would charge you to trynot to attach your ego to that
thing, but be known fordifferent things.
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And it doesn't have to be 10things.
It could be three things, threeskill sets.
It's just different.
When you're walking into theroom.
And so I just wanna give yousome reasons for why you
shouldn't.
I've talked about why youshouldn't put all of your eggs
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in one basket.
We're talking about putting allof our eggs in one basket, one
nursing job, one facility.
You're just in this one pocketof place and no one really knows
you anywhere else.
That's the one thing I talkabout when it comes to growing
your career in this day andtime, especially with so many
things being artificial and,people being able to inflate all
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of the things that they know anddo.
It is going to come down to yournetwork, which will make it much
easier for you to grow.
And be involved in differentprojects to help grow your
skillset so that people can seeyou in different areas.
(08:51):
So putting your eggs in otherbaskets allows you to see the
options you have for yourselfwhen you might be ready for
change and don't know it.
You might be coming into workfrustrated.
You might be dealing, with atoxic work environment don't
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want, but you don't wanna let itgo or it might not be time for
you to go there might be alesson you're learning in that.
And when you step outside ofthat work and do work for, for
example, and I'm gonna use myexample as professional
organization, and you start toexpand and you decide that you
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want to work in a committee.
Within a professionalorganization.
You start to meet new people.
You start to understand whatwork they're doing and how
they're doing that work, andstarts to expand your thought
process on how can I do my workdifferently or what is something
new that I can do?
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And as you start to see thosethings, you start to see options
beyond.
The work you do or the fourwalls you work in and it starts
building up that readiness forchange, it starts getting you a
little bit more comfortable witha possibility of moving into
something different or apossibility of expanding.
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Number two, putting all of youreggs in other baskets allows for
growing your network.
I talked about this a little bitearlier, and when you grow your
network, you are again, havingthese conversations about what
others are doing in theircommunities, what others are
doing within their hospitals,what others are doing, within
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there.
Within their systems.
The other thing that, um,growing your network helps with
is when someone's looking forsomeone with an expertise on a
particular skill set that youhave.
It may be a very, I wouldn'tnecessarily, say fully unique
(11:00):
skillset, but it's a uniqueskillset.
Then they're gonna look for you.
They're gonna say, oh, I had aconversation with so and so, and
she's been doing, or he's beendoing some work on that.
Maybe we should call them or, Iknow so and so works at this
particular hospital.
Maybe we should call them andask them.
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I had a colleague the other daywhom I am on the board with, we
do not work together, but we'rein the state of North Carolina.
She emailed me and said, Hey.
We're working on a code OBprocess for our hospital.
Do you have anybody you can putme in touch with within your
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hospital who's been working onthat?
Well, because I've grown mynetwork within my workplace and
outside of my workplace, I wasable to easily connect those
two.
And that's for the benefit ofthe patient because that person
who was reaching out to me,works in a rural hospital.
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So now those patients who arecoming in who may have some type
of obstetrical emergency.
Has now been able to benefitfrom that nurse leader reaching
out to other hospitals andfinding best practice for how to
treat obstetrical emergencies.
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So this is not always even aboutyou, but it's even about how
we're growing the profession andcaring for our patients better.
That growth in that network,when you're not putting all of
your eggs in one basket, you cangrow your network to benefit the
patients.
That's really what it's allabout.
But you want joy in your workand in your career.
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Number three, by putting youreggs in other baskets.
You can avoid placing your selfworth in one area of your life
when you place your self worthin just one area.
It makes you vulnerable whenyour season is up in that area.
'cause you don't wanna let itgo.
You're thinking no, no, it's nottime yet because you are
(13:14):
thinking I still have otherthings I want to do with this
role, or I still have.
More to give in this role, andyou probably do, but it might be
for somewhere else.
So you tend to hold on longerthan you should because you only
saw yourself in that one area.
(13:35):
Don't limit yourself.
Expand the possibilities ofservice in all areas of your
career and of your life.
It is like moms who put so muchinto their kids' lives, then
when their kids leave, theydon't know where to pick up
life.
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Don't do that to your career.
I've been in several Facebookgroups where the nurse writes a
post and they say, I've beendoing such and such and such for
the last 15 to 20 years.
It's time for me to make achange.
But they've done no work ontheir career.
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In order to even have theoptions to make a change.
They're trying to figure outwhat does that change mean?
But you should be thinking aboutit all along.
Even when you're not ready tomove, you should be looking and
scanning your environment tosay, Hmm, that'd be nice to do
one day.
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That way when it is time for youto leave, you're not rushing out
the door.
Or no one's pushing you out ofthe door, making life so
uncomfortable that you gottaleave and you have some options
of what you can do, and you'velikely worked on your degrees to
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be able to easily flow into anew option.
So what do you do instead?
Of putting all of your eggs inone basket.
Let's wrap this up with someaction items that you can take
away think of projects orsubjects that light you up and
bring you joy and that you caninvest in, um, outside of work,
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even if it has nothing to dowith your career.
People say you should never havea plan B.
If you're really passionateabout something, I say, you
should always have a plan B.
If you weren't doing this job,what would you like to do?
Maybe it's time.
It's'cause to me career growthdoesn't always mean up a ladder.
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Growth can mean many things.
So would you like to own abusiness outside of your work?
Maybe it's you cutting back afew hours so you can grow
somewhere else.
If you weren't doing this job orweren't working in this
facility, what would you like todo?
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Or where would you like to go?
What skills would you like todevelop that don't have anything
to do with the work you do rightnow?
Would you like to work onspeaking?
Would you like to work ondeveloping a skill for project
management?
Would you like to work on askill for improving your quality
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management skills?
Would you like to work onimproving your skill with
informatics?
What would you like to work onin public policy?
What more would you like to do?
What's different that you wouldlike to do?
Would you like to build yourskill in communications and
marketing?
Nursing needs that too.
If you're wanting to stay innursing, we need that too.
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What skill would you like todevelop?
Or even if it's a clinicalskill, what would it be that has
nothing to do with what you'recurrently doing?
How can you expand into thatwork outside of work, even if
it's for two hours a week?
Think about how you can growyour network in the meantime,
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outside of your everyday work orwithin other departments at
work.
I advocate for this whole growthin your network by getting on
committees within your hospitaland within your area of work.
If you're already doing that,people already know who you are.
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If everybody already knows whoyou are, then it's time to
expand outside of work.
The best way to do that iswithin a professional
organization, get your name outthere in those professional
organizations.
Start getting head down anddoing the work within a
professional organization.
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It expands far beyond what youdo on your everyday job.
That's the work that impacts themillions of RNs across the
nation.
If it's at a national level orthe hundreds of thousands of RNs
in your state, that is thebenefit of being a part of a
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professional organization.
It is the number one thing thathelps you to not put all of your
eggs in one basket and helps youto quickly pivot if you do it
right, if you're engaged, itwill help you to do something a
little bit different when you'refeeling stuck and need a change.
I had love to hear your thoughtson this.
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If you have some thoughts onthis or if you feel like this
spoke to you, please drop me anemail, let me know.
Um, I even have a little thingin my podcast called fan mail.
Leave me a fan mail text messageand ask whatever questions you
want to ask.
I hope this was helpful for you.
I trust that it was helpful toyou, and I will see you the next
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time.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
If so, would you take 30 secondsand share it with another nurse
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.
(19:32):
It brings me so much joy and somuch encouragement to know this
podcast is helping you now goget the career you want and not
the one you settle for.
And I'll meet you back here nextThursday for another episode.
See you soon.