The Ambitious Nurse | RN, Nursing Career, Nursing Job Opportunities
Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Maybe you want a change because you're too exhausted, burned out, or ready for different leadership. Do you want to make a change in your clinical career, but you're not sure what to do next?
You're in the right place. This podcast will help you get the clarity you need to grow so you can have the flexibility and autonomy you want while leveraging your voice and expertise.
I'm Bonnie Meadows a Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist, Influential Leader, Career Coach & Well-Being Coach. Since being in the nursing & healthcare profession since 2004, I have found myself ready to make the next step but felt stuck.
I got to a place where I dreaded going to work. I felt burnt out and unmotivated. I knew deep down I always wanted something else. But I had no clue how to even with the hope of a graduate degree to advance me.
I finally realized that growing in nursing is about the journey and not the destination. I finally stopped looking for a specific job to fill my cup.
I developed a framework I frequently implemented to get the clarity I needed for my career and catapulted me into areas of nursing and healthcare I never imagined. I am sharing it all with you.
If you are ready to find career strategies crafted as an experienced nurse using your gifts and abilities,
A guide to help you get clear on your next career steps,
Contentment and joy in your work-this podcast is for you!!
So get ready to kick off those Crocs, pop in those earbuds, and let's chat!!
The Ambitious Nurse | RN, Nursing Career, Nursing Job Opportunities
36 // Is Exhaustion the New Normal? How to Build a Sustainable Nursing Career
Flexibility is the cornerstone of a thriving nursing career.
This episode highlights the importance of being open to various career paths and roles. I'll share my own story of career pivots and the short-term and long-term goals that have guided me.
Discover how continuous learning and staying informed about new opportunities can benefit your career, and learn the significance of understanding your personal mission in nursing.
Be prepared to embrace new roles, set meaningful goals, and continuously seek growth to prevent career stagnation.
Self-leadership is crucial for well-being in nursing. Learn from my journey of self-reinvention through self-assessment and awareness. We delve into the importance of aligning job choices with personal passions and navigating workplace politics.
This episode wraps up with an encouraging message to pursue the career you truly desire and emphasizes the value of sharing resources within the nursing community.
Tune in and take the first step toward a balanced and fulfilling nursing career.
Want to continue the conversation? Send me a text right here.
Ready to take the next step in your nursing career with confidence?
The Nursing Growth Starter Guide gives you proven strategies to move past uncertainty and advance with clarity.
Grab your free guide today! Click Here
Join me for a **1:1 Nurse Career Clarity Coaching Call**—a 1:1 coaching session where we’ll get you unstuck and find clarity to make the next move in your career.
I always had the mindset that nothing was happening to me, that everything was happening for me to make me better. Were there things that were happening to me that I got mad and furious about? Absolutely, but it was always leading to an answer to something else. And so that long term we can get mad about these things that happen to us and it can keep us in a fixed mindset because we want to fix that thing. But you have to step back and say is this a situation for me to fix or is it just time for me to move on because I'm getting agitated? It's going to just make me more agitated about everything else. Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Do you want to make a change in your nursing career but not sure what to do next? Exhausted, burnt out and maybe even ready for different leadership? I'm bonnie meadows, a board certified clinical nurse, specialist, influential leader, career coach and well-being coach. Being in the nursing and healthcare profession since 2004, I have felt stuck and unsure about what was next for me. I wanted to be fulfilled in my purpose, 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 the direction I needed until I found clarity and career growth strategies for experienced nurses like me. In this podcast you will find simple tactical steps that allow you to gain the clarity you need, solutions for how to grow even without supportive leadership, and guidelines for setting boundaries at work, so that you can grow purposefully in your career as a nurse with a graduate degree who makes a huge impact in the profession. So get ready to trade your scrubs for yoga pants, pop in those earbuds and let's chat. Are you unclear about the direction of your career? You've got the master's and or the doctorate degree, but now what? Are you confused about whether to grow upward versus outward in your career, and do you question how to grow to best use your purpose in your career? And do you struggle to achieve contentment and work-life balance? I don't have the direct answers to all of those questions, but I do have a strategy to work through those want to offer you a opportunity today to get those questions answered, to work through those questions through my one-on-one nurse career clarity coaching, these questions that I mentioned earlier of being unclear about your direction. You know you've got the graduate degree and you're like, okay, well, this is not it. This is it to help me. But where do I go next from here? How do you find it? I have some steps that I help you to walk through in finding that purpose and digging deep, and I do that through my one-on-one nurse career clarity coaching. So go right now to bitly slash nurse career clarity to sign up Again. It's bitly slash nursecareerclarity to sign up for a time to spend with me so we can walk through your plan. For what is your next step? When you walk away from this session? I will give you your next steps, based on everything we discussed, so that you can make a step forward in your career.
Speaker 1:This year marks 20 years in nursing for me. When I started out in nursing I never thought this far. I think the furthest that I thought about my career was 10 years down the line and I would say maybe a year into nursing I started to make a plan to go to medical school. I originally, when I was, I've always known that I wanted to be in healthcare. Originally, my desire was to go to medical school and I got to ninth grade and I saw how long it took them to go to school and I was like, yeah, I love school, but I want to be done quicker. So I was like I'll be a nurse, and then I kept hearing great stories about nursing and how you always have a job this, that and the other. I loved science, I loved healthcare in general and the way healthcare worked, and so when I came into nursing, that was my expectation.
Speaker 1:My career has turned out drastically different than I expected, and for the good, and I don't think I could have planned out how well my career is turning out, with growth and leadership development that I would not have created for myself. I could not have planned this, even if I wanted to, and so in this episode, I want to give you a few tips on how to have a long nursing career with joy. I approach many things, and it's my nature to approach things with a glass half full. Have I seen some negative things in nursing? Absolutely, absolutely Hands down. Have negative things happened to me? Oh, absolutely, absolutely, but it's not necessarily what happens to you. But what do you do with that thing? What do you do with that circumstance? That is going on, and so I want you to know, as we're going through this episode, that it's possible to have longevity in your nursing career If somebody is toggling with that, or even in your health care career, like you might not want to be that person that wants to stay at the bedside, but you want to stay in health care.
Speaker 1:You don't want to be the person who goes out and starts selling real estate no, knock on them. But my focus and my care is for the nurse who wants to stay in health care and make the care for our patients better, regardless of all of the hoops, the bureaucratic policies and politics that we have to jump through. It's just one step at a time. We're all different people and we have to work with different people, and so I just want you to know for you, it is possible to have longevity in your nursing career. I want you to work on keeping it fresh in your career so that you don't get bored and burnout, and then I want you to feel confident that nursing is the right career for you. Sometimes you can be outside of the work of nursing but still be in the mindset of the nurse. That's what we want. I'm not here to make you just stay in the nursing line, because we need nurses in business, we need nurses in construction, we need nurses in all of these other pockets of health care to help pull things together. So I'm going to start with my number one point of how to have longevity in your career. These are points that I have learned for myself as to what brings me joy and how is it that I continue to pursue this career called nursing and health care. How is it that my glasses is half full when it comes to that?
Speaker 1:I believe that these steps that I'm getting ready to tell you are many of the steps that help to contribute to it. The first one is understanding your why, and it sounds very like okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got to know why. And most people will say, oh, I just want to help patients. You can do that anywhere. You can go and be a physical therapist, you can be an occupational therapist, you could decide to go back to school to be a pharmacist. You can help patients in any way.
Speaker 1:Why nursing, why healthcare, or why nursing? Understand your why, and if you're early on in your career, you might not know your thought process really might be I just want to help patients. Then I want you to think what is that help that you bring to the table as a nurse that's different from everyone else. Because once you understand your difference from everyone else and you're not saying, oh, the nurse is always responsible for such and such and such, you can turn that around and say for such and such and such. You can turn that around and say, as a nurse I am, the patient is at the center. But at the center of the healthcare team is the nurse. All roads lead through you. What has the patient done overnight? What, what, this, that and the other, what's going on with the patient? And if you are in a position of away from the bedside, still working in the hospital, you are then the subject matter. Away from the bedside, still working in the hospital, you are then the subject matter expert, whether it be nurse practitioner, whether it be an advanced practice role, whether you're in some other role with a master's degree, nurse educator, you are still the subject matter expert of that patient's management and nursing care. And so you must understand your why. You do that, so that you can align your passion with your practice, and it'll help you to pretty much block out the noise that you see every day and it will help you to drive your career decisions from here. That really is the foundation of a lasting career, because you'll have bad days and you'll have days. Some of you, many of you who are listening to this podcast you're having that day of I really want to do more, but I feel guilty, or maybe it's not time yet. Start understanding your why, because that why can go with you throughout your career. It doesn't have to just apply where you are.
Speaker 1:Another thing that was very important for me in my 20 years of nursing was having career flexibility. I was very open and had analyzed many of the possibilities of the direction my career path could grow. I just didn't. I wasn't all the way informed of the roles that were out there, like many of you are like. You can go to LinkedIn and you can see a bunch of roles, but it's like where, like what? What direction like should I go? Which direction is the best for me and some of us? We get stuck there and that's where the call with me, the career clarity call, comes in, where I can help you to get unstuck, as you're seeing all of these options and you might be paralyzed by all of these options which route to go? That's where you can come and have a conversation with me when I saw that there was an area that I didn't believe was for me. I made a pivot, but I was very open to the possibilities of the direction that my career path could go and could grow, and I was ready to take risk and I'll talk a little bit more about that.
Speaker 1:But it's really just embracing and exploring the other opportunities that are out there. Whether it be clinical nurse specialist, whether it be nurse education, whether it be leadership clinical nurse specialist, whether it be nurse education, whether it be leadership. Some of you don't want to go into the typical roles. You're looking for something just a little bit different. Those options are out there. That's something that I can also help you to talk through. But it's embracing the new roles, embracing. I might want to do quality or I might want to go into risk management, or what's this construction thing about? Like how can a nurse get into that? Or how can a nurse get into informatics?
Speaker 1:What also offers career flexibility is continuous learning. It's very important, if you have not gotten your degree, to go back and get your degree. Not gotten your degree, to go back and get your degree. Those of us who have our degrees, it's important for us to just continue to stay on top of our reading and our research in our professional journals to stay on top of things, so that we can know where the profession is going, which can also give you an indication on what jobs are available out there. What is a new and fresh and available career path that you might be thinking to yourself like I wish they would create this position and it might be out there, but you're not looking at professional journals, you're not reading things online to see how is the profession growing, that lifelong learning and that career flexibility just helps you to unlock new career paths and helps to prevent career stagnation. That's not really what you want. An ambitious nurse does not want career stagnation. We're trying to move forward and make the best of our careers. So point three I always had a long-term career vision and a growth mindset and I was very adamant about setting goals.
Speaker 1:I always had the mindset that nothing was happening to me, that everything was happening for me to make me better. Were there things that were happening to me that I got mad and furious about? Absolutely, but it was always leading to an answer to something else, and so that long term, like we can get mad about these things that happen to us and it can keep us in a fixed mindset because we want to fix that thing. But you have to step back and say is this a situation for me to fix or is it just time for me to move on because I'm getting agitated? It's going to just make me more agitated about everything else.
Speaker 1:Goal setting is also very important. Not just goal setting on a particular job, but going back to the why and starting to really figure out what is my mission in nursing. What is the assignment that I feel called to? Is it to the community? Is it in technology? Is it research? Like, what is it that fills my cup and says or is it a combination of all of those that fills my cup and says that's it Like I again, I worked in a CTICU.
Speaker 1:There were two roles that were like that that's the path. Crna school and P school. That was the path. Right there you could go and be an educator. But most people weren't going that path. Necessarily. None of those paths were for me because I understood my why, I understood who I was and I understood that it just wasn't what I wanted to do. I felt locked in and I was like nope, nope, that's not for me, so don't go for it. If it's not for you, if you feel like you're going to be, because you will be locked in to that thing and you'll have to prove yourself and get opportunities outside of it that some of your counterparts with a master's and a doctorate degree will already have. So if it's not what you want initially, then I would definitely just kind of take a step back and really think about what is it that you truly want out of your career and then set those goals.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's very hard to set long-term goals. Think about some short-term goals. I'm not saying like, where do you want to be in 10 years? Where do you want yourself to be in five years? What do you want your life to look like in five years? And set goals based on that. That goal setting really helped me to see like and that's where it helped me to pace and to be future thinking and to be more optimistic about where I could go, always working backwards to say how can I set myself or how can I set myself up in my current role for that role which I want to go to.
Speaker 1:Go to the other thing that goes under this career longevity and goal setting, or career, long-term career, vision and growth mindset and setting goals is being betting on myself and taking risks in positions that might not work out. And there are many nurses that I coach and they are very scared to step out into other positions because they're like, what if it doesn't work out? And I'm like, okay, well, what if it doesn't work out? Then you know it doesn't work out and then you can apply for something else. So you have to be confident that if you got that role, you'll get another one and it'll be lined up just right for you. You also have to be confident that if somebody comes to you and says, oh, I think you'd be great for this role, and you look at it and you're like, no, that's not what I want to do, that's not a part of my goals, be confident enough to say, nope, that's not for me right now. Believe me, the right one will come along. For what is your next? It's not always your end all be all, but we're looking for what is the next to get me to a place of having joy, using the skill sets that I want to use in order to grow my career and have that career longevity.
Speaker 1:The other piece is building a professional brand. I was always reinventing myself and that reinventing myself was quietly within, using what I would say is a self-assessment and development of my self-awareness. And I'm always evaluating like, what are my four pillars that I must have in whatever job that I'm in? And that is my professional brand, my personal and professional brand within healthcare and nursing, and usually it's what are those things that really light me up, that say, even if I got a job in this area, regardless of the politics, knowing that every job will have its level of politics, and knowing that you are going into a job that lines up with your professional and personal brand, which includes those passions that you have, it helps you to have career longevity.
Speaker 1:Number four, that's my last point well-being and reducing burnout. I made my well-being my priority and no one else's, no one else's. It was my priority. It was my priority to speak up for myself, save myself. I never expected anyone to save me or provide the answers. I knew that my leaders they have their own agenda and the people whom they need to submit to, so I need to govern myself accordingly. There are great leaders out there, absolutely Hands down, but I never placed the full burden on them to help me to balance my work-life balance and for them to help me to grow my career. That was all on me. I didn't want them to have that power, and some of them they have their ideas of how I should grow, but I wasn't in alignment with that. I didn't want that to get in the way of how I believed I should grow. So I'm encouraging you to one.
Speaker 1:This is how you help to reduce burnout you take the power out of their hands and place it into yours. You figure out what you're going to say yes to and what you're going to politely say no to, and pivot that no, there's a right way to say no without you being labeled as not being flexible. I was always labeled as being flexible, but I could tell you. A whole lot of times in my head I was like, yeah, no, I'm not doing that, yep, I'm not doing. And it was never anything that was detrimental to the patient's safety Never. But I took the power out of their hands and I placed it in mine. You drive your decisions, which leads to your well-being, and you understand where you've been stretched thin, so that you can know how to pull back and when to pull back.
Speaker 1:It's important for you to recognize burnout. Some of those symptoms would include dread going into work, feeling a wall when something else is placed on your plate, feeling anxious when you're handed just one more thing, hiding in your office because you just need a break. Now that happens, but if you're doing it one too many times you might be burnout, or hiding in the bathroom. Rather, those are some quick ways to understand if you are in burnout mode and in your mind you're like if they just if they give me one more thing on my screen, that's burnout. Or if I come in the next time and I get another sick patient, that's stress and burnout. And so here are just a few tips to relieve that burnout. One you do have to do an internal look and say is this place still for me?
Speaker 1:Practice also those things, these three things that I've gotten from Dr Diane Sig, and she is a well-being coach and her focus is on self-leadership. So that's why I say it's my priority and it's no one else's, because that's my own self-leadership. And the three things that she says that you should practice for your well-being, and the three things that she says that you should practice for your well-being On top of other things that you need to incorporate are compassion, meaning having compassion for yourself. Don't worry about everybody else. What is the compassion that you are having for yourself? Just say my body's telling me I need a break. I'm doing a good job, even if no one else is saying that to me. How can I advocate for myself so that this doesn't happen again? Those are areas of compassion.
Speaker 1:Use journaling to do some reflection on what's working for you and what's not. And then the next pillar in the self-leadership of well-being is presence and practicing presence. So that could mean getting to work just a little bit earlier just to kind of settle yourself, if you are having some anxiety about going into work, but you know for sure this is where you need to be and you need to work through some things. Get to work earlier, don't clock in, but get to work earlier Just to kind of settle yourself and understand. You know what's the rhythm of the unit. Sit in the back in the break room just to kind of gather yourself, give yourself time to just understand the flow of what's going on. And then practicing presence when you are away from work meaning finding ways to not focus on work when you are away from work so that your brain and your nervous system can get that downtime.
Speaker 1:And the other one is rest and recovery, and that could be planning. That could be any hobby that you do. That could also be sleep, could be planning. That could be any hobby that you do. That could also be sleep. So, finding your ways to get rest and recovery just because they're calling you for help doesn't necessarily mean that you should go in and get help, give help Just because they put one item on your another item on your plate. That you're like I don't know how I'm going to get all of this done, doesn't mean you can't go back to your boss and say how am I going to get this done? Which one do you want me to prioritize first? Which one should I prioritize first? Even in that, that is rest and recovery, because if you're a high performer, they want to keep you.
Speaker 1:Here are some other ways, unconventional ways, that I have made well-being a priority for me. I let go of my ego while staying confident in who I am. As nurses, we can have a bit of an ego about what we think should happen, how it should happen, who moved my cheese, this, that and the other. We could be territorial, operatorial over projects, all of that and it does nothing but stir up your stress. I let go of my ego, realize that the machine that I work with I am not the owner of. I am here to do what you've asked me to do in my own way. Yes, I work autonomously and I love to work autonomously. I am very adamant about being in positions to where you pay me for my knowledge, not for you to tell me what to do all day long. So that's probably the piece of my ego that I do not let go. That's probably and I would say that is more so a confidence in who I am. But I also understand that people have a way of what they want to happen and how they want it to happen, and it is for me to let go of my ego and help meet them halfway.
Speaker 1:Number two I took time away from work when things were getting frustrating, like when I just knew I'd hit that wall of burnout. I was like, oh, it's time to take a break. What are your? What is your week to be off? What is your week to be off? When are you taking trips? All of that, and so I'd plan it out. I very rarely worked overtime. I probably worked overtime when I was at the bedside, maybe three times out of the year, but it was usually right before I was going on vacation. So I knew I had the capacity to give just a little bit more. If you've been working overtime nonstop, you need a break. You're not going to last in nursing.
Speaker 1:Next, I set boundaries of what I could and or would not do. It kind of goes back to what I was saying early about your no and how people never thought that I was saying no. There were times when I said no and they knew I was saying no, but I redirected them in a different direction, even my leaders. So set your understand what your boundaries are, what you can set boundaries around and activate it. And lastly, for my well-being, I went to conferences to fill my cup and I did not always expect my leadership ie, I did not always give them the power to send me to a conference. I did expect them to pay for my days that I was there, full day's work while I was there. I mean, that's the least that you can do and I'm more than likely using my tuition reimbursement. But yeah, I found a way to either stay with someone or whatever the case may be, but the conference was growth. That was for me. Yes, I come back and I bring that back to the unit, but it's really for me and that is where I've received the most growth. So if you've not been to a nursing conference, get your tail there very quickly. You have no idea how much it refreshes you and reminds you of why you became a nurse.
Speaker 1:Every person can have a long career in nursing and healthcare by really understanding that growing your nursing career is a journey and not a sprint. So here are some things that you need to do to make sure you have a long career in nursing Understand your why. Make sure you focus on career flexibility. Don't stay stagnant, like you're expected to move, even if it's a lateral move. A lateral move is growth as much growth as a forward move and making sure that you're staying on top of your learning and your education. Have a focus on your long-term career vision, your growth mindset and setting goals. If you have not set goals on where you want to be five years from now, or just goals in general of maybe there's a position that you see, then make sure you're working your way backwards to say, okay, here's what they've done and here's what I might want to do Take risks and make sure that you're focusing on developing your professional brand, on developing your professional brand and then, lastly, make well-being your priority.
Speaker 1:It's not fluffy, it's real, and it is there to help relieve you of your anxiety. It is there to help you to be less stressful and to increase joy in the nursing profession so that you can be who you have been created to be, who you've been uniquely positioned to be in this healthcare world, so that you can have joy. There's no such thing as not having joy in your work. If somebody told you that they lied. You can have joy in your work. It just might not be where you are. If it is where you are, you don't feel compelled to leave. You need to go right back through this list and apply it to where you are right now.
Speaker 1:It was great sharing with you today and I hope to see you soon. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with another nurse who may be unsure of where to go next in their career or maybe need some career clarity? Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple podcast. It brings me so much joy and so much encouragement to know this podcast is helping you. Now go, get the career you want and not the one you settle for, and I'll meet you back here next Thursday for another episode. See you soon.
