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Nursing tips

From Student to Nursing Instructor

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In December 2017, I graduated with my AS in Nursing. 5 years later, I am teaching at the same place where I was a student. There are pros and cons of being a young instructor. It is nice to be able to remember how students are feeling at this stage in their nursing career, however, it is difficult for me and students alike to keep the boundary between a friendship vs. a professional student-teacher relationship… especially considering we are either the same age or I am much younger than the students I am teaching.

Teaching content I practice to a student is a lot different than precepting a new grad nurse. What comes naturally now has to be put into words and create a fine balance between explaining in lay man’s terms to keeping medical terminology.

All that being said, I relate to Benner’s theory of nursing competence. As my students travel from novice to beginner to competent nurses, I am traveling that same continuum as an instructor.

What I have learned in my first year of teaching:

  • There are tiers of instructors.. A Nursing Instructor is different than a Professor of Nursing.. there are many years of tenure and expertise to acheive that title
  • All students must be treated equal. This may sound obvious, however this rule applies in situations that you may not realize. One student or one problem that arises can cause policies to be created that may seem harsh or controlling.. (i.e not allowing Zoom links even when sick with Covid, strict uniform guidelines (buttons not zippers), no recording). There is a reason.
  • Accrediting bodies like TJC do not go away
  • If it isn’t documented, it’s not done still applies
  • A 2 hour lecture can take a full 8 hour day to create
  • There is a serious art to test writing- Nursing Process, Clinical Judgement, Maslow’s, distractors.. Oh, my
  • Managing a classroom while lecturing is very challenging.. Remembering what you said, advancing the PPT, checking the Zoom room, answering questions, keeping students engaged
    I LOVE active learning
  • Incorporating an extra class activity involves many members of faculty
  • What is best for the students is not always what makes them happiest
  • It is okay to not know the answer- Nursing is always changing

I have learned so much already and love my new job. Being a part of a student’s nursing journey is so rewarding.

Until next shift,

Shania

The Meaning of a Pin

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Shania Lynn The Cure For The Common Read Photo As a student nurse, the one day that you look forward to is even of greater significance than college graduation.. nursing pinning. The nurse’s pin dates back to the early Maltese cross in which a pin was worn meaning a service of Christianity. The servants would care for others with communicable illnesses. Since then, the meaning of the pin has transformed throughout different cultures and programs. Florence Nightingale, the creator of the first structured program for nurses, eventually adopted the pin as a symbol of knowledge, servitude, and compassion for the vulnerable. Today, all nursing programs (and other non-nursing programs) culminate with the ceremony of pinning.

As a practicing RN, we receive different pins to put on our badge. These include acknowledgements such as various awards, employee of the month, degrees, and years of service, among others.

Earlier this month, I received my 5 years of service pin. It feels like I have been a nurse for so much longer, while also feeling like just yesterday I spoke at my own nursing pinning ceremony. In 5 years of graduating with my ASN, I completed a BSN, got trained in chemotherapy and Pediatrics, became certified in Medical-Surgical Nursing and ACLS, worked as a Charge Nurse on weekends and nights during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and now have the greatest honor of teaching last semester nursing students at a community college.

While I receive my 5-year pin, I have the honor of providing the nursing pin to all of my students. And in reminiscence of my own pinning, I recite the nurse’s prayer:

Give us strength and wisdom when others need our touch

A soothing word to speak to us, our hearts yearn for so much

Give us joy and laughter to lift a weary soul

Pour in us compassion to make the broken whole

Give us gentle, healing hands for those placed in our care

A blessing to those who need us, this is our Nurse’s prayer

Until next shift,

Shania

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2694101/#:~:text=The%20nursing%20pin%20is%20a,symbol%20of%20service%20to%20Christianity.

Building a Life you Want

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Build a life you want and save for it. This is a FIRE concept in which you can still prepare to be Financially Independent and Retire Early, while also living a life that you desire.

As nurses, we learn to prioritize. We start our day prioritizing as we choose which patient to see first. We prioritize med passes, delegation, admissions, discharges, and every MD order for each patient that we have in our care.

But, we often do not prioritize ourselves. Some of us go with the flow. Some stay in current jobs for years because it is comfortable or familiar. Others go about their daily routines and only imagine pursuing hobbies or passions and never act on them.

I made a difficult decision to leave a job that I helped create for myself because it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I came home frustrated every day for the 6 months I was trying to make it work. I started to realize that the position may not have been a good fit for my strengths. Sitting at a desk all day waiting on the decisions of others was just not a good fit for a Type A personality, who is used to working an active 12-hr bedside nursing shift. I knew I had to make a change for my mental health, especially considering I did not believe the position would improve for my liking. With change, comes difficult conversations.

Intellectually, I knew that for my mental well-being, I had to leave my newly acquired job. I received an opportunity to teach. A position I thought of years before as I was always more textbook smart than I ever was clinically. I took the chance and this is the best career I have ever been in as an RN. I LOVE disease processes. I LOVE encouraging others. I LOVE speaking. All of my loves and strengths seem to be combined into one position that found me in a time I was seriously struggling. All of these loves, plus a schedule that works for family, hobbies, and voiceover 🙂

I would never have found my place as a nurse if I did not listen to myself or take myself as priority. Now, I am looking forward to furthering my education. I am basing my specific program and university off of what will work with my priorities in life: teaching, voiceover, fitness, and family/friends. Rather than sacrificing any of these loves, I will find a program that fits into my current way of living because that is making myself a priority.

Build a life that you want and save for it.

Until next shift,

Shania

It’s okay to take up space

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Do you ever say sorry out of habit? “I’m sorry for..”

Making it into the grocery line first

Being in the med room as another nurse walks in

Filing a valid complaint

Asking for a favor

Waking up a doctor for a patient need/concern

I have a habit of apologizing for things that 1.) are not my fault 2.) unintentionally inconveniencing others, 3.) allowing others needs to be greater than my own. In other words, I say “I’m sorry” for things that those words are not even intended for. The word “sorry” stems from a word meaning sorrow or sorrowful. Do I feel sorrow for any of the above scenarios? Of course, not.

While out wedding dress shopping for my sister, my sister was constantly apologizing for bringing more dresses into the dressing room or needing a different size, etc. Finally, the sales associate said, “you need to stop saying, ‘I’m sorry’. I told myself that I need to stop saying that because I am allowed to take up space.”

I am allowed to take up space. We should never let ourselves feel less than others. Apologizing for being a customer doesn’t even make sense! Also, we have learned over the years that empathy is way more affective than sympathy which the words ‘I’m sorry” go with. So, allow yourself to take up space in this world like the billions of other humans that walk the earth.

Until next shift,

Shania

Living as an Oxymoron

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Do you ever get a little bit tired of life? Like you’re not really happy, but you don’t wanna die?

“Having anxiety and depression is like feeling tired and scared at the same time. It’s the fear of failure, but no urge to be productive. It’s feeling everything at once, then feeling paralyzingly numb.”

As Em Beihold in her song “Numb Little Bug” and Rich Wilkerson Jr. brings to life, mental health matters. Did you know that female nurses are 70% more likely to die by suicide than female doctors, and nurses, in general, have higher rates of suicide than physicians and even the public (WebMD)?

We screen patients for suicidal and homicidal ideation on admission with questionnaires like the Columbia- Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS).. “Do you ever fall asleep and hope to not wake up?”

“Have you ever had any thoughts of killing yourself?”

“Have you ever planned to end your life?”

Some patients laugh at these questions or make jokes about living with their spouse, however, more increasingly patients rate positive on these scales and require closer surveillance. The importance of checking in with our co workers also cannot go unnoticed. Working a stressful job on top of having anxiety, depression, or other mental health condition creates a difficult shift in itself. As patients are presenting with higher levels of aggression and/or are increasingly sicker, the job becomes more taxing. The struggle with mental health is that it is not often seen, unless carefully observed.

Taking time to fully listen to others, honestly answer “How are you?”, and having a healthy level of self-awareness is crucial to promote a healthy mindset.

Knowing that violence, depression, and anxiety are not “just part of the job,” allows solutions to be made. Speak up and speak out for yourself and others’ wellbeing. I am lucky to only have anxiety, rather than the anxiety-depression duo. Every day I take my pill and work on myself to create a life worth living.

If you ever need someone to talk to (even if we have never met), send me a message.

Until next shift,

Shania

Defensive Medicine: Protect Thyself

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The NIH defines defensive medicine as “departing from normal medicine practice as a safeguard from litigation.” In essence, it is over-prescribing to prevent from getting sued due to missing any clinical components. But this isn’t the type of defensive medicine I am referring to. The type of defensive medicine I am talking about involves appropriately and effectively documenting in order to cover your a**. We often use the improper term of CYA documentation.

“If it’s not charted, it wasn’t done.” This is a phrase I heard all of the time in nursing school. I understood this intellectually when it came to nursing skills, procedures, and medications, however, I didn’t realize that I would need to document a physician response, tagging and changing IV tubing, patient education, patient mobility, etc. Even the most mundane nursing activities must be documented.

In order to protect yourself from lawsuits or chart reviews, we have to chart everything that we do to our patient during our shift. It always made me laugh when I had to document inappropriate patient comments or physician responses that were either rude or incomplete. Documentation is what saves your butt. Even though it’s tedious, it is necessary.

Remember to CYA.

Until next shift, Shania

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615-856-8181
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