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Fuel nursing career satisfaction
Evidence-based practice can rejuvenate your career or indicate it's time
for a change

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© 2021 Nurse.com from Relias. All rights reserved.

By Robert G. Hess, Jr.
PhD, RN, FAAN
Executive vice president and chief clinical executive
Recently, I visited my postop wife at the hospital, looking like every other family member. When I told a nurse, Linda, that I was a nurse as well, she said to me, “I’m sorry.” What I believe she meant was that she was sorry I was trapped in a lackluster, sad profession, like she was, and Linda was commiserating. This wasn't the first time I heard this reply from a nurse.
The Linda story sparked 121 reactions, 56 comments and two shares. Interestingly, it also provided an unsought framework and lead for insights about evidence-based practice in an evidence-based career.
Tranforming your practice
Follow the Evidence to Up-To-Date Practice
. Researchers have delved into every nursing specialty, changing the way things are done. Evidence has rightfully raised questions about almost every traditional practice. This is a heady time for the science of nursing, so a nurse who says that he or she is doing a job in the same way isn’t paying attention.
And research-related changes have rejuvenated a lot of us. Constant new evidence disrupts, explores and transforms old practices. It should keep us questioning our practice every day in an intoxicating way. Linda, you’re missing the good stuff.
" ...no nurse could possibly be doing the same job in the same old way if he or she incorporated new evidence into the practice."
Knowing when to move on
Nurses who say they are burnt out are not just turning a phrase. Burnout is real and has been precisely measured for decades. Instruments such as the
Maslach Burnout Inventory- Medical Personnel Form
rate healthcare professionals’ responses to statements like “I feel emotionally drained from my work,” “I have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job,” and “I don't really care what happens to some patients.” Other surveys provide signals of job fatigue with concepts such as intent to leave for when it’s time to change jobs long before we consciously think we’re ready to make a switch.
Measuring satisfaction
Nursing Workplace Satisfaction Questionnaire
includes survey items about how much you enjoy your job, doing your job and the people you work with, lending sufficient psychometrically tested reliability and validity to your responses to properly evaluate your work situation.
Here are a few simple steps to make sure that evidence guides both your practice and your career:
Join your specialty group’s professional organization and attend events that report the latest practices.
Subscribe to specialty journals and skim them for evidence-based changes in practice and relevant research articles when they arrive — before you put them in that pile.
Recognize the signs of burnout in yourself and those around you. You may or may not be able to help a colleague, but you can do something about yourself.
Feeling overly drained, frustrated, fatigued or just used up on a chronic basis may signal you should evaluate your future in your present position, role or even profession. Nursing has more career options than any other profession; take advantage of that.
Examine your employment situation for indicators of job satisfaction by observing the professionals around you. Do your colleagues seem happy? Do they smile? Do they participate in work group activities, such as shared governance councils or committees, or informal gatherings outside of work?
If the people around you are satisfied in their work environment, chances are, you are too. And if you’re not, maybe your co-workers will influence your everyday satisfaction and help you to become more enthused.
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EDITOR'S NOTE:
Robert G. Hess Jr., PhD, RN, FAAN, is OnCourse Learning's executive vice president and chief clinical executive, and founder and CEO of the Forum for Shared Governance. As an editor for Nurse.com, Hess has penned several editorials on career topics. As a presenter at professional conferences, Hess often addresses participants on how to find the right job and steps for building a successful career.