Your Nursing Career Mitochondia
We all know that mitochondria are the energy-producing powerhouses within each cell of our bodies, synthesizing ATP (adenosine triphosphate) for us around the clock. In terms of your nursing career, what are the mitochondria that power your engine? What impetus, desires, goals, or motivations drive you forward? If you need to stoke the fire of your nursing career, the spark cannot be created in a vacuum.A nursing career needs a great deal of feeding and watering; there are so many moving parts, and there ' s a lot to do in order to keep them all happy and flourishing. In the course of your career, you will need personal an...
Source: Digital Doorway - February 8, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development career management careers healthcare careers nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing Source Type: blogs
Feeding Your Nursing Career
Your nursing career is a lot like your body; it needs to be fed, watered, exercised, and well-rested in order to function optimally. What kinds of nutrition does your career need? What nutritional deficits does your nursing career demonstrate? Are you willing to feed your career as well as you feed your own body?How do you choose to optimize the nutrition that you feed to your body every day? Are you conscientious about eating enough fruits and vegetables? Do you monitor your intake of saturated fat? Are you drinking enough water and exercising? Do you avoid processed foods and soda? As you care for your body, you should a...
Source: Digital Doorway - January 31, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development career management careers healthcare careers nurse nurse careers nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Nurses, Microscopes, and Telescopes
Some nurses appear to use a microscope when looking at their career options. If we take the microscope metaphor further, picture a glass slide being placed on the apparatus upon which the nurse has placed a solution containing her limited perception of what she can do with her career. What will she see? Only what she knows she is able to see.On the other hand, picture the Hubble Telescope; it searches the known and unknown universe for what we already know is there, as well as what we don ’t even yet know exists. Can we view our nursing careers with the same grand vision?Micro vs MacroOn both my podcast,The Nurse Keith S...
Source: Digital Doorway - January 24, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development career management careers healthcare careers nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing Source Type: blogs
The Digital Doorway Nursing Blog Turns 12!
Well folks, it ' s hard to believe, but this nursing blog turns 12 today! And after all this time, Digital Doorway isn ' t even a teenager yet! What ' s up with that? But seriously, 12 years of blogging is significant, and I have none other but you to thank, Dear Reader, for this blog ' s continual success and global reach.There ' s not really much to say other than a resounding expression of gratitude for those of you who read this blog, share its content, and otherwise encourage me to stay on the blogging path. I began this journey back when most of us didn ' t even know what we were doing, and it ' s been fun to see how...
Source: Digital Doorway - January 18, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: blogging blogs Digital Doorway birthday nurse nurses nursing nursing blogs Source Type: blogs
Nurse Practitioners Rock 2017!
Ten or fifteen years ago, many ordinary healthcare consumers may not have known much -- if anything -- about nurse practitioners. Moreover, only a small percentage would have received care from an NP. But in January of 2017, nurse practitioners are gaining ground like never before, so many nurses who are thinking about career mobility are likely considering the NP or APRN path.U.S. News and World Report Is On the MarkSome of you may have seen the substantive articlepublished by U.S. News and World Report in early January of this year. It was their annual job rankings for the top 100 jobs in the U.S., and nurse practitioner...
Source: Digital Doorway - January 18, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: advanced practice nurses advanced practice registered nurses APRN APRNs career career development career management NP NPs nurse practitioners nursing Source Type: blogs
Finding Meaning In Your Nursing Career
We all seek meaning in various aspects of our lives, and when we work in nursing and healthcare, we often look for meaning and value in our lives as professional nurses. Finding that meaning can be central to our identity and relative happiness, both personally and professionally. In his beautiful book,Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, author and poet David Whyte makes the following statement:At its simplest, good work is work that makes sense, and that grants sense and meaning to the one who is doing it and to those affected by it.Whyte ' s book is brimming with nuggets related to work and c...
Source: Digital Doorway - January 9, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development careers healthcare careers nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Your Nursing Career: Intentions and Positive Change
When the New Year begins in earnest, many of us nurses start to consider what we ' d like to accomplish in our personal lives and nursing careers. We can run around like chickens afraid that the sky is falling all around us, or we can set our intentions and plan for an inspired year.Hindsight Can Serve YouHindsight is sometimes said to be 20/20, and I believe that this is actually a very good thing. Looking back on our accomplishments (or lack thereof) in the previous year, we can accumulate a great deal of data when it comes to making prudent choices for the new year.As you assess last year in terms of your career traject...
Source: Digital Doorway - January 3, 2017 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development career management careers healthcare careers nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing Source Type: blogs
Nurses, The Holidays, and Work-Life Balance
There ' s no doubt about it, nurses; it ' s the holiday season, and many of us are feeling the pressure in our personal and professional lives. How do the holidays impact you, your mental and emotional health, your spiritual well-being, and your professional responsibilities as a nurse?Working During the HolidaysMany of you who are employed in hospitals are likely working during the holidays, perhaps even on your favorite holiday. You may miss special moments with family and friends, even while you do your best to spread cheer amidst your colleagues and your patients and their families.Having to show up for work at 7am on ...
Source: Digital Doorway - December 19, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: career nurse nurse career nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Hey Nurse; Got Resistance?
Have you ever found yourself resisting change? Has your nursing career stalled because you ' re afraid of taking a risk or doing something different? Change is indeed the only constant in the universe (aside from death and taxes), so it ' s something that we simply need to get comfortable with---over and over again!Magical ThinkingMany nurses and non-nurses alike can engage in magical thinking at various times throughout their careers. "Oh, I don ' t need a BSN; they ' ll never close the doors on associate degree nurses. " Or maybe something like this: "Start a business as a nurse entrepreneur? I ' ll just tell people I ha...
Source: Digital Doorway - December 12, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development career management careers healthcare careers nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing Source Type: blogs
Finding Your Center as a Nurse...and as a Human Being
In some spiritual traditions, there is a notion of finding one ' s center, the balancing point---the fulcrum--upon which your life can balance. In your nursing career, finding your center is an important practice, even as you and your life change with time. The center of your career may very well be a moving target; are you currently in touch with yours?A Moving TargetThe center of your nursing career---the place at which you find your deepest satisfaction and soul work---is indeed a moving target. When you first graduate from nursing school, your satisfaction may come from performing your first catheterization or central ...
Source: Digital Doorway - November 28, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Finding Your Center as a Nurse...and Human Being
In some spiritual traditions, there is a notion of finding one ' s center, the balancing point---the fulcrum--upon which your life can balance. In your nursing career, finding your center is an important practice, even as you and your life change with time. The center of your career may very well be a moving target; are you currently in touch with yours?A Moving TargetThe center of your nursing career---the place at which you find your deepest satisfaction and soul work---is indeed a moving target. When you first graduate from nursing school, your satisfaction may come from performing your first catheterization or central ...
Source: Digital Doorway - November 28, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Giving Thanks For Nurses and Nursing
Friends and colleagues, at this time of year when gratitude moves to the center of many of our celebrations, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for nurses, nursing, and the profession that has sustained me and put food on my table and gas in my car for more than twenty years. Do you feel as grateful for nursing and nurses as I do?When I became a nurse in 1996, I was a 32-year-old step-father of a teenager, my wife was in college, and I was in need of a remunerative and flexible career that would carry me into my thirties and beyond after floundering throughout my twenties. With several nurses on my dad ' s sid...
Source: Digital Doorway - November 21, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: nurse nurses nursing Source Type: blogs
Building Your Nursing Career House
As a nurse, the house of your nursing career must stand on a solid foundation; once that foundation has been laid, your career can be built in the form of any structure you see fit. How are you building the house of your nursing career?Start With A FoundationEvery career must be built upon a foundation of skill, knowledge, and expertise that serves as the underpinnings of the trajectory of that professional process. Formal education is one way that we begin to build that foundation, although in previous generations apprenticeship was the vehicle of acquiring what was needed to succeed in a particular trade.As a nurse, your...
Source: Digital Doorway - November 14, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development careers nurse nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Be Yourself, Nurses---Everyone Else Is Taken
Owning and stepping into your own genius as a nurse is important; and genius is, of course, relative for all nurses. At times, we can lose heart and feel that we just can ' t become the person or professional we thought we could be; however, seeking our own individual path is paramount when it comes to creating a career that feels tailor-made just for us, and not just a path someone else said was the best one to follow. Whether you feel like an impostor or your career has grown stale, there ' s nothing you can be other than yourself; and if you ' re trying terribly hard to be just like someone else (or do what others ...
Source: Digital Doorway - November 7, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development career management careers nurse nurse career nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
Does Your Nursing Career Feel Haunted?
If your nursing career is feeling haunted and scary, never fear; there ' s always a way to change course and pivot in a new direction. Feeling held hostage by your career is no fun, and it ' s entirely within your power to put a halt to the negativity and dissatisfaction and become a happy nurse once again. Nurse, be haunted no more!Assessment To The Rescue!The good old nursing process is a mainstay of nurse decision-making and action, and you can actually use various aspects of the nursing process to alter the course of your situation.Always remember that the first thing we nurses do in any given circumstance is gather da...
Source: Digital Doorway - October 31, 2016 Category: Nursing Tags: career career development career management careers healthcare careers nurse nurse career nurse careers nurses nursing nursing careers Source Type: blogs
