Helping New Nurses Find Their Way: The Art of Saying Yes

A Preceptor’s Example

Photo by Ed Eckstein Photo by Ed Eckstein

AJN’s Transition to Practice column is designed to help new nurses in their first year at the bedside. In this month’s column, “The Art of Saying Yes,” Amanda Anderson explains how as a new nurse she learned the benefits (to herself and her patients) of going the extra mile at work. She describes the surprising personal and professional benefits that come from “the times you choose to say yes when you might just as easily have deferred.”

Anderson paints a vivid picture of her first days on the job as a nurse: The fear of making mistakes, the feeling of being a useless novice, the shame of not always being able to keep up with seasoned staff. She was fortunate, though, to have an expert mentor in those early days. Her preceptor was an experienced nurse who modeled the art of saying yes—an art that might be described as a willingness to leap in to help when not required to do so: to take on a housekeeping task, for example, or pitch in unasked to help another nurse whose day is spinning out of control.

“There is no […]

2016-11-21T13:00:48-05:00November 18th, 2016|career, Nursing|3 Comments
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Superlatives: An Alternate List for Nurses Week

During Nurses Week (May 6–12), the hospital where I work gives out endearing little trophies as awards for “nursing superlatives.” Ballots are distributed with predetermined categories, and the categories are usually fun and relatively straightforward. They include:

  • Best at Starting an IV
  • Most Likely to Crack a Raunchy Joke before Noon
  • Most Likely to Cry at Some Point during a Shift
  • Funniest Nurse
  • Most “Germ-a-Phobic” Nurse

Some less straightforward categories.

Illustrating the idea of teamwork in nursing. by Geralt/via Pixabay

The contests and catered meals, fun gifts, and light-hearted spirit of Nurses Week make it one of the nicest work weeks of the year, and we all come out of it feeling appreciated. But, in consideration of nursing superlatives, I’d like to propose some new categories. Although these titles won’t fit on the trophy plates, I think they’re worthy of recognition.

2022-05-05T12:30:39-04:00May 13th, 2016|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|6 Comments
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Check my Conduct: Committing to a Better Way to Act with Colleagues

Christina Purpora, PhD, RN, is an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions. She has 30 years of hospital nursing experience.

Kindness quotation. Photo by Steve Robbins/Flickr by Steve Robbins/Flickr Creative Commons

I wonder whether any of my nurse colleagues can recall having said or done something less than kind to a peer at work. Looking back over 30 years of nursing, I am aware of times that I could have been kinder. Not too long ago, the way that Emily—a less experienced nurse who was new to our unit—conducted herself in response to my reaction to her request for help taught me that I ought to consider a better way to act.

Request for Help
I was walking out of a patient’s room when Emily greeted me by name, then said, “Ms. S has one of the new IV pumps and the alarm keeps going off. I can’t figure out what’s wrong. Can you please help me?”

I felt annoyed at her for making one more demand on my time when I could barely keep up with my current assignment. Rolling my eyes, I curtly replied, “Emily, I think you can handle it. You had the in-service like everybody else.”

Seemingly unrattled by my terse retort, Emily stood her ground. “Yes,” she told me, “I used the […]

2016-11-21T13:01:47-05:00November 10th, 2015|career, narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Interprofessional Collaboration and Education: Making an Ideal a Reality

Photo courtesty of Penn Medicine. Photo courtesty of Penn Medicine.

We hear a lot about interprofessional collaboration, the potentially dynamic and enlightening process of sharing knowledge across disciplines to improve patient care, but what’s being done to make this a reality?

The promotion of interprofessional collaboration is one focus of an ongoing national initiative by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, as described in “Interprofessional Collaboration and Education,” an article in the March issue of AJN.

To close the gap between policy bullet points and the reality of daily work for nurses is neither impossible nor inevitable; it depends on smaller coalitions and the engagement of multiple organizations—but also, one imagines, a willingness to engage in inquiry and to try new and imperfect processes at the local level that may need refinement over time. The article is free, but here are a couple of paragraphs that give an a good overview of why it matters and where we are:

Interprofessional collaboration is based on the premise that when providers and patients communicate and consider each other’s unique perspective, they can better address the multiple factors that influence the health of individuals, families, and communities. No one provider can do all of this alone.

However, shifting the culture of health care away from the “silo” system, in […]

2016-11-21T13:02:49-05:00March 25th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|0 Comments
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Drive for Show, Putt for Dough: A Cliche With Some Truth for Nursing

By Clint Lange, BSN, RN, a MICU nurse at University Hospital, San Antonio, Texas.

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons

Before becoming a registered nurse, I was a resident in the wonderful world of professional athletics, where cliches are fed to you almost as much as protein shakes and supplements.

I was a golfer, and golfers are the worst in terms of cliches. I sprained my eyes rolling them so much while listening to desperate golfers try to rationalize their poor performances or give themselves some hope. “I gave it 110%.” Ever take a math class? Because what you are saying isn’t possible. “It ain’t over till it’s over.” After that abysmal last hole, you are, in truth, officially mathematically eliminated from this tournament. For you, it’s over.

I’ll admit it, I’m cynical. I didn’t see the merit in cliches then and to a great extent I still don’t. But I have something else to admit; I’m kind of missing cliches. It seems one can’t quit them cold turkey without having withdrawal.

Or it could simply be that I played in a golf tournament recently for the first time in years, and I couldn’t help thinking about one of golf’s most-used phrases: Drive for show, putt for dough. It simply means that driving the ball is very flashy and fun to watch, but it is generally the guys […]

2016-11-21T13:02:52-05:00March 13th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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