happynurses

The joy of nursing

This weekend I went to work as a nurse for the first time in a while. It was great to feel I had some energy to do a full shift!

I had lovely weekend as I am not embroiled in the politics of the unit any more - there is still a lot for nurses to moan about. The problem is that none of them are looking for solutions or support through happynurses or other means, but go round in circles complaining as if it's someone else's job to do something.

The first principle of coaching is that you must take responsibility for your life - your job, happiness, health and relationships are all a reflection of what choices you have made and the action you have taken.

Things can always be different, but it means you have to DO something different. Look at new jobs, but be clear who you are and which one would make you happy.

Buy the e-book 'How to be Happier at Work' and do the exercises. No-one else cares as much about your life and happiness as YOU.

Get a coach and make rapid progress - call me or email me, happynurses!

Being a great leader

I was reviewing the book 'Employee Well-being and Support' for the Nursing Standard and some important items really leaped out at me. One chapter was about leadership, and it explained some real physical and emotional effects of a poor manager.

It discussed a study that showed nurses who had a manager who was seen as unfair and punitive by workers, raised nurses' blood pressure! It was measurably lower on days when they had manager who was seen as fair. Imagine, just by treating people badly, or well, you can affect their blood pressure and over a period of time, their cardio-vascular health.

Be a great leader and help your team to have better health, happynurses!

RCN congress - reflections

The two days I spent at the RCN Congress were highly educational, although not in the way I had perhaps intended. I managed to visit the exhibition space a few times and talk to some of the exhibitors, look at the free items they were giving away, and also Think about what I would/will do next year.

I realised that the reason I had not done more was that I am at the beginning of the marketing cycle with the brand etc and also that I have finite amounts of time and energy.

It was great to hear from so many passionate and inspiring nurses about projects they are doing. I attended a coaching seminar and there was lots of interest in the topic - again good for me.

I now have lots of info to follow up, as well as my first really positive meeting today re training for nurses on life balance, so am feeling like there are really good things happening.....

What do you feel right now, happynurses?

valuing staff

An item in the Nursing Standard last week stated that doctors have 40 times more money invested in their post-qualification training than nurses....40 TIMES!!!

Then I go to work and find an email saying that all non-mandatory training for nurses is suspended.......and they wonder why nurses are demoralised. Our measly one-fortieth of the doctors' training budget is cut to nil, except those training days we have to do to remain safe practitioners.

How do they expect innovative, educated nurses to stay in this environment? With many nurses now graduates, and with some very transferable skills, they could be looking at mass exodus...who knows? Most nurses still want to be nurses, but they want to feel valued and have some kind of career progression, and to be treated the same as medical staff.

Start to point out these discrepancies! Be assertive, happynurses.

How to Be a Happier Nurse......

For a few quick ideas, look at this www.squidoo.com/happynurses

Read, print, pass on to your friends, enjoy, be happy, happynurses!

Another first

What a great day! I held my first seminar as a promoter on Saturday with the ace Nick Williams. 20 people turned up to be informed and inspired, and we spent a lovely day together laughing, learning and listening - to Nick and each other..

It was wonderful to see those who were new to Nick's work opening up to new possibilities, and I also heard some great things that I needed to remember right now in my own business and life.

Nick and I went out for a curry on Friday night, with an old friend of his, Terry, whom I had met before. They have met some of the biggest names in personal development and lived really interesting lives, so it was a really good evening. To think that 8 years ago I attended a seminar that Nick held and I was nearly too scared to say 'thankyou' to him and here I was dining out and discussing projects we could do together was incredible in one way, and really easy in another.

What would you love to do that seems out of reach right now, happynurses?

Happiness at work e-book

Hi all! I am in the process of getting my first e-book edited, and it is out for the first readers to comment on too! I have had some great feedback so far, and feel confident to release it out into the world very soon.

The membership website is getting the last tech bits finished. I have a short film to go on the site, and have decided that the 'Be Happier at Work' audio should be free to download to all new members.

I have had a great idea for coaching links, which will be very exciting, fun. challenging and lucrative if it comes off.

I am beginning to hear back from some of the letters and emails I have sent recently - the ABPN, (Association of British Paediatric Nurses) and some RCN groups and nurses have enquired about talks, or are discussing me at their meetings!

I have two articles coming out in the Nursing Standard and one in 'Practice Nursing' in the next couple of months. It seems like a lot of the hard work and tech/ writing/ marketing is beginning to pay off - watch this space for the website completion very very soon.

My first promotional event with another speaker is this weekend so get your ticket at www.nickincheltenham.com if you haven't already and be inspired and motivated by Nick Williams.

Start by thinking about what you would like from happynurses and let me know at claire@happynurses.co.uk!

morale in nursing

Last week's Nursing Standard featured a study from Australia about nurse morale at work.

The main aspects that affected organisational morale were:

• Team interaction
• Patient care provision
• Personal morale

and the main factors for personal morale were:

• Ability to cope
• Team interaction
• Job security
• Communication
• Consultation
• Patient care provision
• Abuse towards registered nurses
• Professional recognition
• Organisational morale.                            (Day G et al, Journal of Nursing management 2007)

So taking the two interwoven lists, how can you start to raise morale on your unit?

• Start with yourself - always.
• Don't wait for someone else to do something, find solutions.
• Praise and compliment your colleagues.
• Ensure you are an effective communicator, and look at ways to improve communication.
• Treat everyone you come into contact with respect.

The organisation may take some time to change but you can change yourself right now!

Let me know how you get on, happynurses.

happiness at work

There has been a new study published into happiness at work.

The top 10 factors that make us happy at work are:

1. Friendly supportive colleagues
2. Enjoyable work
3. Good boss or line manager
4. Good work/life balance
5. Varied work
6. Belief that we are doing something worthwhile
7. Feeling that what we do makes a difference
8. being part of a successful team
9. Recognition for our achievements
10. Competitive salary

How can you improve your own happiness?

• Be more friendly and supportive to colleagues
• sort out your work/life balance with help from a life coach
• remember that nursing is a worthwhile job that makes a difference
• we often have lots of variety working with different staff, patients, and circumstances.

If you do not feel this is true for you, how can you start to make changes - today?

Be happy at work, happynurses.

Mayday for nurses

I was watching an interesting programme this week about the Mayday for Nurses campaign. The programme was interesting, but I am still unsure about the basic idea behind the campaign. Are nurses really 'poor' or does that maintain the 'martyr' image of nurses caring and saving lives to earn a pittance?

Will persuading the Premiership footballers to give up a day's pay REALLY highlight the issue of nurses' salaries to the Government? They can hardly be unaware what we earn, as they agree to it every year.

Some of the football players were lovely - understanding and interested. Some had Mums who are nurses (I worked in the same hospital as Ryan Giggs' Mum when he was the new young thing at Man United!!), and many wanted to help. Others were obviously disinterested - and that is their entitlement.

How would you feel if you were asked to donate a day's pay to a lower paid group?

Should I give a day of mine to a supermarket checkout girl, or burger bar worker?

One other issue that stuck in my mind was that of Noreena Hertz battling to get this done on her own. Once her networking started the links began to form, and she could gain access to the clubs and players, but she would have achieved more by:

• Having a small team to help, and at least one non-patronising mentor
• Preparing herself a bit, so even if she knew nothing about football she could at least recognise the people she had arranged to meet
• Formulating a plan before she started - something to measure success against
• Congratulating herself on her successes (well done to me!)

However, she has done a great job.

What do you want to get done?

Create a small team and find a mentor, learn what is important, formulate a plan, celebrate success....

I am off to do it now for my happynurses vision.

The arm is much more comfortable, thanks!

Keep on going, happynurses......