From A Nurse's View
I like my job. Take note: "...like my job." Nursing is a career. A very rewarding one for many. Working at a hospital is just a job. If I stopped working there, I'd still be a nurse. I'll always be a nurse even if I never have a nursing job again. Same thing goes with being a psychotherapist. I'll always be a psychotherapist. I just don't have a psychotherapy job anymore. A job is just a job. Don't confuse your job with who you are. You are not your job. Many people "take their work home" with them every night. Think of the husband that has a horrible day at work then comes home and yells at his wife and kids. I learned very quickly as a mental health professional to separate my personal life from my work life. It would've been too overbearing for me to think about my suicidal clients when I went to sleep at night. I had to learn to know what my boundaries were, in order to "stay sane" myself. In the end, I decided to look for a more flexible and fast changing line of work, but with the caveat that it would have to have more opportunities for personal growth.
The Value in Nursing
For me, the greatest value of nursing is the flexibility. I can work day or night, in hospitals or go door to door, in big cities or small rural areas. There is a new set of patients every few days, so rarely do I see the same face after a couple of days. That's a main personal growth factor for me. As a psychotherapist, I learned from other people's stories and experiences. Nursing provides that except with constantly new and fresh perspectives every week. And the time factor is great as well. I can work one, two, three or more days a week. That flexibility leaves me more time to focus on ventures outside of nursing, like searching for passive income opportunities, for example. To be quite honest, being able to spend more time on my fish tank was a major factor in deciding to go into nursing in the very beginning.
Monetarily, it's pretty good pay per hour. And the chance to work extra shifts at a hospital is abundant, which can offer pay rates more than twice my normal rate for the same amount of time, doing the same amount of work. Indeed, looking at the pay stub after the one time I worked an extra shift at the hospital still leaves me wondering if it there was some sort of accounting error that I benefitted from. I made more money per hour as a contracting psychotherapist, but I work more hours in nursing every week.
Rewards Follow Behaviors
Yeah, I know that those look like selfish values. My line of thinking, though, is that people will do their best work when provided with the right incentives. I didn't used to think this way. But life and experience has shown me otherwise. People will produce the kind of output that is equivalent to their perceived incentive. This is not just a money thing. If you believe that you will go to heaven after you die, then you will do the things here on earth that will get you past the pearly gates. And those on the receiving end of your work will get what you put in. Look at Mother Teresa. She believed she would go to heaven if she did God's work. So she did her best to help others, and many people benefitted. When nurses perceive that the incentives are just right for them (money, flexible scheduling, helping people, preventing deaths, etc.) they'll do what it takes in order to realize those incentives and keep those rewards coming. And for nurses, this leads to greater patient satisfaction (I am told that many of my patients leave great comments about me). Whether people want to admit it or not, that's how the general population operates. The motivation behind behaviors is some sort of reward or perceived incentive. It may be overt recognition like a really fat paycheck, or a very subtle self-reward like a mental pat on the back. Either way, like it or not, what you do is done based on a reward. People often distance themselves from this because there is a perceived negative connotation with the word "reward" when it comes to doing things for others. They like to think of their actions as unadulterated by alternative motives, purely altruistic in nature, or not due to self-interest. People like to be perceived by others in a good light, and doing something for another based on self-interest is a no-no. This does not mean that you have to be cold or distant with others. You can be providing someone else a valuable product or service with the sole intention of helping others. But there is an underlying reason that you want to help others, even if it's free to the receiver. You may just want to have a good feeling about your actions, but it's still a reward.
And think of the reasons why you can have steak for dinner, a home to live in, or a computer to read this. It's because the creators of these items are interested in putting food on their plates (not yours), a home of their own to live in (not you), or a luxury toy to play with themselves. Because they know you will buy what's best for you, they will do what's best for you, in order to get what's best for them. Won't people trade off those things that they have an abundance of and are willing to part with (skills, for example) in order to receive something in return (money, for example)? And in the process, won't the other party(s) benefit from the exchange (a person is willing to trade money or their trust - something that they have an abundance of - in order to receive good nursing care (the thing they're hoping to get in exchange))?
It sounds simplistic and perhaps even narrow-minded. What the heck. A professor of mine in grad school said that if he could describe me in one word, it would be, "Dogmatic." Strangely, I was quite flattered.
Listen To Your Inner Critic
Don't limit yourself or your ideas because they may sound "greedy." It's all subjective. One man's greed is another man's ticket to living a quality life. If not for those greedy people that invent expensive medical devices, then your next door neighbor may have not survived his last heart attack. If there is opportunity for you to earn an income offering a product or service that someone else values and is willing to pay for, go for it. Should I stop being a nurse because my main goal in life is to improve myself? I don't think so. It's because I want certain things in life is the reason that my patients benefit. Perhaps with more time, I'll have a change of reason. It's happened it before. However, until that time comes, I feel good about where I am in life right now. Whatever you do in life, there will always be people there to criticize you; you can count on that. But you are your most important critic. Why waste your time talking yourself out of a potential opportunities when there are others ready and willing to do that for you?-RY
Great, great post.
And I really needed to read today, badly!
Thanks!
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Thanks, Kim. The post reflects how I feel at the moment. I had fun writing it.
Cheers!
-RY
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