No job is easy but some are harder. If you have been to hospital due to some serious emergency, you understand the anxiety, the fear and those countable moments you can never forget. Imagine how it would be for nurses or doctors or any other healthcare worker who is working in that kind of environment? 

You might argue part of it because someone dear to you was taken care of there BUT the responsibility that the healthcare workers handle is daunting nonetheless. It’s a passion to save lives that leads them to go for this career but the downsides are a daily friend. 

With Pandemic, the situation is worse. The amount of burnout and anxiety that not only the nurses or doctors have but also their family members face is unimaginable. 

So lets list down the factors that lead to them:

• Poor staffing system
• Long working hours
• Lack of right support
• Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization
• High-stress environment
• Lack of sleep and proper rest

Let’s get to these points one by one:

• Poor Staffing System

We have talked about this before. The fact that the staffing problem cannot be solved in a day is understandable. Gradually smart solutions like PerDiemz and several other such purposeful apps are paving their way to handle the problem. 

How PerDiemz is Modernizing and Simplifying the Nurse Scheduling in the Healthcare Industry?

With lack of staff needed at the right time, most of the nurses are forced to work overtime which brings us to the next issue — long working hours.

• Long working hours

The job of nurses is anyways not easy and when they are to put in long hours with no sleep, it affects everything right from their body, their mental health and their immunity. It might take time for a new nurse to get used to this and with time, they might but the point of how negatively long working hours affect nurses cannot be ignored. 

• Lack of right support

The culture of your workplace matters a lot. When it comes to healthcare, it mostly depends on the main team handing the place. They need to have a vision, protocols with both patient and staff oriented approach. 

Many a times, there are issues of lack of teamwork and collaboration, differences in opinions on how to handle patients, dearth of cooperation and peer bullying lead to the staff including that of nurses to leave the job. 

• Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization

We often tend to forget that nurses and other healthcare professionals are also human beings who have families, friends and problems just like any of us. While many of our personal lives take a heavy toll on us – so it does for them. 

While treating patients, they are expected to be strong-headed, not connect much since the work demands focus and presence of mind. Practical approach is preferred leading to detachment. This has its pros but cons too. 

• High-stress environment

This is something you cannot avoid and let’s face it — there is nothing you can do about it. We are talking about patients and their lives here and there will come times when things will be stressful for everyone in the operating room including the nurses. The nurses in Post-acute care and emergency rooms face stress issues. 

Other factors like burnout, overwork, lack of team support can only add more to it. 

• Lack of sleep and proper rest

We have gone about this before but we feel the need to repeat it to state how important this is. Any human being or living creature for that matter needs proper sleep and rest to function to their best. A certain hours of overtime seems reasonable but when nurses work double shifts, well, it creates problems. 

What happens if these issues are not addressed?

If these constant emotions of burnout, it can lead to a lot of issues for both the nurses as well as the facilities employing them. 

A few of the most common issues that can come up are: 

• Decrease in loyalty
• Depression
• Loyalty
• Less attention span
• Depersonalization
• Lack of personal fulfilment 
• No professional accomplishment 
• Chances of more errors in judgement
• Irritability
• Poor job performance

Are nurses equipped to handle these?

No, they are not – at least at the start of it! With so many factors listed above, it hardly counts if they are. But there are many strategies that could be adopted for them to get through this. 

• Yoga – A daily yoga session could help you handle stress and settle down the anxiousness that you often find difficult to handle.

• Stress Reduction Programs – A lot of support groups are created where nurses can talk out their issues and also realize they are not alone in their battles.

• Compassion Fatigue Programs – These are the programs that are designed to reconnect with themselves, the core values and mission that led them to choose this profession. 

• Grief Counselling – Regular counselling sessions from experts every quarter can be arranged where nurses can share how they feel and how their experiences are affecting them so they feel their needs are taken care of.

• Mentorship Programs: There can be formal and informal nursing both. The main goal of these programs is to promote personal and professional growth, job retention and nursing supportive relationships between experienced nurses and fresh nurse graduates. 

A balanced work-life, ability to choose where to work, improved attention to these issues and fair pay can still be achieved with platforms like PerDiemz who are gradually making their way into the industry with the sole purpose of giving better opportunities to nurses. 

If you are a nurse on the lookout for great nursing opportunities across New York and Connecticut, download PerDiemz from the Play Store or Apple Store. If you are facility looking to address the staffing gaps and get certified nurses – reach us out today on support@PerDiemz.com

Starting out at a new workplace can be a nerve-racking experience despite the fact that you have years of experience. The first day is crucial and so is the first impression that you create. 

If you are a clinician, starting as a freshman has its challenges and so does starting as an experienced clinician. With this blog, we bring you 10 top tips that could help you survive the jitters and go ahead with more confidence and adapt quickly. 

1. Don’t overthink and go with the flow

Not just at a new job but anywhere in your life, this advice will help you survive anything. Often you might be so excited to join a new workplace or the dream job that you will create a certain image of that thing in your mind. As much as we hope that it comes true, that might not be the case every time. This could lead to disappointments, frustrations and dissatisfaction. 

So we advise you to go with the flow. Just be excited enough about it with an open mind so you can grasp and adapt to everything that comes your way. We know this does not sound as easy but could definitely help you sail the storm brewing inside.

2. Make sure to create a right first impression

We definitely don’t believe that first impression is the last impression but we do believe that first impression matters. Certain things do matter like arriving on time, taking note of every instruction taken, gelling in with everyone and the way you introduce yourself to everyone. 

Different people might take your behavior differently so be sure to stay on a neutral end of everything. It is important to stay in the good books of your seniors as well as peers since they are the ones that will help you to get through the start phase of your tenure at the workplace.

3. The cardinal rule – Avoid GOSSIP!

At most of the workplaces, taking a break or relaxing a bit might mean gossiping. White this might add more spice to your day, our advice would be to strictly avoid gossip at all costs. 

Besides, gossipping can sound very unprofessional and insensitive especially since you tend to the healthcare industry. There are many HIPAA laws which state that you cannot gossip about patients. So, make sure you don’t be a part of any gossip or take one if there are people doing it.

4. Be humble, kind and helpful

It might so happen that you have joined as a senior member or as a head to a group of freshmen clinicians. Make sure that you are well-grounded with a leader on a mission, humble about your service and ever ready to help. This will help you gain more acceptance between your subordinates and also promote positive team building. 

If you have joined as a junior, be ready to learn new things, take criticism positively and learn from everything you can. There is always something new to learn. Inculcate a habit of observing everything to nurture your skills.

5. Get Feedback

Getting feedback is so important. Not everyone will outright go on to tell you what they feel but if they see you inclined enough to hear what they have to say, well, you might just get the right feedback to get you ahead. 

Lets face it, it is not easy to work as a clinician. You need to be physically and mentally strong. Not everyone will be perfect on the first day. It takes years to gain that momentum and if your goal is to be the best at what you do, go grab some meaningful feedback. 

6. Be open and flexible

You might be used to your own set ways but if you are not open enough to change your habits, there is a lot of learning that you will be missing out on. 

You might have worked at a small facility first but now if you have got a chance to work at a big one, everything right from the policies, procedures, systems is going to change. Make sure to adapt to it and learn from it because that will help you in the long run.

7. Ask questions confidently

Not everyone of us has the courage to ask the right questions but if you have one, go on and ask it anyway. There are a lot of things you will not understand the first time like the protocols or the standard defined procedures at the facility. It is better to ask questions than to make mistakes. 

There is no scope for you to make one since you are dealing with someone’s life here. Go on to ask questions without giving it a second thought. It is always better to be safe than sorry!

8. Stay organised

We cannot stress enough how important this is. Staying organised is going to help you and your patients in every way possible. Right from taking notes, feeding them to the system, keeping updates on the medicines administered and the time for it – everything matters. 

Be it anywhere you work, make sure to keep everything organised for all the right reasons. This will help you in case of emergencies when you need to run back and remember stuff when you have everything ready and organised.

9. Observe, observe, observe!

We can go on about this. Most of the things that you will learn at a new place is by observing. Keep taking note of how seniors are treating the patients and following up. Listen to the patients, observe their body language especially if the case is a bit sensitive. This could lead to a better diagnosis and treatment of the patient. 

If there are situations when you are not able to determine what happened then you can determine a lot of things by simply observing the body language or movements of the patient. 

10. Get along with everyone especially the support staff

Do not confine your connections or communication only to your peers or superiors. Talk to everyone. There is a lot of help out there that you get from people working in the support staff and admin area. Believe it or not, they know more than anyone else. 

If you are facing cold shouldering as a new member, there are many staff members who are not directly working with you but can be a huge support system. The guy at the canteen could be a great help in need or the one at the reception. Make sure to get along with everyone.

Which one do you feel is the best of the above? Do you have any more points to add to these? 

More importantly, are you a qualified nurse on the lookout for the right opportunities in New York or Connecticut? Check out our app on Apple Store and Play Store or reach us out at support@perdiemz.com to know more about us.