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Hello to all Nurse Practitioners. A special welcome to you if this is your first time reading my blog.
Today, I’m checking in to see how you are holding up in these continued crazy, unpredictable, unprecedented times.
Nurse Practitioners are getting hit harder than ever with overwhelming workloads and difficult work situations everyday.
I sincerely want to know how you are really doing.
- Are you overstretched and struggling to keep up at home, work, and socially?
- Constantly changing ambiguous role expectations?
- Running out of energy and time?
- Too many things left undone or done half-heartedly?
- Feeling guilty about not being able to do it all?
- Are you terrified you will have a melt down at any moment or get fired?
If so, remember, you are not alone.
Are you afraid to admit it? Again, you are not alone.
It’s okay if you are. A lot of us are still suffering in silence too.
In fact, there is a common fear among Nurse Practitioners that often keeps us from advocating for ourselves–for adequate resources and manageable workloads.
I have personally witnessed Nurse Practitioner colleagues getting fired, reprimanded or demoted for asking for manageable workloads. Management “let them go” citing they were “unable to perform the required duties of the job”.
In the past, I have seen this same scenario taken out of context and used as statistical evidence to try to “show” that Nurse Practitioners as an entire group are weak, inferior, and incapable of having full practice authority. I suspect that many of you are still afraid of this happening despite the changes in Full Practice Authority in some states out of necessity during the pandemic and shortage of providers.
As Nurse Practitioners in the trenches, we know that struggling to keep up with crazy workloads is not about lack of skill or expertise, or training, or time management or incompetence or (fill in the blank). It’s about a healthcare system that values production over quality care. That encourages unpaid overtime and seeing patients every 10-minutes over manageable workloads and healthy self-care.
Now, more than ever, we need to advocate for all Nurse Practitioners and stop tolerating this dangerous mindset that encourages putting up with unrealistic competing demands simply because “We have to meet production goals or benchmarks or (fill in the blank)”.
I envision a healthcare system that adopts mindsets that encourage sustainable values such compassionate self-care for all practitioners so we are better aligned to care for our patients.button
I’m taking action to reach this visionary system by helping Nurse Practitioners come up with a NEW way of being NP’s. Not just a better way, A WHOLE NEW WAY.
As a first step, I crafted a short 2 min read FREE downloadable PDF with the 5 Key Strategies that every woman needs to go from exhausted and overwhelmed to confident and fulfilled in their current role or to create and transition into one that is a better fit for their values and expectations.
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Hello. I’m Carol Thamert. I’m a Family Nurse Practitioner (NP) and Integrative Nurse Coach on a mission to guide other practitioners, especially those with wounded hearts, in crafting self-confidence with courage, compassion, and connection.
Confidence in your ability to function independently in your professional role as a Nurse Practitioner with ease and comfort is uniquely tied together with your sense of worthiness.
Grab your bag and lace up your hiking boots because we’re headed out on a journey of a lifetime. I don’t have all the details yet, so you’re just gonna have to trust me. Life has taught me a thing or two about survival and making something out of nothing. We will not be the same when we get back!! Keep coming back right here for the rest of the story.
Here’s the thing. We’re ditching the fast track & hoofing it for awhile because quite frankly, I’ve had enough of the crazy train. You see, I’ve been riding it for decades. Except for the occasional time in between, when the bits and bobs (aka “crazy stuff”) balanced out and I could hop off for awhile. But eventually, I would wake up, and there I would be: back at the same station, same train, chugging along the same track.
I have to be honest, I’ve been off the crazy train for awhile now, but I’m sort of wandering around. Not aimlessly or lost, but not fully committed either. I researched places to go, got the gear & survival kits, and even got the proper permits.
But I’m just sitting on the side-lines bitching about how miserable I was, how much it all sucked, and how hard it’s going to be getting to where I want to be. I know I don’t want to go back, but I’m weary of going forward too. I’ve been here before so I keep getting cold feet. It seems less scary than forging into the unknown.
But it sucks here in “the in-between” too. So, Holy moly, my friend, here we go!
Okay, that was my lame attempt at an analogy. Stick with me, I promise I will get better at it. For now, can I get a slight chuckle for the attempt.
I want to be brave and just come out and say what I came here to say. After all, it is the purpose of this blog.
I was miserable working in the traditional clinic as a NP. I absolutely hated the patient caseload, the mounds of paperwork, the ever increasing amount of responsibilities, without comparable compensation. No matter how hard I worked or how many hours I worked, I got the same pay as NP’s fresh out of grad school who hadn’t worked a real job yet. And I always felt I was going to piss someone off, miss a deadline, or not meet a compliance measure. But most importantly, I knew I didn’t have time to give my patient the care they deserved.
I was so busy and distracted with tasks outside of actual patient care, I feared I might actually harm someone amid the chaos. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, disenchanted, and broken. I didn’t have any energy at work let alone anything left for after work. I stopped doing things I liked outside of work. I dreaded going to work.
Yet, I dreamed of a better way. There had to be. This couldn’t be it. This way was hopeless. So, I went back to school and changed my career focus away from the clinic to being a coach, educator, & entrepreneur.
I will finally be able to practice nursing in a way that actually helps people and makes me happy doing it. I will be guiding NP’s, who are still on the crazy train, to heal their wounded hearts so they can live wholeheartedly with energy, balance, joy and abundance too.
Now I have a plan, all the cool gear & survival kits, and the proper permits to build a better way. Nursing done right. I will not be easy and will need rolling out in stages. Stay tuned because I will be giving out lots of freebies, coupons, and other fun stuff along the way.
So take a deep breath and get some rest.
Cheers to taking a different path!!
Carol
