Many people are plagued by the same problem throughout their lives, but it is one they are so used to that they probably don’t even realize it is an issue in the first place. That problem is one of self-doubt. Always thinking there are other people who can do things better than you, or worrying that you are making a mistake, or simply thinking you aren’t good enough – it’s all linked to self-doubt, and it means that even the most capable and wonderful people don’t allow themselves to be all they can be.
Nurses are no different. Nurses can suffer from extreme self-doubt just like everyone else, no matter how capable and caring they seem to be on the outside. There may be a voice in your head that is telling you you’re not the best. If that’s the case, you must never give in to it. You must push forward and prove to yourself that you are amazing at what you do and that you don’t have to have any more self-doubt. There are all kinds of ways that you can do this and improve your career at the same time. Read on to find out just how this can be done.
Start Small
You might immediately want to jump to a way of destroying your self-doubt and making yourself into a better nurse no matter what. This can feel exciting, and it’s clearly something that is going to occupy a lot of your time and your mind once you begin the process. However, you can be at risk of doing too much too soon and of becoming overwhelmed with all the different options and ideas open to you.
In order for this not to happen, you should start small. You will need to build up your confidence one bit at a time; indeed, this is the ideal way to look at many different parts of your life, not just your nursing career. Taking small, carefully planned steps to get you where you want to be is the best thing you can do. You will be able to take control of the process, plan out where you are going and how to get there, and navigate your way more smoothly along the path to success.
You Must Keep Learning
In order to really quieten the thoughts that are leading you to doubt yourself, you must continue to learn as much as you can about your chosen career in nursing. Always be on the lookout for additional ways to learn more, because the more you know, the more confident you will be in your own abilities. Plus, you can show other people how much you know, too.
One of the best ways you can keep learning and, therefore, reach the ultimate level of nursing is to gain additional qualifications. There are many different courses you can take, and there are even degrees that can really boost your confidence, your knowledge, and your career. The Marymount MSN-FNP is a great example of the kind of additional qualifications you can get to move your career to the next level, or even try something different altogether within the exciting field of nursing.
Many nurses might assume that they won’t be able to study for these extra accreditations because their job takes up a lot of their time, plus they are on shift work, so trying to attend a class regularly is difficult or even impossible. However, courses can be studied online, meaning you don’t have to attend a brick-and-mortar school and you can study at times that suit you. You can work and study simultaneously. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. Even with your shifts and long hours, you can learn and become the best nurse you can be.
Be Interested In Your Work
If you think about any area of your life, the more interested you are in something, the happier you are to do it, and the more you push yourself to be better at it or to learn more about it. The same is true of your job. If you love what you do, you will be the best you can be. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, you will only do what is required of you and no more, and that isn’t the way to become the very best.
Sometimes, you might have been guided into a career by family members who were keen for you to do what they wanted to do but couldn’t, or who want you to follow the family tradition. Sometimes, you will think you want to do one particular job but realize later on that you don’t actually enjoy it and would rather do something else. Whatever the reason, if you don’t enjoy nursing, don’t do it – there are lots of other careers you could take on that might suit you better, and there is no point in being miserable as a nurse when you could be happy (and more successful) doing something else.
Before you switch careers, however, bear one thing in mind: nursing is one of the few areas in which there are plenty of alternative routes to take if the one you are on doesn’t suit you very well. General nursing might not be what you thought it would be, but what about family nursing, emergency nursing, specialist care for children or the elderly or those with cancer? Think about what is going to interest you the most and what you can see yourself excelling at. It might be that you simply need to switch paths rather than entire careers.
Understand That You Will Make Mistakes
There is no such thing as a perfect nurse; there is no such thing as perfection at all. Trying to strive for perfection is not bad in itself, because although you won’t reach it, you will do very well trying to do so. However, when you make yourself unhappy or hold yourself back because you think you should be ‘better’ than you are, problems will arise. You will lose your confidence and you will worry about making mistakes.
The truth is that everyone makes mistakes at some point. The more you learn, the fewer mistakes you will make, but that doesn’t mean they won’t happen at all. The key is to understand that this will happen and try as hard as possible to avoid mistakes where you can. When they do happen, you must learn from them; this is the best way to stop them from happening again. Once you know what went wrong, you will be better prepared, and this is an excellent way to become a better nurse. You can even help others who might be struggling by mentoring them; you have already been through the problem, and if you can use that experience to ensure that others don’t make the same mistakes you did, that’s an incredible thing to do – plus it will show others what a wonderful nurse you really are.
Find A Mentor
As mentioned above, being a mentor can be invaluable when you’re a nurse. However, having a mentor yourself can be just as useful and can really help you to become the very best nurse you can be.
A mentor is someone who has already overcome a number of different obstacles, and who is now able to use their knowledge and understanding of the mistakes they made and the problems they came up against in order to be much better than they would have been otherwise. By having a mentor, listening to them, and understanding more about what they can help you with, you can avoid errors and push yourself to do more.
Do It Your Own Way
Despite the fact that a mentor is always going to be useful in your nursing career, that doesn’t mean you should copy everything they do – at least not in the same way they do it. You will need to find your own way to work and be successful. If you don’t and you try to emulate someone else, you will never be truly comfortable in your career, and you may not want to progress or try any harder in order to be the very best you can be. The last thing you want to do is to lose sight of your own career path and ideals because you are concentrating so much on doing what someone else is doing and being what someone else is being.
Take And Show Initiative
If you really want to be the very best at what you do, you are going to need to ensure you not only take the initiative but show initiative too. This means going above and beyond what is expected of you and showing that you don’t need to be told what to do at all times – you can determine your own course of action and move ahead with it without waiting for instructions.
Not only will this impress those higher than you on the career ladder, but it will mean you can get a lot more done as well. You might be taking risks at some points, but that is necessary as long as you aren’t putting anyone’s life in danger or going too far. The aim when you take the initiative is to bring new ideas to the situation and to implement them where you can. This is entirely possible in nursing and should be encouraged.
Evaluate Your Own Progress
Nursing is a busy field to work in, and that’s what draws a lot of people to it; there will never be a dull moment when you are a nurse. However, this means that sometimes your work won’t be evaluated in the way you might like it to be because everyone is going to be concentrating on their own tasks and won’t have time to take notice of what you are doing.
This shouldn’t mean you don’t continue to try your hardest and strive to be the best nurse you can be. In fact, it means you should try harder, because rather than someone else evaluating your work, you will be the one who is looking hard at what you are doing. We are all our own worst critics, so working as hard as you can when you are the one evaluating that work is crucial – you’ll want to do so in order to be proud of yourself and your work.
Great Communication
Nurses, as mentioned above, need to work on their own initiative to be truly great, but to be the ultimate nurse, they need to work in a team, and they need to be able to communicate well. Without great communication, there will be mistakes, patients will not get the best care, and colleagues won’t know that they can trust you with important tasks.
Communication opens up your knowledge and lets other people know what you can do – the more you can talk about your ideas and communicate in a stressful situation, the more they will know that you are the best at what you do, and the more they will trust you to do more. The idea is to let people know everything that is happening – everything they need to know – in a timely manner. If anyone has to ask you what is going on, you aren’t communicating in the way you should be. Think about this and every time you are wondering whether to say something about a procedure, a patient, or anything else, the answer is usually that you should pass on the information quickly and concisely.
Set Goals
Working without having set goals means you are never going to be pushing yourself forward in the same way as you would if you did have a goal or goals to achieve. Nursing is no different from any other career in that respect, so when you are starting out, it’s crucial to work out which goals you are going to reach for. It might be moving forward in your career, or perhaps you want to be the kind of nurse that patients ask for specifically. Whatever it is, determining this in advance and then doing everything you can to achieve the outcome you want is one of the ways you can be the best nurse possible.
Once you have reached your goal, there is no need to stop. There will always be other things you want to achieve. The key is to work out what’s next for you and then start making that your new goal to reach.
