08// Overcoming Perfectionism and Advancing in Your Nursing Career with Bonnie Meadows

Are you finding yourself stuck in the pit of perfectionism, hindering your career growth? My name is Bonnie Meadows, your host with 19 years of nursing experience, and today I am here to share my personal journey, shedding some light on how to embrace the unknown and take bold steps towards career advancement. Listen, we all want our career moves to be perfectly laid out, but guess what? That's not how it works, and it's perfectly okay. 

Remember, the initial jobs you land may not entirely meet your needs, but they are necessary stepping stones to upskill yourself. So sit tight, lend me your ears, and let's unravel the courage within you to make that next move in your nursing career with self-assured confidence.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to the Ambitions Nurse podcast, where I provide tips, tools and resources for the experienced nurse to put in your career bag to help you be a better person, a better leader, a better professional and, most of all, a better nurse. I'm your host, bonnie Meadows, a career coach and a clinical nurse specialist with over 18 years of experience in healthcare and nursing. It's my passion to help experienced nurses develop their careers to impact healthcare and their communities. So my next podcast it's called Getting Over Perfectionism and I kept thinking, gosh, what are the bullet points that I'm going to have for this particular podcast? And it came to me that I should just get over perfectionism and just talk. So the first thing that comes to my mind when it comes to careers and getting over perfectionism is the fact that a lot of times we want especially when we're leaving some type of clinical position and going into a five day a week job or four day a week job we just want all the pieces to be lined up and we want to know exactly what we want to do. Well, guess what? You're not going to know. You're not, because even if you already had a plan of what you wanted to do, sometimes God has a totally different plan for you, but you've got to step out there and take a chain. So the first thing I want to tell you is you're not going to have all the answers and you're going to have to try something, but in that trying something and trying to make a decision on what that something is, that's where your self awareness comes in, that's where your reflection comes in, that's where that time comes in. Where, in my career builder workbook that I offer, where I'm asking you to step back, like these sound like simple questions, but they are important to know what are your string, what are your opportunities? What do you want to grow and become a little bit better at?

Speaker 1: 2:23

When I left the bedside, I was at a pivotal point in my career where I decided that I did not want to go to med school but I wanted to make the most out of my nursing career, and that made me and helped me to really think about well, what else do I want to do? What else do I like? What do I like in this current space? Like where I am, and I knew that I wanted to expand in hospital business. What does that really mean? And, of course, that was 2011. Those were terms that we used back then. But I knew I got a taste of quality improvement. I'd liked the idea of helping out with problem solving and coming up with processes to help improve things. I was involved on different things on the unit and that was helping me to introduce me to different things within the hospital. But I knew I wanted to be involved in hospital business and in particular I wanted to work in quality.

Speaker 1: 3:27

But I didn't know what that was. I'd seen one particular person who worked specifically with cardiac surgery to help improve their quality outcomes and I thought it was a fascinating job. Thankfully, I actually wasn't picked. I was like an alternate because somebody else couldn't go to. The Institute of Healthcare Improvement fell in love with quality, which that is like the backbone of healthcare quality, so I fell in love with it there. But I didn't know that I was in love with it at that time. I just knew I really liked it and would like to do a job of such things.

Speaker 1: 4:03

I did know that I did not want to be a nurse manager and I never even touched the clinical supervisor route. I just knew that that wasn't the path for me. That will be the path for some of you and you will be excellent nurse managers because your heart is in it and you have a heart for the people. I have a heart for the people, but I have a heart for the people in a different way and I've always been this way, even when, at some point in time, when I was in nursing school or in high school, I thought I wanted to be the dean of a nursing school or I wanted to teach. But what I did know is that I did not want to teach new nurses. I wanted to teach nurses who were masters prepared. It just wasn't my goal to work with people on that level, and that's okay. There are certain areas where you need to kind of just slot yourself into, and I've even gotten to a point now to where the information that I speak to. Yes, new nurses can use it. Nurses with a master's degree can use it. Nurses with a master's degree can use it. Nurses with a doctorate degree can use it. But my career path coaching goes in the direction of degree attainment. Or either, after you've gotten the degree and you're in these certain salary jobs that are not necessarily management jobs, with their leadership jobs, how do you operate in those sectors? So, leaving the beg side.

Speaker 1: 5:39

I knew that I wanted to be in hospital business, so I interviewed for several positions that I knew were hospital business like positions, but I didn't know, I didn't fully know what those positions entailed. I interviewed for case management position. I interviewed for patient safety coordinator position. I was upset that I didn't get patient safety coordinator position. However, I should not have been, because I was not prepared for that interview. So much so to where they asked me a question about universal protocol and I'm like what is that? And I didn't say it exactly like that Y'all, I am very professional. I am like consummate professional. So I'm more than likely responded in I'm not sure what you mean by that. So they had to go into detail about it. And then I went back to the bedside and I was what is universal protocol? It's verification of procedure. Now I'm like good gosh, that's the same thing. We never called it that, so it's a different language. However, I did get the case management position, but again, I went into many of these interviews and read the job description.

Speaker 1: 6:47

However, first I had a state of awareness about me. I was okay with going five days a week. I was okay with working salary. I was okay with moving away from clinical. I was ready to make that move and I knew that I wanted to do something in hospital business and something pertaining to the quality improvement of the patient or of a hospital process. Those are the things that I knew and so I would say for you that is an important piece, like I talk about self-awareness and self-assessment a lot, and I talk about it a lot because it's a very foundational piece. Knowing who you are, knowing what you want, is very foundational and it will take you a long way.

Speaker 1: 7:31

Instead of ooh, maybe this, ooh, maybe that. In my mind, I think about like, ooh, maybe this, ooh, maybe that, but I know what I don't want to do. I know what I don't want to do, so why even go there? That's how people get into jobs, to where they end up doing what they don't want to do, because you've not really taken the time to sit back and really assess and do some self-awareness. And so I walk you through that in the career-vehicle workbook that I offer to really decipher, like, what are my values? What are my beliefs? Do I even enjoy the company that I currently work with or is it time for me to leave this organization altogether. Do I need to move? Do I need to go back and get another degree? I knew that in order to make the moves that I wanted to make, I knew that I had to go back to school and I was okay with that. That was always my goal to go back and get my master's degree.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Take an initial step and get over perfectionism. When you're trying to do it, just really thinking about what do I want, making a choice, narrow down your choices in making your decision and then stepping back and knowing I'm going into this, knowing that this is a dating situation Like, sometimes you're going to find the right person right there, the right job, the right whatever, and you're going to stay in it forever. And sometimes you are going to have to go through a few jobs that don't completely feel your need but they actually meet and meet in up, leveling your skills as a nurse so that you can be marketable for other positions later on. So that is an important piece in getting over perfectionism and just going for it. Making that next move in your career and not staying stagnant where you are just because you're overwhelmed by the choices that you make. You're taking action is what is going to get you clarity, because you're going to start to rule out what works, what doesn't work, what do I like, what do I not like. You're going to start to mold and make your professional brand. Your self awareness helps you to lead to what is my true professional brand and then you're going to be able to list out as I said in a blog post before, and even in one of my previous podcasts, you're going to be able to list out those things of these are my non-negotiables. At some point you're going to be able to list out these are my negotiables and non-negotiables when it comes to my career.

Speaker 1: 10:12

But most of the time, it takes you moving through the profession to really figure out what do you want to do, or really figure out your professional brand. And then, once you get your professional brand, you can say, okay, well, the opportunities I'm looking for need to include this, this and this and this. And then, once you have identified those things and you say this is who I am as a profession, this is what I'm looking for, this is what I want to do, then that helps you to narrow down, like, okay, if this is what I'm looking for, then these are my options. You will no longer have to look at the field and be like, oh, there's so much to choose what. Like I don't even really know what I want to do. No, you will look at the field and be able to even go in when you're looking for a job. You can say, huh, well, that might be interesting because it includes the things that I feel like are part of our professional brand and will allow me to succeed in my career and help me to grow and help me to contribute to whatever role that may be.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Thanks for joining us this week on the ambitious nurse podcast. To review the show notes and any links mentioned in today's episode, please go to the ambitious nurse podcastcom. You can download my nurse starter growth guide If you want more information about how to take the next step in your career. It walks you through five steps you should think through to start working towards growing your career. Download the nurse starter growth guide at the link shown in the show notes. If you enjoyed this conversation, follow or subscribe so you don't miss a future episode. Also, please consider leaving a rating, review and or comment about what you want to hear about. This helps more nurses, just like you. Find this podcast and remember you don't have to grow your career alone. As iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another. Thank you for letting me sharpen you as you take this knowledge to sharpen the next. Thanks again for joining me, bonnie Meadows, on the ambitious nurse podcast. We look forward to chatting with you the next time.