Even in the Face of Adversity - Nurses CAN Position Themselves to THRIVE Within the Profession!

Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. I'm your host, Damion Jenkins. And before we get into this new season, I need to take a duster to this microphone and explain where I have been within my own nursing career journey. So it turns out that when you're the Director of Education and Staff Development and Assistant Director of Nursing for a 409-bed skilled nursing facility in Manhattan, New York, With nearly 500 staff members, finding time to record a podcast becomes, well, let's just say it ranks somewhere between go through the sock drawer and hang that antique window frame that you've been holding onto for over a year on that priority list. Who knew that keeping 500-ish people educated, compliant, and fueled with snacks and caffeine would be so time-consuming? And let's not even consider all of the other responsibilities that come with the assistant director of nursing side of things. There just isn't enough time in a day. But here's the thing, I've missed you. I've missed this space we've created together. And honestly, I miss having these transformative conversations because while I've been running around making sure everyone's certifications are current, and our care standards are top-notch, I've been collecting stories, insights, and those aha moments that happen when you're deep in the trenches of healthcare administration and education. First, I want to say thank you. Thank you for not unsubscribing. Thank you for the messages asking when the show's coming back. Thank you for understanding that sometimes life and a very demanding but incredibly rewarding job takes precedence. Your patience and loyalty mean everything to me, and frankly, you're the reason why I'm sitting here today with a microphone that I had to dust off. What we do best is we learn from each other. We share the real stuff, the strategies that actually work, the failures that taught us something valuable, and the wisdom that comes from our experiences every single day. Speaking of wisdom, I am so excited about what's coming up this season. I've been quietly connecting with some incredible leaders in our industry, people who are doing the work, making the changes, and developing programs that are moving the needle for the way we deliver nursing care and for the way that we support our nurses in the trenches. We're talking leaders who have transformed entire organizations. Educators who have cracked the code on programs that focus on critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and professional integrity, not just technical skills. And nursing administrators who are reimagining what nursing leadership looks like within a healthy workforce and by developing relationship-based initiatives. These are not your typical talking head interviews. These are real conversations with real people who understand that behind every policy, every program, and every initiative are actual human beings trying to provide the best care possible while navigating systems that sometimes make that really, really hard. So grab your notepad and get ready that the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast is back. And thank you for being here. Thank you for coming on this journey of learning with me, and thank you for being a part of the community that believes that nursing can always get better, one strategy, one story, and one conversation at a time. If not for my 15 years of nursing experience, it is for the thousands of you out there that remind me each and every day that nurses really can do anything. Let's get into it. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Brought to you by The Nurse Speak, a show where we rally some of our nation's greatest nurse leaders, educators, experts, and advocates to tackle some of the greatest challenges that the nursing profession faces. My name is Damion Jenkins, and I'm your host for the show. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn that nurses can do anything. All right, Kristen, thank you so much for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast. Why don't you take a moment to introduce yourself to the listeners? Let them know a little bit about who you are, where you started in nursing, and where you are today.

Thank you, Damion Jenkins, so much for having me on your podcast. I'm delighted to be here. My name is Kristen Gutierrez, and I am a nurse career coach. I started my career in 2007 as a bedside nurse. I worked in neuro ICU on night shift, and I found myself climbing up the ladder. I became a charge nurse, um, about 2 years after I had started at the bedside, and I found myself wanting more. I got my master's in clinical nurse leadership in 2011, and by 2016, I landed a job as a nurse manager. I did that for several years, um, actually all the way up through COVID. But in 2021, I actually was diagnosed with two rare neurological illnesses that left me with a physical disability. Now, I tried to stick through that job as much as I could. However, it became too physically taxing, and I was left at a crossroads with my own career. I wasn't sure what I could do or what I was capable of doing. And, you know, I felt it was time to leave the bedside and try to pursue other things. And that's where I came across career coaching. And I believe I can use my leadership skills and my nursing skills and my management skills to help nurses find jobs that they love.

Absolutely. First of all, thank you so much for being brave to share that. Not a lot of people like to talk about their weaknesses, but I find it to be an incredible learning opportunity for all of us, um, because as a nurse leader at the bedside, you remember very well your colleagues, maybe even yourself, going through real challenges and needing the support of your leaders, your educators, the fellow nurses who have the experience and have gone through those struggles. To support them along the way. So first of all, thank you for that. Secondly, wow, you didn't let your medical conditions, your challenges with your health, get in your way of leveraging your nursing skill and your passion to help others. And I find that so incredible with nursing in general, that we have so many transferable skills and so much opportunity to still use our nursing skills to help others. And it might look very different from a bedside capacity, which is amazing that you took that opportunity and you ran with it. So, you know, other than the challenge of the health condition, right, which many of us go through— there's periods in our careers where we have new disabilities that might come up, challenges with our, our life balance with families, maybe aging parents, disabled children, we get into an accident, we come across some other health condition, and we have to kind of take pauses and maybe pivot in how we move along in the nursing profession. But other than that, and we'll, we'll talk about strategies surrounding that because that's very important. Other than that particular challenge, was there any other challenge that you identified with as a nurse that you are now using in your career coaching to help people who are still in the trenches at the bedside or in leadership roles in clinical settings or in academia, whatever it might be, to navigate the complexities of our nursing profession?

Yes. So as a nurse manager, especially through the pandemic, there's been a lot of burnout and, you know, a lot of nurses are just over it, so to speak.

Yeah.

And, you know, there's lots of data and statistics out there, especially one that says, I believe, by 2027, one in 5 nurses will be leaving the profession, which is, you know, quite scary, you know, especially for, you know, our future, you know. Staggering. I, you know, being a patient myself, and, you know, at some point in our lives, you know, we may end up on that side of the bed. You know, I hope we all don't, but, you know, it's a reality we all have to face. Right. And, you know, you kind of have to wonder who's going to take care of me when I'm sick? You know, I'm, I'm the patient now. I can't take care of myself as the nurse, you know. So, you know, my passion is to keep nurses within the profession, no matter if it is at the bedside, outside of the bedside, you know, because the burnout is real. And, you know, we don't want to, you know, scare future nurses away from that either. So I believe that, you know, keeping nurses within the profession is, is my true passion. And, you know, how can we overcome that burnout? And I believe that using strategies for career alignment definitely will help with that.

Absolutely. So it's really important that we kind of unwrap the reality of what's happening in our profession, right? So, you know, a lot of people would say, oh, stop blaming the pandemic for things today. But let's be honest, the pandemic really opened up a whole new perspective, deeper than what nurses generally would experience. But now I think the general public has a much better inside scoop on what nurses and nursing personnel go through to deliver high-quality care in such restrained environments, whether it's a resource constraint, whether it's a time constraint, whether it's a skill mix constraint, why we don't have enough seasoned practitioners mixed in with the new practitioners, whatever the restriction might be. Um, it's a real challenge. And with everything that happened with the pandemic, with the increasing costs globally, not only in healthcare, but just in cost of living, in itself. And then the increase in complexities with our legal system, right, with all of the, you know, legal action that's been being taken against nurses when there's errors, possibly not even their own fault, but maybe system failures, right, where hospitals or nursing homes or home care agencies are putting nurses into really very challenging circumstances that anyone, any one of us at the best of our skill set would still make those same mistakes, right? Considering what's going on. So, you know, a lot of figuring out how to unpack this is where I feel like that alignment is so important. It's very easy for anyone to just focus on all the things that are not going right, right? It's, it's human nature to be negative and to think about all of the negative things. It's very easy for our brain to go in that direction. But what you're doing, it sounds like, is you're finding the strengths in your clients and your coworkers and your colleagues. You're helping them to elevate those strengths by finding positions within their career path that best align with their strengths, their passion, what they love to do so that they're less likely to be burned out, right? To be less likely overwhelmed and disgruntled with the realities of the system in which they're working in, right? Does that sound about right?

Yep.

Amazing.

Yes, definitely.

Amazing. So, so many people can benefit from this, right? A lot of us, you know, this many years into our career, especially those of us who have gone through all of this already, gone through the pandemic, are picking up the pieces on the other side, rebuilding the nursing profession back to a standard of high professional integrity, critical thinking, high clinical competence, all of those things, which, let's be honest, a lot of that fell to the wayside in the face of emergencies, right? But it's time to rebuild. So you're rebuilding that, I'm rebuilding that. Many of us out there have these types of comprehensive programs which are helpful. There's never enough competition because everyone needs this help. So Love, love, love to have you here on the show. And let's talk about some of those strategies. Now that we've, we've let the audience know that aligning yourself with your strengths, with your purpose, with your passion, with what you love to do within the nursing profession will keep you from being burned out and will offer new challenges and new excitement and newfound passion for your profession. Let's talk about some of the strategies that you do to help people get there.

Yes, so you've actually hit it, the nail right on the head. There's a term called ikigai, which is a Japanese concept of, you know, finding what you're passionate about and living it. And I, I've made a model, or I follow a model called the Nurse Ikigai, where it identifies What do you love to do? What does the world need? Or what is a problem that you can solve or have an idea to solve? What can you be paid for? And also, what are you good at? And a combination of those things makes up your ikigai. So first, I like to guide nurses through that model so that we can identify what are their strengths, what do they love to do, you know, do they love the, you know, finer aspects of doing patient assessments, for example, neuro assessments, you know, and they're like, oh, you know, I'm, I don't really like cardiac. I don't know why I started in med surg. You know, my instructors told me to start in med surg, so I just did that, right? Because I didn't know any better, but I hate it, you know. So, you know, that's where there's a lot of misalignment, especially in new, newer nurses. So, you know, talking about what they do like, you know, what they're passionate about. Have they seen a problem that's on their unit or where they work that they have an idea that they can solve? And, you know, obviously we can get paid for nursing or through our work through the profession. So a combination of all those things makes up your nurse ikigai.

Amazing. So once you help them figure out what they're passionate about, what they're good at, what they want to do, to make the money, then you have, I'm sure, lots of different career paths that might align best with them that they could pursue. Now, I'm just hunching here based on my years of experience. Let's say you have a new person that they're 6 months in, they hate the environment they're in, they don't like the fast pace, they don't like the constant pressure, they don't like being, you know, demanded of when they know that it's humanly impossible to do all the things that they need to do in the time constraints that they're given. But they have no idea what they're good at. They have no idea what they're— what they want to do. How do you lead them to a road of success?

Yes, so sometimes we have to think outside of the box and think outside of nursing. Yeah, you know, for example, are there any hobbies that, you know, you like to do outside of work or in your personal time that we can incorporate into nursing? For example, I was talking with a nurse a few months back and she was working in the clinical side and she's like, you know, I'm getting tired of it, you know, and I'm just, I don't know what to do. And I said, you know, okay, well, what do you like to do? And she said, well, I do like to sing outside of work. Like, I like to do karaoke. And I said, okay, well, have you thought about maybe taking that talent and combining it with nursing, you know, maybe singing for hospitals or for pediatric patients or for elderly patients in nursing homes. You know, sometimes we have to think creatively, and I also think that's, you know, the beauty or the art of nursing. You know, like, you can identify a niche or a problem anywhere and you know, try to solve it. So that's just one example of thinking outside of the box.

No, that's great. That's a great example. And what I think a lot of nurses don't realize, seasoned nurses or new nurses for that matter, is that whenever there is an identifiable problem, a service, a product, a need, people are willing to pay for their time. They're willing to pay for your product. They're willing to pay for your service. It all comes down to how do you package that, right? How do you present what you have to offer and how is it going to help the individual, the group, or the organization, right? And so I think that's brilliant. I know for a fact nursing homes specifically, assisted living facilities specifically, and senior independent living specifically pay good money for recreational activities. If they had a nurse leading the recreational activities or being a main driver of the recreational activities, I can promise you that there would be higher levels of satisfaction, higher levels of engagement with the attendees or the participants. There would be a more holistic approach to make sure that everyone's, you know, preferences are met. There would be wild reviews about how amazing everything was. Because nurses have that ability to deliver holistic and comprehensive care. And that does mean singing for a group of elders in a nursing facility as a registered nurse or a licensed practical nurse and taking that skill set, that passion, and combining it and marketing themselves to be the premier provider for that service. I think that's brilliant, and it just really kind of encompasses the whole point of this podcast, which is nurses really can do anything that they want to do. They can combine their transferable skills, which we have so many, to create the profession and career that you really want. If it's about becoming a millionaire, there's opportunities for that too. But many nurses, majority of the nurses, are not interested in becoming millionaires. They want to just take care of people. And they want to get a fair and reasonable wage. They want to be able to take care of their— themselves and their families. They want to put a little bit of money away for emergencies. They want to be able to go on trips and buy a house, just take care of college tuitions and things like that. I don't think we're asking for too much out here, right?

No, I don't think so.

I don't think we're asking for too much considering how much the world expects of us, right? So amazing. So with the— this coaching program, finding those strengths, aligning folks, how does your program typically look from someone looking in who's interested in maybe working with you?

Yes, so I do work with nurses on one-on-one sessions. You know, I work with them personally so that I know, you know, what their life situation is, you know, what's going on, you know, personally as well as professionally. You know, some nurses come to me and they say, you know, like, oh, I feel like I'm being bullied at work and I don't know what to do. And I said, okay, you know, we have strategies to work towards that. Or, you know, they may feel like, oh, you know, I'm on night shift right now, but my partner is, you know, they work a regular 9 to 5 and they want me off night shift, and, you know, I love it. I love the team that I work with. However, for my personal life, I have to move, you know, to days, right? So I work with you and your whole situation, and in the— in my program, I help you with your tool set, your skill set, and also your mindset. You know, a lot of us nurses, I think it's just part of who we are as a culture. We have a lot of limiting beliefs. For example, oh, you know, oh, I can't go to the ICU straight as a new grad, or I'm too old to go into aesthetics nursing, you know, they, they want the young ones, right? But, you know, we limit ourselves, and I feel that working on that growth mindset piece will overcome a lot of the barriers and a lot of the challenges. Um, I also work with nurses on their toolset, and this includes their resumes or their LinkedIn portfolios or even the job search itself. For example, there may be nursing positions, but they may not have the word quote unquote nurse in the title. So we may have to also think outside of the box as to finding the right position because it may just be under disguised under a different name.

Sure.

And then I also help nurses with their skill set. And this is where the soft skills come in or the transferable skills, working on communication, especially conflict management, you know, because that can happen anywhere and everywhere, every day. And also, and also, I'm a firm believer that all nurses are leaders, regardless if you have that title as manager or charge nurse or director or CNO.

Correct.

If you are a staff nurse or even an LVN, you are still a leader. You are leading your patients. Correct. And, you know, I love to help nurses see that concept and understand it. And, you know, the light bulb, I can see it go off in their eyes when they're like, oh yeah, I am a leader. So I work one-on-one with nurses, um, building up their skill set, their tool set, and their mindset.

Amazing. I think that's so important. It's such a valuable service to have available to nurses who really would like to invest in their professional growth. Um, personal growth is going to also happen during this process. I'm very familiar with coaching. You know, coaches have coaches. We all have coaches— business coaches, personal coaches, fitness coaches, spiritual coaches, whatever it might be. You know, learning from those people who have gone through and found ways to package how to deal with things or learn a new skill, you know, or overcome a certain challenge, it's worth the investment. Not only does it get you to the other side faster, but you learn new perspectives, you learn new ways of doing things, which only strengthens you holistically in the end. So, you know, instead of wasting a lot of time on textbooks and, you know, video tutorials, which can be helpful for certain things, it's often best to connect with those people who have done it before, who have put forth the effort to package it and put it together. That just makes sense. It cuts time. It saves on time, first and foremost. Um, you don't have to go years of doing all of this on your own to gain these skills because these individuals such as yourself have already done it, and you packaged it in a way that you wish someone would have packaged it for you. Am I, am I correct?

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

Yes, definitely. I wish I had a career, a career coach, um, growing up, so to speak, as a nurse. But I feel like it just, it's not a thing, and it really needs to be.

Yeah. So more and more of us, our are starting to discover our power and our purpose in being able to teach others. And, you know, before we started recording, I mentioned, you know, it's very difficult for us in the trenches, whether we're a nurse manager, a charge nurse, a nurse educator, director of nursing, wherever we might fall in the spectrum of, you know, trying to coach, mentor, and teach our, our new nurses. Or even our experienced nurses, because let's be honest, some of the experienced nurses need some of the most work when it comes to communication or conflict resolution, right? Maybe they come from a very different area, very different background, and they're used to communicating in a certain way, and it no longer works for this particular setting. And so we need to work with them. But we know when we're in the trenches, facilities, organizations, whatever it may be, they just don't budget for enough resources for this, right? It's just not there. Um, and understandably, you know, I've been in administration, I sat in the C-suite before, I know budget, I understand there's a budget. And unfortunately, education and professional development is one of the first things to get cut when strict budget cuts need to come down the line, but they're the most impactful for all of the statistics that most of these organizations get reimbursed from, which is wild to me. It is so wild that it's the first thing they cut, but yet they talk about patient satisfaction scores more than anything else. They talk about the Google reviews more than anything else. They talk about how can we pacify or satisfy the grievances that are coming through in the droves But yet they're cutting the support services to improve the way that the staff communicate, the way the staff handles conflict, the way the staff nurtures each other. And instead of fostering a nurturing, healthy workforce, they're, they're hammering down on it's everyone's individual responsibility to be the best person they can be at all times with zero resources for handling, you know, emergencies or conflicts or emotional turmoil as it arises. Because as you know, and as everyone listening here, nursing is not easy, and we're often dealing with not great situations. People are in pain, they're suffering, they're grieving, they're losing, whether it's life or limb, it's a very challenging place to be, and it's very emotionally taxing. And we just need to do better as a system to support the staff to develop those skills. And, you know, as I said earlier, even the best of us get kind of lost in the mix because we just have too many tasks that we're— we need to do important things, regulatory things, life-saving things that we need to do. And we don't have enough time to spend with our nurses, our colleagues, to have those difficult conversations that can make everyone have an aha moment at the end and come back to work the next day with a new renewed sense of purpose and respect and professional integrity. Because it is those difficult conversations, it is those teachable moments, it is those case scenarios or maybe breaking down and reviewing the conflict that happened earlier in a more controlled and less distracting way. It's those situations that's going to change the behavior, not writing someone up and telling them that they were unprofessional. That's not going to change anything, right? So amazing that you're doing this work. You know, a lot of us are out here doing this work, so it's so important. And anyone who's listening that is on the administrative side of things, whether it's academics, whether it is clinical spaces, individual entrepreneurs, whatever it might be, you need to reach out to Kristen, right? You need to get your nurses in alignment with her, especially those that you feel are drifting, the ones who you know are not satisfied with what they're doing. Maybe they do have a communication problem. Maybe they don't know how to handle stress or conflict very well, and they're they react instead of, you know, being proactive and trying to set up their workday instead of being a victim all the time. I think Kristen could provide great services. So with that, Kristen, tell people how they can get in touch with you.

Yes, well, thank you, Damion Jenkins, for having me on your podcast. It was a pleasure to share my story with you and with all your listeners. You can find me on Instagram My handle is Nurse Potential, and I also have a website where you can book a free 15 to 30 minute initial assessment call where we can talk about what's going on with your career and how I can help. And my website is www.nurse-potential.com.

Amazing. And you're also on LinkedIn?

Yes, I am on LinkedIn, and my name, you can find me under that, Kristin Gutierrez, or K-M-G-U-T-I-E-R-R. Amazing.

So I'll certainly have all of the ways to connect with you in the show notes of this episode. And thank you again for all of the work that you're doing despite the adversity that you've experienced, despite the challenges. You know, figuring out where you have aligned with your purpose and passion. It's so amazing. Thank you so much for being on the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast, and I hope to see you again really soon. Take care.

Thank you so much.

My pleasure. Bye-bye. And that concludes episode 2 of season 4 of the Nursing Strategies for Success podcast with this week's guest, Kristin Gutierrez. We hope that everything we shared in this podcast episode will help you lead the charge and find alignment within your nursing profession. All of the ways to connect with Kristin will be in the show notes of this episode. And as always, if you have any questions about anything covered, please feel free to reach out to me at thenursespeak.com. I would love to have a conversation with you. So until next episode, take care, be well, and remember that nurses really can do anything.