Day 1 4/22/2020
Reaching for my own goals has prevented my nursing burn out
As of today I have been a nurse for 17 years! This seams impossible because I feel like I should be still in college at the University of Delaware. But I am not and since then I have developed a career as a fertility nurse working fulltime from home. I am married living in Maryland with my husband, 2 kids age 10 and 8, 2 dogs and a barely alive beta fish named Ghosty. Just for the record Ghosty is not my responsibility hence the description “barely alive”.
I was going along in my early nursing career and realized that as rewarding as this career is this shit is also deep and it’s hard. Wow, things don’t always work out for me, patients aren’t always appreciate of my help, they don’t always get better, co workers aren’t always pleasant to work with, (and that’s putting it lightly) everything has to be approved and I mean everything and I hate Night Shift. I decided I had to get a life outside of my job. I loved being a nurse but there had to be more! Looking back now I realized I was looking for external reasons to love my job as a nurse. I now know that I have to find the satisfaction from with in. Not knowing that in my twenties I stumbled upon my first 5K then 10K and I even ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler 2 times. Most of the time I was training with a few other friends. Signing up for a race gave me a deadline. I knew when the big day was and I made schedules of when and how far I would run. I’m not even an amazing runner. But it was good exercise, helped me loose weight and even helped my mood. I had something else I was committed to. And then I could buy some cute new running shoes and work out cloths to match! LOL
My training for races has turned into a Goal of running 3-4 times per week. I’m not running because I have a race scheduled any more. I’m running for the amazing health benefits. I don’t run fast or far. But it’s my time alone blasting Spin Cycle on iheart radio and just enjoying the fact I still have legs and a heart and lungs that allow me to run! Currently I set my intention as I run that I am running for all those that can’t. For those whom are fighting for their life on a ventilator because of COVID19. This focus during hard hills keeps me going.
And the running goal, that’s just the tip of the iceberg! But we’ll have to get into that in another blog. Do you need a goal? I’m talking about just for you? Not for work not for one of your patients not for your kids or your husband. Nope, just you…sit down quietly at some point in your day and brainstorm. Dump it all out while thinking; what goal do I want to create just.for.me?
Ok, got to go lace up my sneaker and hit the roads for my run before I start work!
See you on the other side sweaty and happy
Rachel
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