COVID-19 is here! 😳 What does that mean for nurses?

COVID-19 is here! 😳 What does that mean for nurses?

Generally, it means chaos in our workplaces. The information related to COVID-19 (aka Corona Virus) is constantly evolving creating confusion and misinformation everywhere. This can make every shift 12+ hours of stress for nurses and other healthcare colleagues.

Here are my top tips for managing the stress of being a nurse during a pandemic:

1. Stay up to date! - The information is changing hour to hour. Keep informed by following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 page. It has the most current information available with the recommended guidelines for healthcare workers.

2. Keep clean! - Washing your hands seems like an eye roll worthy recommendation, but it is necessary to decrease your risk of exposure and transmission. I found this great article that gives some of my favorite songs as tunes to use to make sure that you are washing your hands for the recommended 20+ seconds.

3. Sick? Stay away from others. - Like any time that you are ill, stay home, cuddle up, and watch some TV. If you want to really get into the outbreak spirit, check out the Netflix docuseries “Pandemic.” I LOVED IT!

4. Make some mental space for yourself while at work - Your shifts are stressful on a normal day but then you get to go to work in a pandemic - AHHHHHHH! Now is an even more important time to take time for yourself to create mental calm so that you can be your best self for work and home. Check out this New Thing Nurse Blog post that offers a few tips on how to keep calm during a stressful shift.

Remember - Take care of yourself so that you can take care of others.

- Sarah @ NTN

Resources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Resource Page

New Thing Nurse Blog - When the Shift Hits the Fan

Atlanta Magazine - 9 Atlanta Songs to Help You Keep Time for Hand Washing

Pandemic Docuseries on Netflix

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About the Author - Sarah K. Wells, MSN, RN, CEN, CNL is an educator, speaker, blogger and owner of New Thing Nurse, a professional and academic coaching company for the nursing world. New Thing Nurse is organized to provide support and guidance to aspiring nurses, newly graduated nurses, and veteran RNs looking to make a change in their life. 

Whether it’s a new school, new job or new idea,

New Thing Nurse wants to help with your new thing!

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Guest Blog Post: Finding My People as a New Grad Nurse with Ted Rossini, BSN, RN, PHN

Hello New Thing Nurse Tribe! 

My name is Ted, and I am a new nurse who graduated in June 2019. I found my first job working at the Student Health Unit for the California School for the Deaf (CSD) & California School for the Blind (CSB) in Fremont, CA. When I started my nursing journey, I couldn't have known that I would end up here, nor could I have foreseen what a good fit it would be for me.

Before nursing school, I worked as a preschool teacher, a barista, a planetarium presenter, a waiter, a resident assistant for foster youth, and a summer camp director. I lived in four states earning just enough to pay taxes and in another five states for short stints with AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps NCCC. I accidentally fell into healthcare when I became an EMT while earning a FireFighter-1 Certification. All this is to say, I knew I had a lot of experience but was unsure how I'd fit into the nursing world when I graduated.

Sarah from New Thing Nurse visited my school in Fall 2018 with a presentation on the importance of self-care and avoiding burnout. At that point I was already feeling burnt out from nursing school and really didn’t know what type of nursing I'd like to pursue upon graduation. I was also hearing healthcare professionals tell the world that turning 36 hour weeks with lots of overtime is bad for them and bad for patients’ health. One thing that really stood out from the New Thing Nurse presentation was a picture of Sarah with her shift mates doing a silly dance on a slide entitled - "Find Your People." 

From my experience in EMS and non-profits, I was already familiar with how much self-care outside of the job and taking breaks was key to avoiding burnout. But this concept of "finding your people" was a new idea for me. So often I was devoted to the work that whoever my coworkers were just happened to be who they were. It was a very strong tool I carried with me on each clinical rotation throughout nursing school and sure enough, the rotations that were the most fun and meaningful had less to do with where I was than who I was with. Put me with someone who liked their job and wanted to help people, and I was happy in all kinds of clinical settings from Pediatric Heme One, the Cardiac ICU, Med-Surg, NICU, to orthopedic rehab. 

And then there was my nursing school cohort. I love my cohort dearly and wouldn't trade them for anything, but so often in class, my views and values clashed with theirs. I would often hear my fellow nursing students say things like - "I'm going to be in a level 5 NICU" or "I'm going to be an ICU nurse" . In protest, I declared - "I'm going to be a school nurse."

After I calmed down and took some breaths, I remembered once working as an EMT at a Renaissance Fair. I had met someone who was studying American Sign Language (ASL) and had just been accepted to a graduate program. In my travels and previous jobs, I had actually learned a fair amount of ASL and interacted with a large deaf community in my early adulthood. That was when I remembered that the California School for the Deaf was near my nursing school, and I had a simple thought - “It's a boarding school, so they must need nurses.”

I looked, and there was a position open! I kept my eye on that post for four months while I finished school, recovered from my preceptorship, and finally studied for and passed the NCLEX. I wasn't sure what I'd find there, and I certainly had almost no experience with the blind community. But even before I was hired, school staff were so kind and welcoming. 

Ultimately, I applied and got the job! On my second day, there was a "True Colors" team building exercise where I got to really know my coworkers and felt immediately at home. I quickly discovered a friend, who is now one of my mentors, who loves theater (like me!) so I joined her and her husband for a play my very first weekend on the job. I quickly realized that I had found my people - we're huggers, we like to laugh, we like watching kids grow from children into adults, and we wear fun scrubs. A great moment came when my mentor and her husband joined my grandmother, aunt, mother, and myself for Hamilton. She wanted to get a picture with just her and me, and I quickly thought we should make a sign together as one. She immediately knew the best sign: Nurse!

- Ted, School Nurse

Photo: Ted and mentor make the American Sign Language sign for “nurse”.

Photo: Ted and his colleagues are doing "serious” work at the California School for the Deaf (CSD) & California School for the Blind (CSB) in Fremont, CA.

Photo: Ted and colleagues in the fun scrubs on Crazy Hair/Punk Day during spirit week.

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About the Author - Ted Rossini, BSN, RN, PHN works at the Student Health Unit at the California School for the Deaf (CSD) & California School for the Blind (CSB) in Fremont, CA. When Ted is not at work, he enjoys attending the theater with family and friends.

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