Thursday, July 24, 2014
5 ways to keep a normal social life while working the night shift
5 ways to keep a normal social life while working the night shift
Ah, the dreaded night shift. Every nurse will have to encounter it at some point in his or her career. Some enjoy the more patient-based shift with its lack of administrators and clerical work, while others never can get into the rhythm of being a night owl.
If you’re a nurse on the night shift, chances are you have plenty of non-medical professional friends who won’t keep the same schedule as you. So how do you keep a normal social life while you work the night shift? Check out these five helpful tips:
1. Plan ahead with your non-work friends. If your shift is starting at 7:00 PM, for example, you could realistically have time to meet them for dinner an hour or so ahead of time. The night shift might remove some of the spontaneity of your social life, but it doesn’t have to remove time for fun and socializing.
2. Limit your caffeine intake. It can be tempting to consume cup after cup of coffee to get through those long shifts, but it’ll throw your sleep rhythm off even more and cause you to have to miss out on social functions with friends and family during days off.
3. Treat the switch to normal sleeping hours like jet lag. Take short naps at first to store up some energy and then power through the day until it’s time for bed. This will quicken your transition back to a normal sleep schedule. Try making time for non-work friends the day after you’ve adjusted back to normal sleeping hours.
4. Group your night shift days together. This will assure that you can have longer stretches of days off or daytime shifts. That leaves plenty of time for recreation, fun with friends, errands and time with family, but it’s also better for your overall health!
5. Get to know your coworkers! You’re spending so much time with them at odd hours, so you might as well establish trust, rapport and friendship. Try and bond with them socially and professionally. For example, if you like exercising, invite them to go on an early morning hike or to a workout class with you after the shift ends; if you are a coffee nut, see if they want to grab a cup at a nearby cafĂ©. You can also bond professionally by trying to coordinate procedural training, or going to conferences and professional development events together.
The night shift doesn’t need to kill your mood, routine or health. Treat it seriously, plan accordingly with your shifts and keep a positive outlook so you can make new friends and keep up with those outside of your professional circle!
Sunday, July 6, 2014
5 Volunteer Opportunities for RNs
5 Volunteer Opportunities for RNs
Volunteering
may be the spark that reignites your old flame for nursing. The ability
to do the kind of work you want to do, the number of hours you’d like
to devote, and to help people in a way that sometimes isn’t possible in a
paid job. Being a nurse volunteer is also a great way to make
connections, learn new skills and network. You never know what might lay
ahead — volunteering is a way to test the waters and allow your
confidence to soar.
5 Volunteer Opportunities for RNs
The American Red CrossThe American Red Cross relies on 15,000 nurses (both paid and volunteer) to provide services, education, supervision and leadership throughout the organization. According to their website, “Nurses have always been the cornerstone of the American Red Cross.” A variety of opportunities await, from Disaster Action Teams to health fairs to CPR and First Aid classes to local and national board member positions.
Project Hope
Aboard the ship SS Hope — a floating hospital — doctors, nurses and medical volunteers work in conjunction with the U.S. Navy, “as well as land-based missions,” to help people around the world who are in need of health education, medical care and humanitarian efforts. You can search Project Hope’s website for current volunteer opportunities or add your professional information into their volunteer database for future need.
RN Rescue Network
RN Rescue Network is a California-based nonprofit organization that organizes a national network of registered nurses and coordinates missions to disease-stricken areas when needed. RNRN started in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and has since deployed nurse volunteers to disaster-stricken countries including the Phillippines, Haiti and Japan.
Hospital Nurse Volunteer
Bay Care Health System in Tampa, Fla., offers a volunteer nurse program specifically designed for retired nurses or those who are taking a breather from some of the demands of a clinical world. The program boasts some of the special aspects of nursing that sometimes get missed on the job: the time to reinforce teaching, offer companionship and comfort measures. See if a hospital in your area offers a similar program.
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Although maybe slightly out of the box in terms of your professional background, your nursing experience will not fail you in this endeavor. Big Brothers Big Sisters has been serving youth for more than 100 years, helping children grow in confidence level, develop healthier relationships with their families, and become less likely to participate in risky behaviors like drug and alcohol use, and skipping school.
Your turn!
Do you volunteer? What kind of volunteer work do you like to do and why?
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Educating the Next Generation of Nurses: Online
By Kimberley Ensor, RN, BSN, PHN
Looking
for a new challenge in your nursing journey? Being an online educator may be
the avenue for you.
The American Nurses Association
reports that the nurse shortage is alive and well and with more than 50% of the
nurse force closing in on retirement, a growing population of individuals over the
age of 65 and ever changing healthcare reforms, the need for nurses and health
professionals will increase (ANA, 2014).
With a need for more nurses, this means there will be a need for more
educational resources and options to produce well trained and well prepared
nurses.
Nurse educators are on the brink of
a unique opportunity and if ready for a transition in their career being an
online educator may be just the change they desire. Warning online teaching is nothing like the
days of old, where hairspray, big hair, neon clothes and badly done videos were
the norm. Technology has dramatically
changed and with it the way that students engaging in learning and want to be
taught has also changed. This forum is
not for the faint of heart. Online education
and web based classrooms cannot be regurgitations of the traditional
classroom. Educators must have a new
skill set and an ever increasing awareness of the online environment and the
unprecedented challenges. Educators must
be will and able to engage students and maintain high quality.
In a case study that describes the
experiences of faculty at one institution and the effort to learn about online
teaching, researchers identified six related themes: plugging in; peer sharing;
modeling and community building; multidimensional learning; role-shifting and
meta-learning; paradigm shifting; and sustained momentum (Paulus, Myers, Mixer,
Wyatt, Lee & Lee, 2010). Each of
these recommendations were meant to prepare faculty for the task of teaching
online and ensuring that the quality of nursing education continues.
So you want
to teach online? Prepare to work a
little harder than your traditional faculty counterparts.
So now the question is how to make that
happen. Not having face-to-face
interactions does not give the instructor license to disappear into
cyberspace. Students are looking for
more socialization, a sense of community, and discussions that encourage
critical thinking (Roehm & Bonnel, 2009).
Online faculty will have to not only initiate and facilitate
discussions, but also evaluate what students are learning and the quality
perspectives of the discussion. In a
study done by the National Study of Student Engagement’s where undergraduate
students were surveyed about their online experiences, researchers discovered
that most viewed online courses positively and had more active learning and collaborative
experiences in comparison to classroom based courses (Gallegher, Reilly &
Killion, 2009). Online educators will
have to be cautious of the literature choices, how the class is structured, the
amount of required participation and the technology necessary to have a
successful course. Continuous server
crashes or outdated information will quickly be turned off by a problematic
site. Since distance education is here
to stay and will continue to grow by leaps and bounds, educators must create an
online environment that will increasing reflect the range of issues that permeate
the nursing community at large, pedagogically, ethically, technologically and
philosophically (Gallegher, Reilly & Killion, 2009).
Along with have the evidence based
practices presented, current literature and advanced technology, students are
also looking for instructors who care and exhibit behaviors empathy and concern
in the online environment. Online faculty
also found great success when grade rubrics and electronic grading were used. Student report thorough feedback and clear
indications of availability on when to expect responses to inquiries aided in
convey a caring environment in the online classroom (Mann, 2014).
Finally educators must make sure
they are meeting relevant professional standards. For example the Seven Principles of Good
Practice which include encouraging contact between participants; developing
reciprocity and cooperation; encouraging active learning; giving prompt
feedback; emphasizing time on task; communicating high expectations; and
respecting diverse talents and ways of learning (Paulus, Myers, Mixer, Wyatt,
Lee & Lee, 2010).
Ready to begin
the adventure of online teaching?
So if
you are truly ready to be an online instructor and navigate your way to guiding
and molding the next generation of nursing students here are some things to
consider as you get started:
1.
Make sure to thoroughly investigate the
institution you will teach at. It is
imperative that faculty have support from their institution and that the
curriculum meets all relevant professional standards as well as accreditation.
2.
Faculty must be committed to be life-long
learners. Technology will continue to
change and advance. Current research and
EBP will be necessities as well as nursing literature that is reflective of course
objectives and professional nursing standards.
3.
Feedback, feedback, feedback. Poling of students found that faculty scored
low in areas such as creating a sense of
community, feelings of aloneness, and trepidation when it comes to answering
online questions (Gallegher, Reilly & Killion, 2009). When educators provided thorough and
consistent feedback, students felt validated and supported in their course
work.
4.
Embrace technology. “I ain’t got time for that,” will have to be
excised from the nurse educator’s dialogue and language. The next generation of learners are immersed
in technology and if the online environment is going to engage these students,
faculty will also have to enfold technological advances in their teaching
approach and style. The online
class can occur at any time and at any
place and the instructor must be prepared to answer questions that may be
technology based during the course.
5.
Engage!
No this isn’t Captain Kirk telling the Enterprise to launch into warp,
but online educators will have to make engaging students a regular part of
their course curriculum. When the
instructors seemed more as a guide and facilitator, students found greater
success and interactions in the online environment was increased (Roehm &
Bonnel, 2009 ).
Ready? Set,
Teach!
Okay so
now the moment of truth has arrived. You’ve
worked through what you don’t want to do and made lists of the characteristics
of teachers you did not enjoy while in school and vow not to be like that. Now you must make sure that spend time and
thoroughly know your curriculum
presenting relatable online discussions, current studies and
opportunities for socialization are important components to motivating learners
toward desired goals. A well facilitated
online classroom will provide learners with the opportunity to extend and
enhance their learning
References
American Nurses Association (2014). Nursing Shortage. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/nursingshortage
Gallagher-Lepak, S., Reilly, J., & Killion, C. (2009). Nursing student perceptions of community in online learning. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal For The Australian Nursing Profession, 32(1-2), 133-146. doi:10.5172/conu.32.1-2.133
Levitt, C., & Adelman, D. S. (2010). Role-Playing in Nursing Theory: Engaging Online Students. Journal Of Nursing Education, 49(4), 229-232.
Mann, J. C. (2014). A Pilot Study of RN-BSN Completion Students' Preferred Instructor Online Classroom Caring Behaviors. (Cover story). ABNF Journal, 25(2), 33-39.
Paulus, T., Myers, C., Mixer, S., Wyatt, T., Lee, D., & Lee, J. (2010). For faculty, by faculty: a case study of learning to teach online. International Journal Of Nursing Education Scholarship, 7(1), doi:10.2202/1548-923X.1979
Roehm, S., & Bonnel, W. (2009). Engaging students for learning with online discussions. Teaching & Learning In Nursing, 4(1), 6-9.
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