World-class Filipino Nurses!

Hello dear world-class nurses!

Kamusta mga pogi =)

Last week I wrote a piece on “Top 10 Traits of Successful Speakers”. I was delighted and excited with one nurse’s response. Thank you, Ryan because he asked so many good questions. I have just spent 40 minutes replying to all the questions you raised Ryan and was thrilled with my responses, and when I went to send them, my PC came back with some type of error and I lost all the reply so I got mad for about 30 seconds and then looked for the learning in the situation… Yes, maybe I was meant to share my replies to nurse Ryan’s questions with everyone so, here goes...

This time round, I’m going to be more concise than the first time. If you haven’t read my post from last week, check it out now and see Ryan’s questions below it. Here are the answers to these great questions. I will contextualise all my answers this time and give you examples from nursing with each one. I will try to address the essence of the point in the context of nursing this time and I would like to go as far as saying that these are the traits of a world-class communicator.

Trait # 6: Successful People Make Decisions Quickly

To clarify what I mean by quickly here – quickly may mean 1 minute, 1 day or 1 week depending on the gravity of the decision to be taken. However, successful communicators make decisions quickly compared to unsuccessful people. As a world-class nurse, you would make the decision about what to do with a patient who’s had a fall in a heartbeat. An unqualified nurse would take longer or hesitate on what to do. When you have confidence in yourself, your expertise and know that you make decisions that are ecological (good for you, those around you and the planet as a whole), then you always make good decisions and you can make them quickly, remembering that “quickly” is relative to the situation at hand. Ask yourself where you need to improve your decision making efficiency? Some nurses I’ve talked to tell me that their decisiveness falters when doctors ask them questions in a high-pressured situation. If this is true for you, trust you instinct, your expertise and believe in your ability to make good decisions for yourself and your patients.

Trait # 2: Successful People Make No Excuses

I used to make excuses and give reasons why things weren’t working in my life. Now, I try to turn every negative or misfortune into a positive so that there are no failures, only feedback and no excuses to go with the failures. To give the example, I gave above; - I spent 40 minutes carefully considering these questions from last week’s blog and answering them in detail, when I lost all I’d written. I shouted at my computer for 30 seconds and then decided that maybe the moral of that little mishap was that I should share the answers with all of you. Generally speaking, all successful people turn negatives into positives and don’t make excuses. Learning is a game of give and take of course and sometimes we can learn from others and sometimes we have something to teach others but either way, there is always something to be learned from every misfortune, every “failure”. Think about what you would consider a “failure” or a “mishap” in your nursing career? How do you react to mistakes you make – because we all make mistakes, right? Do you dwell on the mistake or do you look for the lesson and make a change. One nurse once told me that she was annoyed because another nurse couldn’t read her handwriting in the patients’ file so she got annoyed. The problem got worse, animosity and stress increased and her work station was not a pleasant place to be. She hadn’t thought of changing her handwriting to make it more legible or write in capitals because she’d concentrated on the hurt the other nurse was causing her. When she did make a small change to her writing, the other nurse started to help her out more, became her writing buddy almost in helping her with any questions she had and they became best of friends within a year.

Trait # 7: Successful People Make Leaps of Faith

It’s important to clarify here what I meant last week by “taking a leap of faith”. When I use this expression, I refer to taking the first step on the stairs even though you don’t know what’s at the top of stairs. To give you an example, I was recently giving a lecture to nursing home managers and nurses here in Ireland around the topic of communication in “patient-centred care” when a resident from the nursing home that was hosting the talk walked in and started shouting loudly. I had two choices; I could let her shout and demonstrate that flexibility is vital in patient care or I could have stopped and waited for a nurse to escort her out so I could continue. I chose to do the first even though I had no idea what the lady’s words meant or why she was angry. I wanted to demonstrate the essence of patient centred-care in my lecture so I let her speak, without understanding. My audience of 50 learned more about patient-centred care in those 30 seconds than in the remaining 30 minutes. I know that as world-class nurses, you know the importance of taking a leap of faith for your patients sometimes and you do so ecologically, in a way that’s good for you, them and everyone involved. Do remember that “patient-centredness” is not about the words you use sometimes, it’s about the ones you don’t use so you can listen. You nurses have taught me that so keep up the good work.

Trait # 8: Successful People Spend Money to Save Time

To clarify, what I mean by this is that highly successful people know the value of their time. I charge my private clients €250 per hour for communication consultation so I choose to pay to have my car washed in the machine because if I wash it and it takes 30 minutes, it’s cost me €125 and that’s an expensive car wash, even by Irish standards! All I want to say on this one is value your time. As world-class nurses, your time is very valuable. How can you use it wisely so that you get the highest return for your expertise and skills? Are you using your time wisely?

Trait # 10: Successful People Take IMPERFECT Action

To clarify on this point from last week, there are two important words in this sentence – imperfect and action. Highly successful people don’t sit around making their business ventures perfect before they release them. Bill Gates didn’t sit at home until he’d come up with Office 2003 before he released Windows. He released Windows 1995 and then improved on in every year. As a nurse, are you holding back your opinions or your input into the medical system because you’re afraid it’s not good enough or not perfect? If so, change that today and start striving for 80% success in offering your opinions or taking a new action and then improve on it every time after that. Of course, I’m not talking about administering drugs to a patient when I say this. I’m talking about speaking up with colleagues and having your opinions heard, even if they’re not perfect.

I have worked with many world-class professionals and Filipino nurses are among the top 10% of all world-class professionals I’ve worked with, because of your work ethic, your high level of education, your communication skills and your flexibility among other traits.

Keep up the good work and above all, speak up and believe in your expertise!

Warm hugs from Ireland.

Until Next Week,

Marie