Nursing is a very rewarding career for people who appreciate giving care and finding solutions to satisfy patient requirements. Your everyday tasks will be as diverse as your patients, and you’ll unavoidably feel under pressure to perform them all flawlessly. This is, after all, the healthcare sector, right?
However, no matter how prepared and rational they may seem, nurses are still fallible human beings prone to making mistakes. Most commonly, errors increase in frequency with longer hours, significant loads, and less competency. If this continues, you will never be able to prosper as a nurse.
Suppose you want to be on top and have your administrative managers think of you as a valued team member. In that case, you need to identify your errors and learn how to do things right. With that being said, here are a few things that, if done in a continuous pattern, can deteriorate your nursing career:
1. Ignoring the opportunity for advanced learning
An excellent nursing career can start with just an associate’s degree. But getting more education can boost your chances of moving up the career ladder and earning more money.
On the other hand, if you choose to stay in one spot for the rest of your life, you will be left behind.
With the prevalence of e-learning, acquiring higher education has become more accessible. Suppose you’re looking to enter the nursing space with a professional degree. Then you can apply for an online RN degree from a reputable institute. Through this degree, you can improve your career prospects, develop new skills, get the chance to work anywhere, and, above all, enhance the quality of care.
2. Putting on a Know-It-All Show
As a recent graduate entering nursing, you are flooded with textbook knowledge. The knowledge you acquired during your nursing program is precious and will immensely help you as a new nurse. You are eager to show it all off and establish your excellent nursing abilities. You’ll probably become cocky if you enter the office and act like you know everything. That does not represent you as a nurse in the best possible way. Even after you’ve graduated from nursing school, you should keep learning new things. Pay attention to the nursing experts’ counsel. Observe them and write notes on what you notice. Take in their knowledge. When you are unsure of something, ask them.
3. Ignoring nursing procedures
One of the more severe errors a nurse can make is not paying much attention to following the nursing procedures and the patient care routines. The welfare of your patients and your image among your peers are in jeopardy.
For instance, breaking protocol when entering and leaving isolation rooms can contribute to the infection of other patients and employees. Conditions or other problems may result from inadequate cleaning of the equipment. Charting mistakes can result in care mistakes that could be extremely dangerous. Let’s say you fail to or improperly record patient encounters. You inadvertently leave out a patient’s penicillin allergy from their medical history. Or perhaps you don’t keep track of your behaviors, like administering or ceasing medication. These types of errors can seriously cause damage to not only your patients but your career as well.
4. Taking your clothes for granted
The significance of your clothes cannot be understated. Too tight or too-loose scrubs can not only make you feel uncomfortable, but they will also make your patients and colleagues think less highly of you. It’s perhaps even more crucial to focus on wearing the right shoes. You’ll be on your feet often, and becoming older doesn’t make it any more pleasant. Select comfortable footwear, and think about donning compression socks. Throughout their hours, nurses move around a lot. Thus, wearing the wrong shoes could cause an injury that prohibits them from carrying out your tasks.
5. Disregarding oneself
Individuals who have a strong sense of empathy frequently choose careers in nursing. Although the ability to relate to patients is essential for success, it can also lead to self-neglect. When attempting to spend quality time with your family after a 12-hour shift, it is easy to become entangled in the sentiments and lives of the families and patients you serve. Make time for fun and stimulating activities, whether a 30-minute read-through of the newest book by your favorite writer or a three-mile run. Spend time preparing healthy meals and eating them.
6. It’s a big no-no to avoid work
You are employed as a nurse because the institution requires what you have. Even weeks after starting work, these words might still be on your mind. But after working there for a while, do you realize that you are continuously reluctant to take on additional tasks simply because you are shy or lazy? It doesn’t seem right because it could shadow your nursing career.
You don’t have to be Wonder Woman or Superman and accept every duty to break this pattern. Remember that your readiness to be there and offer assistance reflects favorably on you and your medical position. The nurse is always present even if the doctor is not! Additionally, suppose your team learns about your excellent work ethic. In that case, they could not hesitate to suggest you for crucial assignments in the future.
7. Being ungrateful
Not every workplace is perfect or even healthy. It is especially true for nursing occupations, which may be very demanding and stressful. But nurses are expected to be true professionals who can work with all kinds of personalities. Paying little to no attention to your current reputation as a nurse and creating tension or starting arguments can quickly destroy your career. So try your best to appreciate even the most minor things because being ungrateful can cost you your job.
Conclusion
The list of potential career-killers for nurses is not all-inclusive. However, these are the most common, and you may contribute to their prevention by being aware of them. Any of these can effectively put a promising career on hold or permanently harm it. But the more prepared you are, the better the odds are that you will be able to build a decent reputation for yourself. And ultimately, how much you challenge yourself to work hard and earn the statistics you receive will test your self-development as a nurse.
