Empowering Nurses at the Bedside and in Business

Negative Environments Feed On Complaints

A few years ago, I did an Empowered Nurses Boot Camp.  It was a 4-week program designed to help nurses with license protection, leadership, communication and mindset issues.  I will be launching the Boot Camp again soon, but this time with CE credit!  In the meantime, you can check it out at empowerednursesbootcamp.com.

One of the topics in the Boot Camp program is environment.  Environment is everything and a negative one does not support you.  Not being in an environment that’s supportive and conducive to your practice is the number 1 reason why nurses get in trouble.

In the program, we talked about being conscious of complaining.  When you’re complaining about something, it is outside of you and you have no control over it.  Whereas, if you are the source of the situation, then you can do something about it.

Therefore, to take back your own power, you’ll need to avoid complaining or blaming.  This does not mean you should pretend everything is okay or to stifle your thoughts.  There is a way to speak your mind positively, with solutions, and take responsibility for what is going on.

One of the past Boot Camp participants made an interesting comment in saying she never realized how much complaining was going on in her unit.  Once she chose to stop complaining, she was surprised to see that others also cut back or even stopped their complaining as well.  She said things improved on her unit as a result.

Therefore, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be aware of complaining going on in your environment and be conscious if it turns out that you are the one complaining.  If you are, then make a conscious choice to stop complaining so you can take responsibility that will allow you to resolve the issues causing you to complain in the first place.

Did you give it a try?  How did it go?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter in the comments below.

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