Becoming a Coach

After 15 years of being a bedside nurse, I was burnt out. I was sitting outside on my patio, and told myself, there has to be more to help people than just put band aids on and feed them pills. I was looking through Instagram and a nurse coach program came up and I was like, “what the heck is this?” I instantly became intrigued. I read a little about what coaching looked like and it ultimately was making patient’s the priority. Actively listening, which is what we learned in nursing school, but not able to accomplish when having five patient’s a day plus mountains of charting. It was getting to the root of the problem on why patients became so chronically ill. This six-month program taught me how to instill positive values not only within myself, but in others. It made me realize the mind is a powerful tool and if we tune into what we feel and communicate, we are healing ourselves. We are healing the darkness we endure. Coaching encourages talking about why we are the way we are. It’s a safe space to become vulnerable and why we hold on to bad habits. Holding on to bad habits then create medical diagnoses because we are not taught on how to truly heal them. In nursing school, we were not taught effective communication techniques or what actually consists of a healthy diet. We had one semester on nutrition. Our nursing school taught us how pills are the primary healer in getting people better. I felt like we were tricked into thinking pharmaceuticals were the only way. And I believed it. I believed I needed pills to get through my day. What I really needed was to sit down with someone and filter out the negative thoughts I had about myself and the world. I needed to be asked the challenging questions, the “why” behind it. We all just need to tell our story and be heard. The current health system does not do this. We need a change. There is an epidemic of bedside nurses quitting because the work is too much. Patients are too sick and people are wanting to live longer, they feel like they are missing out on something they cannot grasp or they are scared.  Our focus should be quality versus quantity and I am hopeful the transition to quality will be the focus instead of prolonging one’s journey with suffering. The next revolution of nurses who have a coaching background will be the forefront of healthcare because us nurses are the backbone to the health care system. We make it run, and in order to keep it functional, we need to take care of our nurses so they can take care of the patients. We are not just RNs, we are souls who have made the decision to take care of others, we risk our lives for yours. We need to create healthy habits for ourselves in order to make your life fulfilled and successful.  

This is an excerpt of my book, yes, I took the leap, and I am writing a book! Surprise!