A week ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with a nurse leader who made the decision to walk away from her leadership position and become a travel nurse. At the time of this article, she is happily practicing as a clinical nurse in her chosen specialty and in a work environment that is welcoming, appreciative of her abilities and skills, and one that offers her the scheduling flexibility that she wants.
The question I asked her was, why? What prompted you to leave a position and place where you were the expert and known by pretty much everyone in and outside of the unit where you practiced? As she was the ‘last’ person I expected to make the decision to become a travel nurse. During our conversation, 3 themes that are consistent with the nursing leadership literature surfaced.
Breaking point: This nurse leader worked in an acute care setting before and during the pandemic and always believed she would stay at the same location, but not necessarily the specialty area until retirement from the profession. However, the impact of the pandemic on her personally, her team, plus her other individual responsibilities all brought her to a breaking point. She described being extremely exhausted, STRESSED, and overloaded all the time. Because many times she was the “be all end all” for her team.
Inability to live out purpose: Ideally, nursing is her preferred profession and leadership was her dream because she saw leadership as a vehicle to influence others by developing and implementing improvements that could be beneficial to everyone. But on her unit, she was not able to live out her purpose. When she saw problems that needed to be changed, she would ask her team for the answers. BUT for whatever reason, she was not able to consistently get the processes and resources in place that could help her team members take care of themselves so they could take care of their patients. Knowing what the issues are and having to ‘fight’ constantly to get the necessary changes, created an internal conflict which manifested in the emotions of disappointment, sadness, hurt, helplessness, and anger.
Flexibility and autonomy: When this nurse leader made the decision to take a clinical nurse travel assignment, she told me she ‘now feels that she is the Chief Executive Officer of her life’. She gets to decide when to work, where she works, and her compensation. She does not have the pressure of having to ALWAYS meet the expectations of her team and her leaders. Essentially, she now has scheduling flexibility, but also autonomy over her life, which allows her to take care of herself and subsequently her patients.
What can nurse leaders learn from this dialogue with a nurse leader turned travel nurse?
I don’t believe there is ONE specific ‘silver bullet’ that can or will stop the exodus of nurse leaders from their role and possibly the profession. BUT what if we could save one nurse leader through our actions?
What if we (nurse leaders) continued the revolution in our profession by ALWAYS showing authentic caring about and for each leader, and really listening for clues that they will give us about what or how they want to practice?
What if we (nurse leaders) were able to connect with every nurse leader so they knew deep in their psyche they were valued for their ideas, included in decisions that affected them, and they belonged? What if we created positive practice/work environments that were safe for all individuals to show up as their authentic selves? What if the systems and processes that are used by nurse leaders were tailored for efficiency EVERY time?
Finally, throughout the pandemic we watched as organizations pivoted to hybrid work environments. Granted healthcare is different because most times, we are face to face with our patients, so working remotely is not always feasible.
However, is there an opportunity for nurse leaders to take the idea of “hybrid” and develop care delivery models that are not a throwback from the past and spans of control for nurse leaders that can allow them to care for themselves so they can take care of their teams while also achieving great outcomes? PULL from linkedin page
At this time, I don’t have the answers to the questions that were raised. But what I do know is we can come up with the answers, because we are nurses, and nurses are innovative, determined, and we won’t stop until we get it right. Let’s get it right for our nurse leaders!