Attitude is a Choice
Have you ever arrived at work to here, “If I were you, I would turn around and leave”or“It has been the day from Hell?” How does that make you feel? It sets the tone for your entire shift. You have a preconceived perception of what your day is going bring. What if you came to work and somebody said, “What a great day, we were busy but we pulled together as a team and got everything accomplished.” It is all about perceptions.
Nursing is demanding, hard work and can be very stressful at times. Bad attitudes only make it worse, on everyone. I guarantee the patient lying in the bed is having a much worse day then you.
Bad attitudes infect everyone. One bad attitude has the same power as ten positive attitudes. Changing your mind-set is not as difficult as it sounds. It is all about choices. First, the work still needs to be accomplished whether you complain about it or not, so choose not to complain. Nobody wants to here it anyway.
Next, make what you are doing fun. Fun? Yes fun! Work together to get the job done, and ask for help when you need it. Don’t be afraid to laugh, it will not kill you. Get to know your patients, cheering them up, will make you feel better. Now stop! There is that bad attitude again. Do not say you don’t have time to get to know your patients, make the time. Make a sign and post it in your nurse’s station that reads “Check Bad Attitudes at the Door, We don’t accept them here”.
Another thing that can be done to change a terrible attitude to a positive attitude is keep a journal. Journal writing is very therapeutic. Before you go to bed at night take ten minutes and rights down all the stress and garbage you collected during the day. Once it is on the pages, let it go. Then right five positive things you would like to accomplish tomorrow. Don’t make them hard or to detailed, make them easily attainable. Tomorrow when you right in your journal, do the same exercise but this time see how many things you accomplished. Imagine how you will feel if you achieved all five but even if you only completed one, you should still have a sense of accomplishment. Try it, it works.
Lastly, those of you that are just negative people, who never seem to be in a good mood, don’t take this the wrong way but there is no place in nursing for you.