Opportunities for Nurses During National Nurses Week

Opportunities for Nurses During National Nurses Week

This week is National Nurses Week. Several businesses across the country are honoring nurses this week with deals and discounts. Nurses have been recognized as the most trusted profession for the past 16 years. As nurses, we play vital roles in disease prevention, health promotion, and treatments, which deserve to be celebrated. It’s important that we raise public awareness of our contributions to society.

There are many things nurses can do to help celebrate National Nurses Week. Here are just three examples:

1. Recognize yourself and others by, for example, a word of “thank you” or a message of gratitude.

Show your appreciation and support for the works nurses do. Importantly, take a moment to think about all the work you have done to help your patients during your years as a nurse.

2. Maintain and advance the standard of the nursing profession.

Improve your nursing knowledge by signing up for a continuing education course or a conference during National Nurses Week.

3. Improve positive relationships between senior and less experienced nurses.

Take this opportunity to build positive relationships between nurse supervisors and junior and senior nurses. Help clarify role expectations and promote an open exchange of opinions and ideas, and encourage junior nurses to achieve high-quality benchmarks.

Happy National Nurses Week to all nurses!

How will you be celebrating this week? Let us know in the comments.

7 Tips for Protecting Patient Privacy for New Nurses

7 Tips for Protecting Patient Privacy for New Nurses

As a nurse, your day is spent with your patients and their information. You review patients’ records, listen to their health histories, administer medication, and engage in therapy. It is well-known for experienced nurses that all patient information is confidential and federally protected; however, new nurses often doubt how to maintain a patient’s privacy and confidentiality in an appropriate way.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act established legal mechanisms to ensure privacy and security of medical identity and protected health information. HIPAA established security requirements for the exchange of certain health information and regulated its disclosure. HITECH magnified HIPAA to promote the implementation of electronic health records and supporting technology in the United States.

Nurses are obligated to protect confidential information about patients, unless required by law to disclose the information. Here are 7 key elements that new nurses must take seriously in order to prevent potentially disastrous violations.

1. Adhere to workplace security and privacy policies in protecting confidential patient information.

2. Understand and be compliant with HIPAA rules and regulations.

3. Understand the definition of individually identifiable health information, known as protected health information (PHI), and when it can be shared, how it can be shared, and with whom it can be shared. Examples of PHI covered by HIPAA include:

  • Demographic information
  • Health conditions, including diagnoses and test results
  • Clinical data, such as lab results, diagnostic test results, procedures, and medications
  • Billing and payment information
  • Photographs

4. Learn how to implement reasonable safeguards to limit incidental uses or disclosures and avoid patient disclosure pitfalls. Remember, the patient is the final arbiter of what information is shared and/or transmitted.

5. Always keep anything with patient information out of the public’s eye.

6. Learn how to discard confidential information appropriately in accordance with your workplace privacy policy.

7. Consult with your HIPPA office or Human Resource office for any suspicious activities that may compromise patient confidentiality. Do not be afraid to ask for the guidelines and workplace security and privacy policies and procedures.

Enhancing Happiness Through Your Work

Enhancing Happiness Through Your Work

Stress in nursing is most likely attributed to the physical and emotional demands of patients and families, work hours, shift work, interpersonal relationships, and other pressures that are central to the work nurses do. Stress adversely affects the health, safety, and well-being of nurses, patients, and health care organizations alike; therefore, it is essential for nurses to reduce job stress and increase their happiness through their work.

Studies show that loving your job has less to do with your job and more to do with you. That’s right, there are simple ways you can ensure your own happiness at work every single day. Because happiness is the sum of love, optimism, purpose, courage, productivity, health, perspective, humor, and fulfillment, you must manage to achieve. Happiness won’t come to you if you do nothing.

Here are six simple actions you can employ to reduce stress and enhance your happiness.

1. Find out what makes you happy.

When you know the answer, you can add it to your life. If you are not sure, you should start taking detailed notes whenever you feel happy.

2. Create and write down a daily goal of joy each day.

Creating a goal allows you to focus on who you are in the moment, recognize and live your values, and achieve your emotional energy and happiness. Try to create one thing that you can look forward to each day at work, whether it’s seeing a specific coworker or your special lunch break. Whatever it is, the simple act of looking forward to it will increase the happiness you associate with work.

3. Make yourself familiar and comfortable with each of your coworkers and patients.

Studies show that working with unfamiliar coworkers and in different settings negatively impacts you at work. Make sure that you take time to introduce yourself to your coworkers and get to know your patients. Being familiar with your coworkers and patients increases your confidence and happiness at work.

4. Be optimistic.

Research shows that positive people are less likely to become ill. Optimism has been linked to an improved sense of well-being so try to look on the bright side whenever you can.

5. Love yourself and take care of your health.

Caring for yourself must be a priority. Eating well, staying hydrated, and getting enough sleep can make you feel good. And when you feel good, you have the physical and mental energy to work through daily challenges and focus on what’s good about the day. Make time to do the things that make you happy in the moment as well, such as listening to your favorite song during a lunch break.

6. Last but not least, put a smile on your face, act happy, and laugh every day.

Acting happy and keeping a pleasant expression on your face puts your mind in a positive state. Try to let go of negative feelings and learn to forgive because forgiveness will help give you inner peace.

Adapting to Different Work Cultures

Adapting to Different Work Cultures

Our health care system ­today has made tremendous progress in providing care to ­individuals and families. Change is good, but as the health care industry rapidly responds to emerging trends, markets, and ­opportunities, how staff nurses respond to different kinds of work ­culture is important, particularly when work culture highly ­impacts a nurse’s job function.

Work culture is made up of the norms, values, and beliefs that characterize an organization. Several factors, including management, workplace practices, policies and philosophies, ­employees and their interactions, ­leadership, expectations, rewards or ­recognitions, communications, transparency, and ­support within an ­organization, can influence work ­culture. Work culture,which can make or break a workplace, is powerful. It can ­inspire health care employees to be more productive and positive at work, or it can make them feel undervalued and frustrated. Thus, it plays a crucial role in shaping ­behaviors in ­organizations.

Your Work Culture

Ask yourself the following

:

  • What is the culture like in your workplace?
  • Do staff naturally unite and collaborate?
  • Are the leadership and ­executive teams available and transparent?
  • What values and principles does your organization ­express?

Sometimes, you might say “it’s challenging.” Defining work culture can be difficult; nevertheless, it is fundamental to good (or poor) practice. Work culture is not often discussed, but clearly, nurses can be ­negatively or positively ­influenced by their work ­culture.

Work culture in nursing is critical to job satisfaction, nurse retention, and patient outcomes. A toxic work culture can lead to increased sick days, stress-related symptoms, and nurse turnover. It also plays a large role in the ability to provide quality nursing care. Work culture can impact everything from the safety of patients to job satisfaction. If yours is negative and discouraging, you cannot just wait for it to change. The first thing you must realize is that it might not change at all without you taking some kind of action.

Understanding your work culture is key to developing practice that aims to improve care. Although a positive work culture is mostly created from the top down, it often happens from the bottom up. Nurses should not undervalue the power of their work culture. Understanding work culture as a learning environment is ­related to how nurses choose to engage in their workplace and how the workplace normalizes their involvement in activities and interpersonal relations. Nurses can take inspired action, engage in networks, and initiate work culture change. This is not a simple task, but nurses can utilize their own personal power and create cultural transformation in their workplace. Keep in mind that work culture can—and will—change and evolve over time. The first approach is to define and evaluate your work culture—both what it is now and what it should be in the future.

Every workplace has its own work culture. Most of this is unspoken, but a lot can be learned from an employee handbook or company policy. Observation, assessment, and communication are key ­approaches to help you ­uncover your work culture. These key approaches can also be utilized by someone who has unique developmental and ­socialization needs, such as new graduate nurses, international nurses, student nurses, and nurses who are undergoing role status changes or transitioning to a new area. No matter what your status is, here are five ways to help you thrive in your work culture.

  • Watch and learn. Give yourself some time to understand the reasons behind workplace behavior and you will be much more successful in understanding the causes. Observe how things are done. Take notes. Keep track. Building relationships with people in your workplace and connecting with someone on your team who has a good understanding of how the workplace culture works can help you better ­understand and avoid making a mistake.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions. You don’t need to know everything. Questions are a great way to clear up differences and get to know people. Also, be sure to ask for help whenever you need it. Asking for assistance or an explanation should not be considered a sign of weakness.
  • Remain motivated at work. Nurse burnout is real, so it is important to recognize the impacts you make on your patients and workplace every day. Focus on yourself and how you can be a positive influence.
  • Be transparent. Let your ­coworkers know about your background and your career goals. Don’t hesitate to share your ideas and let your team and supervisor know what other skills you have to offer.
  • Acknowledge your mistakes. Apologize and laugh it off. Keep your sense of humor and learn from every mistake you make.

Developing the skills and ability to understand and communicate effectively with all your coworkers (including your supervisor) is critical to your success in your own career, as well as the success of your organization. These skills are not innate; they require practice, but anyone can develop these skills. Adapting to a new work culture is an ongoing process. Once you have the skills, you can work more effectively with different groups of people and adjust easily to working in different cultures throughout your career.

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