What Do Self-Responsibility & Love Have to do with It?

Hi Everyone, thanks for following my content!! I am a Health Equity Education Coach. I combine coach leadership, health equity, belonging and well-being in nursing education to transform our relationship with equity practices. I hope to bend the arc in nursing towards nurses who act locally, but think globally. I imagine nurses who are activists, rebels, advocates, and helpers demanding that we use our healing abilities to restore relationships between minoritized and divested persons so that we can see their beauty through the scars that our society has inflicted. And with this knowledge, this change in attitudes, our practice will change, and so will the health of our society.

In my previous newsletter, I shared with you when I started this journey 10 years ago that nurses just were not about self-care. As a matter of fact, I thought that nursing would satisfy that desire for wholeness in a profession, but unfortunately it did not. I took myself on a wellness journey to help me build longevity as a nurse. Sadly, the nursing profession is in critical condition.

Over 50% of nurses quit within the first five years. More specifically, over 17% quit within the first year, and a whopping 56% quit after the first two years. This issue has also been exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, as 95% of nurses have reported feeling burnt out within the past three years. In my wellness journey, I've learned how everything is connected. I want to share my understanding Self-Responsibility and Love specifically as it relates to health equity.

Here are three commentaries on self-responsibility and love:

• Recognize that we are fundamentally responsible for our health
• Understand that when we experience pain or dis-ease it's an opportunity to re-evaluate our lifestyle and our environment
• Recognize that it's “ok” to sometimes be out of balance, vulnerable, or in need

Health inequities persist when we don't take self-responsibility seriously. It is our responsibility as nurses to appreciate the challenges that our clients are living through. When we disregard their challenges, we are more likely to “other” them or treat them as though their behaviors are not worthy of understanding. I believe this is more likely to happen when we are comfortable ignoring our own needs. As nurses, it is abundantly important that we recognize that we are fundamentally responsible for our health. By extension of us practicing self-love we can more readily extend that grace to others. We have healing capabilities, but a lot of the time we push through feelings of pain and ignore the signals that our body is sending that say rest, reflect, and eat well. Instead we reach for medication that will give us immediate relief so that we can start pushing again. Often these same messages transcend to our clients who expect us to also make their pain go away immediately. We exhaust ourselves trying to meet every need, ignoring our own, and pretty soon we experience compassion fatigue.

Conclusion

My point here is that as clinicians we have to honor our own need for compassion and we have a responsibility to ourselves to take care. This may look like having difficult conversations with your peers or supervisors, or it may look like you finding a wellness plan that works for you and practicing it. Whatever you choose, know that your choices impact the health of the people that you serve. Yes, I only covered the first point. If you want to hear more about ways we can practice self-responsibility and love, listen here.

I have a beyond the book study co-learning masterclass called The Clinician's Guide to Microaggressions and Unconscious Bias Beyond the Book Study: Building Your Skill and Toolbox to Help Clinicians, Educators, & Faculty to Move Nurses Toward Health Equity. No pre-reading is required. Many nurses have leaned into diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to promote more equitable workplaces, but without aligning it to a transformational leadership process, it doesn’t convert to better learning environments or improved representation of diversity in nursing. This masterclass will help nurses get super clear on the actions to take to move nurses into practicing health equity. Stay tuned for the registration link. Be the love you wish to see.