Taking on a New Department, Taking Care of Self....
Sometimes at work, you are asked to take on new responsibilities or new duties. This time for me it was a new department. Well, not that new, I had this department many years ago, but new to me again.
About six months ago, I was asked to take on this department and the start time was going to be October 1st. I have had the pleasure over the years of starting departments/units from the ground up. Heck, I have even had the experience of starting by finding land and building a building! But, this time it was going to be different, it was taking over a department that was already functioning. Over the next few months preliminary plans were developed and I was able to interview my new team and hire them/transfer them into their "new" "old" positions.
Oh, and when we started on October 1st we were over census for the amount of staff that were budgeted for the unit....so hence, we did not have enough staff to care for the patients. There were lots of things the department had in place that were not in place in our hospital. The team did not "know" me and I did not "know" them. It was stressful for them and for me too.
Stress can be good, termed eustress. Positive stress or eustress (also called good stress) is when you perceive a stressful situation as an opportunity that will lead to a good outcome.
Stress can also be bad called distress. Negative stress or distress is when you perceive a stressful situation as suffering. The goal is to move your distress to eustress.
So, what do you do to take care of yourself while you are going through stressful situations? What did I do? Listened. Tried to problem solve with the group. Make one small positive move at a time. One small win at a time. Try not to do it all at one time, because guess what, you can't. Stay positive for yourself, stay positive for your team. Have a good friend to problem solve separate from the situation. Learn to smile, learn to laugh at what you can. Using humor helps! I also find that eating good food (staying away from junk), exercising (even if it is going out for a walk around the hospital) helps! Meditation helps me to regroup and to let go. I do that during the day and in the evening to unwind. I use an app called CALM to do guided meditations.
We are now in the third month into the change and know what? We got through a lot of challenges and things are going pretty smoothly now! People on the team pulled together and made it work. We got to know each other. We are a work in progress!
I laugh because just as the new department is running some what smoothly, I am getting ready to take over some job duties of a good friend at work who is retiring in January! Here we go again!!! B-R-E-A-T-H-E! JUST BREATHE!! And don't forget to smile!
Oh, and when we started on October 1st we were over census for the amount of staff that were budgeted for the unit....so hence, we did not have enough staff to care for the patients. There were lots of things the department had in place that were not in place in our hospital. The team did not "know" me and I did not "know" them. It was stressful for them and for me too.
Stress can be good, termed eustress. Positive stress or eustress (also called good stress) is when you perceive a stressful situation as an opportunity that will lead to a good outcome.
Stress can also be bad called distress. Negative stress or distress is when you perceive a stressful situation as suffering. The goal is to move your distress to eustress.
So, what do you do to take care of yourself while you are going through stressful situations? What did I do? Listened. Tried to problem solve with the group. Make one small positive move at a time. One small win at a time. Try not to do it all at one time, because guess what, you can't. Stay positive for yourself, stay positive for your team. Have a good friend to problem solve separate from the situation. Learn to smile, learn to laugh at what you can. Using humor helps! I also find that eating good food (staying away from junk), exercising (even if it is going out for a walk around the hospital) helps! Meditation helps me to regroup and to let go. I do that during the day and in the evening to unwind. I use an app called CALM to do guided meditations.
https://www.calm.com
We are now in the third month into the change and know what? We got through a lot of challenges and things are going pretty smoothly now! People on the team pulled together and made it work. We got to know each other. We are a work in progress!
I laugh because just as the new department is running some what smoothly, I am getting ready to take over some job duties of a good friend at work who is retiring in January! Here we go again!!! B-R-E-A-T-H-E! JUST BREATHE!! And don't forget to smile!
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