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big or small Playing
nursing career in your
KEITH CARLSON BSN, RN, NC-BC
KEITH CARLSON T
hroughout the history of nursing, nurses have strug- gled for recognition and a deeper stake in the health- care ecosystem. While lauded as the backbone of the healthcare industry, nurses’ individual and collective bids for increased autonomy have met with varying levels of resistance, even today. We owe much to those courageous nurses who have
paved the way for change, stretching the profession past seemingly arbitrary boundaries. These nurses have played big, serving as role models for those of us who want to color outside of the lines as nursing professionals.
Do this, don’t do that In the course of your life, how have you been molded by what you felt you were supposed to do? When you were a child, were there voices chiding you to do things a certain way? Did you color outside of the lines? As a teenager,
others have placed around your neck, what would it feel like to remove that yoke altogether?
Your oyster, your pearl At this time, there are prolifi c signs of change in the nursing zeitgeist. Nurses are starting businesses and entering the entrepreneurial space. Advanced practice nurses are gaining greater autonomy
and expanded scopes of practice in many states, even as physicians attempt to stop the inevitable tide. Nurses are seizing power and developing a larger sense of self. What about you? If you were to listen more deeply to the calling of your
nurse’s heart, what would you do? If you were to accept that the world is your (nursing) oyster, what career-related pearls would you set your sights on? If you could reboot your nursing career, what would it look like?
In your career, if you’ve limited yourself because of others’ views of your capabilities, then you now have the opportunity to play it bigger.
were you unable to even see the box into which others wanted to place you? As nurses, we can feel beleaguered by forces attempting
to dictate our roles and scope of practice. In some states in the U.S., legislators with little knowledge of healthcare have attempted to control nurses, frequently based on lobbying by physicians who would prefer to keep nursing autonomy in check. In your career, if you’ve limited yourself because of
others’ views of your capabilities, then you now have the opportunity to play it bigger. If you’ve been playing it small and you’re tired of unwittingly wearing a yoke that
64 Visit us at
NURSE.com • 2016 There are plenty of reasons to play small or big in this
world; the nursing profession can feel like a straight- jacket if you allow it to be one. Remember you have the freedom to reject such restrictions, forge your own path and create a nursing career that speaks to your heart, your mind and your desire for overall professional and personal fulfillment. •
Keith Carlson, BSN, RN, NC-BC,
Nurse.com’s career advice columnist, is the board-certifi ed nurse coach behind
NurseKeith.com.
TO COMMENT, email
editor@nurse.com.
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