How to Achieve Work-Life Balance for Nurses?

Hi everyone, my name is Luciana Da Silva with Connetics USA. Welcome to the Lefora Talk Show. We have an absolutely wonderful show for you today we are going to be speaking about work life balance, which is very important for all nurses, especially because we're going through nurse burnouts right now. And we need more health care workers here in the United States. So we have several experts here today and a nurse to speak with you about this. We actually want to see your comments. Ask us questions, this is your chance to ask the experts the questions on how to mitigate burnout in your life. And as well please put in the chat where you're from where you're watching from your name. Pascal is saying hi from Surrey, South Africa, Mary is saying hello. Welcome everyone to the show. Let's bring in our guests so that we could get some introductions here. Wonderful. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Let's do some introductions. Ladies. Hi, ladies first Namita please introduce yourself to our audience. Hi everyone, my name is Namita Bhardwaj and I’m the Project Manager at Connetics AMN healthcare I'm also an onboarding manager. So I work very closely with the nurses and specially when they arrive to USA when they finish their long journey and they finally arrive we help them acclimate and a culture right to the new environment. So hello everybody looking forward to talking to you. And Arlene is also saying hello everyone from Jamaica.

Karen is watching from the Philippines saying hello everyone. Hello to Christian please introduce yourself to our audience Christian, I believe you may be on mute we are live everyone with all of the things that come along with it. I do believe Christian might be having some technical difficulties there. Can you hear us Christian? Okay, well, we still can't hear your so let's just take you right back stage. Okay, we might need you to take your headphones out because that might be to where we can hear your microphone as well. There we go. Mark, welcome back. Mark, would you please introduce yourself to our audience? Oh, hello, thank you. Sorry, some technical challenges there. My name is Mark Jones. I am one of the clinical managers with am an international happy to be here today. So in my role, I love to support our international nurses to anything and everything clinical as they adjust to working here in the US. And Mark is not a stranger to Lefora Talk Show at all. You probably recognize him and just as a shout out and man is the owner of Connetics USA and O'Grady Peyton International. So we have so much information to share with you all the time between all of our companies. So thank you so much Mark for joining us. Christian how's the sound going?

Oh, we still can't hear you. Okay, well while Christian is getting his is technology back to get her think you're on mute now Christian, but we'll go ahead and get started with can you hear us we still cannot hear you. So let's go backstage. Maybe unplug your headphones altogether. And we'll try again. We're gonna go ahead and go with the first half of the show which we are actually going to be focusing with our experts here with the media and marketers first talk about burnout and how that situation goes and achieving the work life balance. Mark, tell us a little bit more about your position with AMN O'Grady Peyton .Connetics give us some more information about how you help nurses coming to the United States. Certainly so in my role as clinical manager, I am one of several team members on our side who assist with the nurses as they are relocating here to the US in terms of clinical adaptation. So when you come here, you start working obviously everything is brand new, the systems are new technology may be new hospitals are new and everything just new in the US in general. So our goal on our clinical team and in our role is to get you resources, help you through some of those challenges that you may face. And in working through those challenges.

As you know, learn some new things, give tips, give tricks, best practice advice in certain scenarios. Or sometimes if you've just had a hard day at work, we're here to listen to you as well. So those are just a few of the things that that we may assist in in our role here as clinical managers. Thank you, Mark and Amina. You travel all over the United States to help nurses Tell us how that works and what you do. So before we hand over the nurses to Mark's department for the clinical, as soon as the nurses arrive, we help them with the initial relocation tasks. Actually, that is the most challenging time for the nurses because everything in the environment is new. I am an immigrant myself, so I can relate to a lot of their challenges. When I came to this country, I was so scared to even pick up the phone. When it rang, I would leave it to go to the voicemail and listen to the voicemail. Because I was so scared, I wouldn't understand what the accent was. So from anything in everything that's new in the environment, whether it is a thermostat or drinking water from the faucet itself, you don't have to buy a lot of water, I mean it to getting a you know picking them up from the airport, helping them with getting a US phone, bank accounts, getting a car loan, anything and everything before they can start their clinical practice or onboarding at their facility is what our team helps us else out, helps out.

So to our all of our love forums out there, you are never alone on your journey to the United States. Let's get right into the topic here about work life balance Namita give us an overview what is work life balance. And actually we have a graphic here to kind of also help our audience visualize that. Let me tell you first what work life balance is not work life balance does not mean that you means that you work 50% of the time, and then you play 50% of the time, that is not work life balance is work life balance is when you are able to manage both your responsibilities or demands equally, with the least amount of struggle or conflict. That is work life balance. So we'll go more into detail about what it means and how we can strive it. However, it is when you're able to manage both your responsibilities, both your demands at work as well as in life with equal enthusiasm, satisfaction, and happiness. And Mark, what are your thoughts on work life balance just as an overview that you could explain our audience? Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me and when I speak to the nurses that I help assistant in their transition here is work life balance is specific to you. So and what I mean by that is, it's not going to be what works for somebody else. What works with your colleague that you talk to all the time may not be what helps reduce stress in your life. So you really have to work at finding what work life balance is for you. Is work life balance, is it less stressful for you, if you do pick up that extra shift because you feel a little bit more comfortable financially outside of work at that point? Or is it the other way around? Do you need to stick with working 312 hour shifts per week, and then taking those other four days off just to spend more time with your family or children loved ones, whoever it may be. So I encourage you, you know, to understand that work life balance will be specific to you, and what makes you happy, what motivates you and what stresses you at the same time.

We were just taking a look at that graphic. And as Namita said, it's a balance, you can see all the different assets and that you need to make sure that you give an equal piece of your life to each of these things. And of course, this isn't a solid list here, right? There's so many things that that you can also that you need as a balance in your life. So thank you both for that overview. I mean, I want to go back to you. You work a lot as you were saying with nurses when they arrived in the United States. That can be a very stressful time, as you know, and you were saying it's even a very scary time. So during that arrival period, what are some of the major stresses that you see nurses dealing with. So, the stresses are like you showed your wheel, there is a financial stress, you do not know when you convert your international currency whether that will be enough before you start working, that is a big concern. It is a big concern because you do not have a social security number you do not have a credit history, finding an affordable, comfortable and safe housing can be a challenge. Communicate, communication is a challenge. Number one because of a different accent. Plus you are used to different terms. So, there are there in your children if your children are school going and not having proper driver's license as soon as you arrive, to commute to work. So as soon as you come, there are a lot of challenges. However, you are not alone, everything has been figured out. Everything has been built for you infrastructure is there, that Connetics AMN healthcare has built for you. So we have resources, we have innumerable resources to help the nurses. But that doesn't mean that you don't feel scared or challenged as soon as you arrive.

So if there is a problem, there are multiple solutions. But those problems in the beginning could be daunting. Mark, from your end, what are some of the major stressors that you see nurses going through? You know, I think that's it's a wide list. Once again, we'll be a little bit specific to the individual, you know, the nurse that's coming here with two or three children and their spouse, their stressors are going to be far different than the nurse that's coming here by themselves, right. So the some of the main stressors that we see, at least on the clinical side, kind of relate more so to your work life. So the documentation, when you come in the documentation is going to be far different. Even if you are coming from a setting where you have had previous electronical, medical record charting systems before, you need to know that here in the US, you know, we're going to be documenting far more probably than what you used to document and there's going to be different expectations in terms of your documentation. So that's one of those stressors that you could face at work, depending on the region of the world that you're coming from. Perhaps this is the first time you're seeing technology, this is the first time that you're being expected to use IV infusion pumps for every single aspect of your patient care.

So the combination of things, whether it's technology, policies, procedures, documentation, those can all be different stressors that you see, on top of everything being brand new here in the US, you know, just think about it, you just arrived to the US, you're in a city that you knew nothing about previously, other than probably looking some things up on the internet, you're in a new home, you're in a new setting with different foods, even you know, every single little thing is different at this point. So all of those little stressors do add up. And that's where the work life balance becomes key and figuring out what you need for your happiness, what you need for your own balance. And you both made a really great point about this. Because whenever nurses first arrive in the United States, you're not going straight to work, right? There is a period there that you are arriving and you're putting your life together. And that is work. At the same time, even though you're not there at a job making money on you know, clocking in and out. It's still work Namita What do you say to nurses who are going through this experience, either they're preparing to come or they just arrived there in that period in that window right there? How should nurses mitigate the work life balance at that point?

As soon as the nurses arrive, like you said, there are a lot of tasks, and they are all new. And even commuting to those tasks, getting those tasks accomplished can be very difficult. So navigating through the city is a work in itself. How do you do you take an Uber? Do you get you know your friends to drive over there if you already have friends or relatives or is there a public bus system so you have to figure out everything? Of course. Like I said, we have onboarding specialists who helped the nurses. So the nurses and I'm talking to like specifically what we do, but I know if General we have to talk about so there are so many things that you have to kind Don't research or my suggestion would be, take baby steps, make lists. And to do like today, I will accomplish only two, three tasks. And these are the units and you already research where you are, if you want to go open a bank account, which bank, do that research or ask your onboarding specialist, keep whatever documents you will need to open an account. And so have all that research. So that makes it less daunting. Because you have everything ready. So preparation, planning, taking bite sized chunks is what I say, baby steps, and that keeps you focused on one task. If when that task is accomplished, then you move on to the next test. The other thing I want to say is ask a lot of our nurses are very shy to ask no question is silly. So ask questions, even the strangers over here are very helpful. So and then if you go to the bank, just tell them what uh, you know, who you are, what situation you are, in what you have, what you do not have, and everybody's very helpful. So do not think that it is an unachievable task before you actually do it. So do not compound the, I would say your fears, because most of the time, it's the fear of the unknown. So try to have as much knowledge as possible before you go out to accomplish a task.

That would be my suggestion, a lot less stress, just if you're prepared. So that binder, right, whenever my husband immigrated here to the United States, he had literally a binder with those clear, you know, that you put the papers in and everything's clear. And it's like all of his documents right there. And I said, all of my documents are in this drawer over here. So it's that planning so that whenever you are in front of that bank manager, and they're asking for documents, X, Y, and Z, you have it all there. And that takes less stress that takes the stress out of theirs as well as with families too. Isn't that right? Mark? The that is definitely right. The more you are prepared, the more you have planned things out in more so planned for things that are going to be emergencies planned for things that you don't anticipate coming up on the regular basis. That is when you will be ready. So yeah, that's a great example there that clear packet of documents, because you'd be surprised how often you're going to need something like that, especially getting established here in the US all the time. All the time. And they're immigrants everywhere. So as Namita was saying that there are people to help you and we're used to it. If you think about it, we're used to speaking with immigrants and helping immigrants all Americans are because our population is made a lot of immigrants. So on the note of now that the nurses have arrived, they're starting work, Mark, in your experiences, because you do work on the clinical side. At what point do you see nurses begin to somewhat struggle with burnouts?

Yeah, I think that's kind of a great segue into what we refer to as the nursing lifecycle for our international nurses. So coming here, and a longer term contract, you know, the first couple of months, you're in that honeymoon phase, everything's brand new, everything is exciting. And you have a little bit of a struggle, a little bit of a hurdle. After the first couple of months, when you're on orientation, you're not quite off yet. Things you know, you're feeling a little bit more like a new nurse, you're not so much feeling like that experienced expert from your previous setting, that does give way you do become more immersed in your work that you partway through. But when you talk about burnout, that can happen, you know, we typically see it around months six to 12. Just it but it depends on your work setting. You know, all work settings are not created equal. Here in the US, it's important to ask questions about what the unit is going to be like about what your support staff expectations are going to be like, you know, are you consistently working overtime, because you're sending money back home as much as you can? Well, that's going to add to that burnout. You know, the more you're working, the more you're always there, the more you're here, the less I should say that you're taking care of yourself. That's where we kind of see it and once again, usually it varies by person that could be anywhere from that six month mark to the 12 month 18 month mark it just kind of depends on your setting, and the different factors going into it.

You just described I have the process of culture shock, right, the honeymoon phase, and then you go up. But then around six months, you start coming down. And actually, at Connetics, we have several shows and resources on culture shock on our website, go to Connetics, usa.com. And it can definitely be helpful for you to learn about that. So that you know what to expect and your family as well, that's really important, too, is to take care of that family side, because they may also be going through that, and Amanda, do you see that a lot, whenever families are arriving? We do. Then the it is real thing. I mean, being an immigrant, I myself went to culture shock, it is a real thing, everything is exciting. In the beginning, everything is new, that when you start working, then you have demands, work demands, as well as home demands at home. And you are not used to doing things the way you did back home. So and you are learning a lot. So there is information overload. So there is burnout, and there is that depth when you're emotionally. And psychologically, physically, you feel you do not have any energy, you don't have any enthusiasm. And you lose interest and everything, you lose interest, even in relaxation. That's what happens. So you are not there. You're either living in the past, regretting, or you're living in the future for love fear. And you forget to live in the present and enjoy the moment that you have. So it you know, it's self awareness.

Once you start feeling that you're reaching a point where you can't sleep, you can't relax, you don't enjoy anything. So things that gave you some things that gave you pleasure, like enjoying a cup of coffee, walking, and those things do not give you any pleasure anymore. Definitely you are going through culture shock. And that's the dip phase that we talk about. So self awareness is the key when you realize all these things are happening to you. That's the time you start focusing on self  Mark, you were mentioning that a big factor that may cause burnout, it's a work schedule, to be able to manage that work life balance and the work schedule. That might sometimes be a little difficult for nurses, because they don't know how to speak to management's about their work schedule, about the fact that they're starting to feel burnout. What do you suggest is the best way for nurses to speak to their management about this? You know, I think the best way to approach it would be a phrase that I use is professional transparency. With your manager. You know, you want to schedule a time to speak with them. You want to let them know how you are feeling. You know, you want to validate those feelings. And also let them know what objective items that are leading to that stress that or are leading to those feelings that you're having. Whether it's burnout, or just feeling overwhelmed on your unit, your nurse manager on the unit or your unit director on the unit can be your ally can be your advocate as well. Perhaps maybe you're feeling stressed out because you don't have the support staff that you were anticipating, well, that manager may be able to kind of tell you what the long term plan is, in terms of managing your expectations and knowing what is to come. You know, oftentimes that will help us plan that will help us deal with that stress as well.

So, always start with that conversation. However, when you have those conversations with your manager, you want to make sure you're not voicing your concerns in a way that's accusing the hospital or accusing the manager of making you feel that way. You want to let them know what specific items are making you feel that way and how can we work together to help resolve those concerns or those issues. I think that is typically the best way to approach it with your manager and just know that you know, you may have your support staff here at AIM and international or Connecticut's but your manager can also be there to help support you as well. They're there with you day to day every day. You know we're a phone call away but that person is there for an in person conversation whenever you may need it. And it's also helpful to remember that your management they're human beings too. They're also someone who is looking for work life balance. So you would hope that this management are your advocates for that and that they also can understand how that's working and the best way to mitigate it. I want to get one last piece of advice. We're going to take the conversation from here to the second half of the show and bring in our nurse Christian, but just final pieces of advice for our nurses to help them mitigate burnout, culture shock and get that work life balance. And Amina, what are your tips. So I divided it into three focus, like how will balance your work or create work I mean, your balance and your work, then in your home and then self. So if we take these three so at work, like Mark has given very good tips, speaking to the manager, if you're unable to the transparency is very important. So all those steps that he has given about the work that's wonderful in the at the home front.

Ask your uh, you know, partners, spouses, children, ask their help, do not think that you're a second human being. Try to do everything yourself delegate, and sometimes take time to chill, you know, relax and let the chores be handled by other people. So that is also a way of creating a little bit of less stress for you when you do not have hundreds of tasks to do or chose to do whenever you are off. And then self. It's very important to take care of yourself. And like I said, self awareness, if you're exhausted, if you are tired, take some time off. Do meditation that really helps. It keeps you balanced. Just sit in silence for two minutes every single day. Hydrate yourself, do not eat junk food, when you are hungry, try to eat healthy. So an overall body mind soul kind of nurturing really helps meditation helps yoga helps like if you stretches, it relieves the tension in the body. And I always say just keep a smile on your face. It takes the tension away and smile is contagious. Smile is contagious. I love that and it actually makes you feel good. Mark, do you have any final words and tips for our audience? Yeah, I would certainly echo what the Buddha said there. You know, those are all great points. For me, that once again, broken down into a couple of different tips and pieces of advice. First, know what motivates you, you know, you know what makes you happy, truly happy. And then also know what really stresses you out, you know, and how do you respond when you are faced with that stressor? I think my second tip and second piece of advice is rely on your experts. You know you have a support team. That's a great thing of coming over here to the US through aiming international through the Connetics international nursing recruitment agency as you have a dedicated support team to help you.

You have people that you can ask questions of you have people that can get you resources. You know, it's easy to fall into talking to an old colleague or an old friend but their work setting may be completely different from yours. So you know you want to rely on somebody that knows your work setting that you're in that can see the big picture that can help you find the resources that you need for yourself. And then lastly, I think I would reiterate it's okay to not feel okay. You know you have to let your team know you have to let your family know your colleagues know. When you are feeling that stress. You can't bottle it up, hold it in and then expect it to just disappear. You know we need to know so we know how to support you. We know how to guide you. I think that's the best thing to reinforce there. Thank you so much Mark and Namita we really appreciate your expert advice and we will see you again on the love for a talk show very soon. Thank you so much for joining. It was a pleasure. And now we are going to start with the second half of our show want to bring in Christian hopefully his technology is working now. Christian can you hear us Can you hear us Christian? It looks like our nurse Christian is having some technical difficulties still. Well I tell you what, we are going to be back again in a couple of weeks to give you some more information and check out our website as well as the Connetics USA Facebook page because we will get an interview with Christian we will get you on air we will record it we will share it with you to make sure that everybody gets Christian story, how we came to the United States and the best ways to mitigate culture shock. Thank you everyone so much for joining us on the Lefora Talk Show today and we will see you next month. Take care