What are You Doing for Nurses Week?

In these uncertain times, it makes sense to want to get lean and mean and cut expenses by minimizing the frills and fluff.  An initial thought might be to totally forgo any celebrations for your staff.  Aren’t celebrations considered fluff?  I’m not so sure.  I think now, more than ever, we need to feel appreciated, celebrated, and important both at home and work.  An interesting article in last Tuesday’s New York Times “Science” section discussed the psychology of saving and spending (think Ants and Grasshoppers), and included this nugget: “Other experiments showed that people will work harder for luxuries than for more practical prizes — and the more effort that’s required, the more they feel entitled to a self-indulgent reward. That’s a motivation strategy for managers and marketers to keep in mind, Dr. Kivetz said.” 

 

Whether you offer free massages and yoga classes, celebration dinners, or give gifts, some kind of recognition is important.  I would love to hear how your facility is celebrating your nurses, and I welcome your ideas and comments about what would really make you feel celebrated. 

 

The Final Choice

I recently lost a friend to suicide—and discovered you can’t really know how you’ll feel about someone taking their own life until you are faced with it.  My responses ranged from confusion to shock to anger to deep sadness, all in the same moment.  I am overwhelmed to think that he was in such a place of suffering that the only way out he could see was to end his life.  Suicide is the final choice and has farther-reaching results than I could have imagined. 

 

In the book, No Time to Say Goodbye; Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One,  Carla Fine  shares her personal story of her recovery from her husband’s suicide and the experiences of many others on the path of healing after a loved one has left them in such a final way.   “The suicide of a loved one reshapes us: Our beliefs and perceptions have been shaken by the deliberate, permanent departure of a person we have cared for, depended on, cherished, and nurtured.” 

 

Fine helped me understand that we must focus on the life of the deceased and on our own life as well, instead of getting so wrapped up in the unexpected ending of death.   I highly recommend it for anyone who has been touched by suicide. 

 

With an increase in suicide rates due to these stressful economic times, it behooves us all to be on alert for the signs and symptoms of depression and know how we can help.

 

Choosing Life Balance for Heart Health

I have just returned from speaking at the American Heart Association Go Red for Women Luncheon in Minneapolis and loved their theme:  Your Heart.  Your Choice. Your Story.     Heart disease continues to be the number one killer of women with grim statistics–an amazing one in three will die this year.   What a good reminder not only of the importance of healthy eating and exercise, but of the remarkable power that choice plays out in our lives.  Every day we choose how we show up, stand up, and speak up, from what we eat to how many times we say yes when we’d really prefer to say no.  As I did with my Minneapolis participants, I’m going to ask you to try committing to one choice regarding your life balance today.  Keep it simple and specific–anything from taking a walk or making an appointment with your doctor to learn your numbers to just taking 10 minutes to stop and indulge yourself with doing nothing.