Leaning in to Self-Awareness to Lead on Patient Care: 3 Ideas for Excellence

by | Sep 17, 2024 | Blog

Leaning in to Self-Awareness to Lead on Patient Care: 3 Ideas for Excellence Dr Nia D Thomas

Welcome to today’s edition where we’re joined by the fabulous Michelle Devost, the Travelling Nurse!

Michelle is a case management travel nurse who has 30 years of nursing experience in a multitude of specialities including triage, home infusion, marketing, leadership, case management and utilisation review.  She has a Master of Science in Nursing Informatics and is a Certified Case Manager.

So, what is a travel nurse?  Well, a travel nurse is hired by a Travel Nurse Agency to address temporary staffing shortages at medical facilities. Typically, assignments last 13.5 weeks. Many travel nurses take advantage of these opportunities to explore new places. If there’s a continuing staffing need, contracts can be extended for another 13.5 weeks. This extension period is often an ideal time for nurses to take time off to travel or relax between contracts. If the contract isn’t extended, the nurse moves on to a new facility, gaining new experiences in different hospitals and locations as they go.

Michelle writes a really interesting newsletter, Travel Nurse Escapades, all about her travel nursing experiences and what life is like as she heads out on the road across America, bringing together her nursing skills and her love for travel.

When I did my academic research, healthcare practitioner self-awareness was a regular feature in the literature.  In the academic journals there are lots of studies about the impact health professionals’ self-awareness has on their behaviour and consequently, on their patient’s wellbeing and recovery.  Being that Michelle has a very interesting healthcare career, I really wanted to explore what self-awareness means to Michelle and how it impacts her patients.

So, read on to discover more about travel nursing, self-awareness and how it fits into Michelle’s work-life and her patients’ lives!

Nia: What made you decide to pursue travel nursing?

Michelle: I became interested in travel nursing when I learned of it while obtaining my initial nursing degree back in the 90s. It sounded so appealing to be able to experience new places to live and work on a short-term basis.

Although travel nursing was always in my mind, wonderful life events happened and I was unable to implement that particular plan.  My mindset changed swiftly about all things life related after recovering from a serious bicycle accident. I was very fortunate to be able to recover from it 100% both mentally and physically in about 5-6 months.

While I had a fabulous job at the time, once I recovered from the accident I knew I had to pursue the goals I had been placing on the back burner pre-accident. My mindset changed into positive self-motivation after my recovery. Therefore, I tossed the dice, was able to land a recruiter and the travel nurse lifestyle was…….

 

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