Serving Others as a Nurse

With Thanksgiving being later this month, I have to take a look at serving.

If you are the host, you know all the plans that go into serving. The list of guests, the food, who is bringing what, the décor, and so on. Hosting is a lot to take on, and this act of serving goes beyond the casseroles. Until you have done it, you do not realize the exhaustion that accompanies it – especially as you age.

As someone who has hosted for over 16 years, it gets harder to execute with each passing year. Being the host for every holiday can become a lot. People get used to it, therefore nobody questions where the next holiday dinner will be. However, dynamics change and when they do it may be time to pass the torch onto someone.

It's the same in nursing. We have to evaluate who we are serving, and at what cost? It is not selfish to want to serve yourself after all. You know the plane speech, “put your face mask on first” before assisting others. Why do we only apply that saying amid impending doom?

Why not put our masks on in life long before we are in need of oxygen?

When I began building Everyday Divinity, my first business serving seniors in my community, I remember telling all my friends and family of my wild dreams. I was going to fill this need in the healthcare system. As a vascular nurse, I saw the gap that the lack of routine foot care services was creating for our seniors. I, as a nurse, was going to build this business with not one business course and serve the senior demographic. Well imagine my excitement! I was whipping up the best dang gone pumpkin pie in my mind. That was until the doubters chimed in with all the reasons my dreams were impossible.

They started with their favorites, “the Board of Nursing won’t allow that.” Then it was, “if you don’t take insurance, who would use your services?” Then it was “you’re going to leave your hospital after all these years?”

Here I was sharing my hopes and dreams (my pumpkin pie) with friends, colleagues, and family only to find out none of them liked pumpkin pie. If you have ever been to my info webinar session, you know I talk about how I combated all these objections. I had to ignore the doubt in order to serve myself before serving others.

I share this with you because not everyone is going to understand what it is you are doing when you make pivots in your career. Especially if they are on the same playing field as you.

Your coworkers are not all going to be cheering you on from the sidelines. This can be due to their lack of understanding, their self-imposed limited beliefs, as well as their unwillingness to learn of the potentials that exist outside of the healthcare box. We believe we are captive to this box. When one of us begins to look outside, it makes others nervous. We are being driven by the possibilities while others may be driven by jealousy, resentfulness, or bitterness. You have to understand, we are all arriving at crossroads in our own lives and the decisions we make are based on where we have been.

What drove my purpose was, I knew I was building something that I did not need them to understand.

They were not my ideal customer. I was building something to serve the senior population. When I would discuss this with my senior patients at the hospital, they all loved the idea. So much so that they would tell me stories of how they could not find anyone to tend to their foot care needs. If you are a foot care nurse, you hear this often now in your own foot care clinics.

I was not serving my friends or colleagues with my foot care business. Therefore, they did not have to accept it or understand it. I was serving their grandparents and they understood it.

Be careful who you are sharing your dreams with. The naysayers love to get you off track. Bravery, grit, and determination are ingredients necessary to take that leap of faith to pivot you into a new direction. Your dreams (or pumpkin pie) may not be celebrated by everyone. This is ok, they may not be your ideal customer, therefore you are not serving them.

If you have questions about starting a senior foot care business, sign up for the next free FNI info webinar by visiting this link.