Announce That You Are Happy!

Many years ago, the famous lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, who began his career as a lawyer, said, “I have an unusual statement to make. I am a man who believes he is happy. What makes it unusual is that a man who is happy seldom tells anyone. The unhappy man is more communicative. He is eager to recite what is wrong with the world, and he seems to have a talent for gathering a large audience.¹” Are you happy? Are you happy with your career, your job, your vocation as an NP, or are you “reciting what is wrong with the world”? If you are happy, do you show it? Can your patients and co-workers tell that you’re happy? I believe that finding happiness and expressing it are part of what we need to do as NPs. This happiness, along with our clinical knowledge, will make us unique providers in a healthcare system that is longing for something different.

Finding happiness in our work—joy in what we do—is an important aspect of our NP profession. It doesn’t mean that we won’t experience failure, disappointment, sadness, and pain. But amidst these negative experiences, or perhaps because of some of them, we will find many more positive experiences. It really amounts to what we choose to focus on and how we choose to see things (ie, the “glass half empty/glass half full” phenomenon). Hammerstein goes on to say, “It is a modern tragedy that despair has so many spokesmen, and hope so few.” We NPs can be the spokespersons of hope.

It’s easy to look at a situation and point out the flaws and faults. For example, our nation needs healthcare reform. There is some movement toward changes in health care on the political front. We can choose to see what is wrong with this reform, where the flaws and faults are, or we can choose to build on what is positive about it. Change comes slowly. Lasting change comes even more slowly. The fact that politicians are debating about healthcare reform, even though the end product may not be exactly what we imagined or hoped for, is positive. We are taking baby steps in the right direction. Rather than focus on the problems with what has been proposed, let’s look for solutions and actively work toward achieving them. The same outlook applies to our jobs and our employers. Although it may be easier to grumble about what or whom we don’t like than it is to accentuate the positive, I encourage you to tell others what you like about your career, your position, and your employer.

At Ellenville Regional Hospital in Ellenville, New York, nurse practitioner Robert Donaldson was recently elected president of the medical staff. This achievement is something positive and is cause for celebration. Sure, we could complain that our institution would never let an NP be president of the medical staff or—we can see this accomplishment as a sign of hope, of change in a positive direction that will continue to happen at more and more institutions. We don’t need to constantly criticize physicians, administrators, supervisors, and the insurance companies. Instead, we can look for the next small step we will take to make changes in a positive direction.

Finally, are you happy in your own job? Are you doing what you enjoy doing, the way you enjoy doing it? If not, your patients and colleagues will know it. Maybe it’s time to consider a change in your work (eg, find a new job, work part time) or your attitude. My employer recently changed from a 90% base pay and 10% incentive/productivity pay to a 10% base pay and 90% incentive/productivity pay. This change seemed daunting to me because I wanted to continue to provide high-quality, cost-effective care, not just conduct a long series of quick patient visits. I felt discouraged while the system was being developed and implemented, but I decided that I would continue to provide clinical care in exactly the same way as before, giving patients the time they needed, and not worry about the numbers.

But meeting these goals wasn’t easy at the beginning. It took practice and discipline! At first, I was obsessed with the number of patient visits I conducted each day. But then I learned to make some adjustments in terms of how I viewed the new system—not as an enemy but as a challenge. I learned to manage my schedule in ways I had never done before to help keep it full, but not overwhelming. It was an opportunity to learn to better manage my work flow. In working with the system, not against it, I have been able to maintain my productivity while feeling happy with my work. It was more of an attitude change than a practice change for me.