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Positive Mindset and Gratitude

Now let's talk about the power of mindset. When we talk about mindset, we talk about a fixed mental state or attitude. Our mindset has the power to essentially make or break our experiences. The great part about it is that each person has full control over it. For instance, if I had gone out to place a pick line in an infant and then the entire time I'm preparing, I'm telling myself I'm probably not gonna get it if I even get the catheter into a vein it's probably gonna blow and I won't be able to thread the line and even if I can thread the line it's gonna get coiled in the shoulder and I'm gonna be forced to try another time and by that time I'll just be done and this isn't going to go well.

What did I just do here? I basically just convinced myself that I will be unsuccessful. And guess what? Whatever attitude I have will probably be my reality. Now, what if I went into the situation with a positive mindset something more along the lines of all right there's that vein that's calling my name.

I will insert the catheter into the vein, get my blood return. That line is going to slide right into the proper position. Don't you think we deserve to give ourselves and our patients the power of a positive mindset? I'm confident that when you are mindful of your thoughts, negative or positive, you will find that when your attitude changes the world around you changes.

I want you to remember this the next time that you are sitting for an exam saying to yourself I've worked hard to prepare for this text and I'm going to do well. Or even though I've only inserted a Foley catheter on a mannequin, I will be successful. When you're heading in for your third shift in a row, I'm going to put a smile on my face, take great care of my patients, and I will get through this shift.

It's also important to remember the element of gratitude in your mindset. Think back to the last time someone thanked you for something or you shared your level of gratitude for someone. It felt really great, didn't it? It's so easy to lose sight of gratitude when you are under pressure.

It's easy to avoid getting bogged down by the stresses of nursing school or your career. When you wake up in the morning name at least one thing that you are thankful for. Do the same when you go to bed. My personal favorite example is when I work on the holidays.

Yes, nurses work holidays. This is what we signed up for. Most nurses obviously do want to stay home to celebrate with their families. But I try to keep in mind when I'm driving into work on say, Christmas morning, I remind myself that I am grateful for my job. I am thankful I do not have a loved one in the hospital on Christmas.

I do get to spend the holiday with my work family. And most of all, I'm grateful that I have been given this ability to care for my patients and their families each day. Finally, I want you to be aware of how your own mindset can impact the others around you.

True, we all have control over our own thoughts and actions, but recall what it's like to be around someone who is constantly negative about everything. I will admit that I have been on both sides of the situation. Sometimes it's really difficult to stay positive when you're a nurse, isn't it?

Now I've had a colleague alert me to how my negative attitude was really making it uncomfortable for others to be around me. That's a terrible feeling all around. Now on the opposite end, your mindset can have a very positive impact on those around you. I specifically recall coming into work as a new graduate, recently off of orientation, looking down at my assignment, and realizing that I was assigned the most critical infant on the unit.

I could feel myself growing more and more apprehensive and starting to sweat. I remember asking my charge nurse if this was really even a good idea or question if it was potentially a mistake. Her response completely changed my attitude. I will never forget when she looked me right in the eye and said, I made the assignments like this and I don't want to change it because I know you are prepared to handle it.

Then a couple of my colleagues chimed in that they were there to help me with whatever questions I have in that they too have the confidence in me. I'm here to tell you that sometimes as nurses and even students we have to support one another, build one another up and share positive mindsets with one another.

Growth Mindset:

Meredith just spoke to you a little bit about a couple of mindsets that are really key to you and your success as a nursing student, a nurse, or really life in general. And those are a positive mindset and then gratitude. I'd like to talk to you about another one today that I think is just as important.

This actually comes from a book by Carol Dweck. She is a Stanford University professor. The book is called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. In this book, she has a ton of research and real-life examples of athletes, CEOs, musicians, students, scientists, who have achieved a tremendous level of success, and what she's found that there's a difference between people, whether they've got what she calls a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.

Now, I could do entire day of training on just growth mindset and fixed mindset. For now, what I want to do is just take a few moments just to teach you a little about what are the differences between the two and then how much you apply a growth mindset in your role as a nurse.

So if you take a look here, here's kind of a comparison between the two mindsets. You can see with a fixed mindset, a person who has a fixed mindset really thinks that their talents are kind of inborn, that they were born with their talents and there's not too much they can do then really change them.

A person with a growth mindset though really focuses on effort and hard work and sees that as the way to achieve and to become successful. A person with a fixed mindset when they can't do something they say I can't and that's it. There's no maybe they can do it later.

A person with a growth mindset though finishes that sentence with one keyword, and the word is yet I can't yet. They meant, hey maybe I can't get it right now, but I know that again with effort, with hard work, I'll be able to get it sooner or later. Another key difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, fixed mindset person usually doesn't want to fail cuz failure is something, there's something wrong with them.

So they really avoid challenges, they really avoid kind of pushing themselves. Whereas a person with a growth mindset really embraces those challenges and see's failure not as something bad but as an opportunity to learn and to grow. A person with a fixed mindset usually quits quickly when they encounter setbacks because they again don't want to be seen as a failure.

But if they start having trouble, they won't continue with whatever that process is. While a person with a growth mindset really perseveres and is resilient whenever they're facing setbacks, keep going back at it. Knows that they'll get it sooner or later. An individual with a fixed mindset is really threatened by feedback and the success of others, while the person in that situation with a growth mindset will really embrace that feedback.

Learns from the successes of others. Takes that feedback, internalizes it, figures out how they can use it, and then also looks at people who are really, really successful, and what can I learn from them that I can apply in my own life? And finally, those with the fixed mindset have an extrinsic locus of control.

A lot of times they're blaming others or the situation for their failures, where the person with a growth mindset has more of an intrinsic locus of control. Hey, I can control my destiny. So that's a little bit on the differences between again fixed mindset versus growth mindset. But how does that actually apply to you?

If you take a look here, here are some situations that you may run into as a nursing student or a nurse. One, let's say you do bad on an exam, you fail an exam. Well, a person with that fixed mindset would potentially just say, oh I can't do.

Or they would blame something else. That the exam was unfair, the teacher didn't teach us what they were supposed to. I didn't have the right notes, whatever it may be. Where the person with the growth mindset though goes all right I failed it but that's okay, what can I learn from this so that I can pass it the next time or make sure that I know this stuff for the final exam or the or whatever it might be that's coming up.

Another situation, maybe you're having trouble. It's the first time you're trying to place that catheter and you just couldn't get it. A person with a fixed mindset may just give up and say I'm never doing that again. I'm terrible at that and really get down on myself. Where the person with the growth mindset adds that keyword again that we talked about, that yet.

I can't do yet but with practice, with effort, I'll be able to get it sooner or later. Let's say you're offered additional responsibilities at work. Somebody with a fixed mindset may be a little afraid of taking those additional responsibilities because they may not wanna fail because they've never done them before.

So they may kinda push someone away and say hey, I'm not getting paid for this thing. I'm not doing this, I'm only doing what I get paid for. Where a person with the growth mindset, though, really goes after those additional responsibilities, embraces that opportunity to really develop these new skills.

What about feedback, you get feedback from your manager, maybe your manager heard that from a patient that you had a bad interaction with how a person with a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset handled that. A person with a fixed mindset would maybe blame the patient, say hey the patient was lying.

They didn't know what they were talking about. The manager wasn't there anyway. So how would they know? Or a person with a growth mindset might look at it more as a learning opportunity, right? Maybe I don't agree completely with the story that the patient told my manager, but that patient obviously had an impression that I don't want to give to my other patients.

So what can I do differently next time to make sure that doesn't happen again? And then finally, let's say perhaps you're passed over for promotion. Somebody got the promotion that you thought you were entitled to. Well, a person with a fixed mindset again may blame the manager, blame that person say he or she just got it because, I don't know, the manager's playing favorites or something like that.

Or the person with the growth mindset though will look at that situation and say okay why did that person get it? What skills does this individual who got that position have that I don't have? That I can develop so the next time there is an opportunity I can take advantage of that opportunity.

As you are going to nursing school or your career in nurse, keep these three key mindsets at the top of your mind, one that positive mindset, two gratitude, and three growth mindset. If you're really focused on that it's gonna have a tremendous impact on your success again as a nurse, but as a general human being overall.

Questions:

1. Tom discusses the difference between fixed mindset versus growth mindset. Do you are someone that functions with a fixed mindset or growth mindset?

2. Do you think it will be easier to advance in nursing school and practice with a fixed mindset, growth mindset, or a little of both? And why?