Tipping the Scales for Better Care - Rethinking Work-Life Balance
May 6, 2022
By Kathy Birkenstock, MSN, RN, vice president and chief nursing officer, AtlantiCare
Throughout my career, I have promoted the importance of work-life balance for our nursing team. As AtlantiCare’s vice president and chief nursing officer, one of my goals is to support our professional nurses so they are best able to serve our patients.
A year ago, I shared a few of the lessons I had learned during the pandemic. Now, it’s time to share one more: When it comes to the work-life balance, I’ve had it wrong.
The COVID-19 pandemic – two years of heartbreak and hope – has afforded me an opportunity for reflection. I am always awed by our team’s ability to set aside distractions to care for others. Where we must adjust is in acknowledging those distractions and providing the support needed to keep our team healthy, engaged and energized to continue providing care.
As I said, for so long I promoted the need for work-life balance. But months of isolation and a lack of connection has emphasized the importance of shifting that thinking. At the center of our work is the individual, the nurse, a person. People need to connect, people need people, and people need life-work balance. It begins with ensuring that when our nurses head home at the end of their shift they are able to leave their stress behind.
To accomplish this, AtlantiCare Behavioral Health introduced a new program called Your Story, Our Story. This program provided an opportunity for our nurses to share their experiences in a safe, confidential environment. They learned coping strategies from one another, grieved together and supported one another.
Most important, they had an outlet through which they could leave work behind. They could go home and spend valuable time with their loved ones while recharging for their next shift.
This is not a temporary solution. It is a reflection of the reality we face in moving forward as a nursing community. Being person-centered is critical, whether it is in our interactions with patients, family members or peers.
Our nurses are second to none. Their clinical skills, determination and compassion are rivaled only by their tremendous capacity to survive – and thrive – at a time when it would be so easy to give up.
Because our nurses don’t give up, AtlantiCare is able to fulfill its obligation to care for our community. We owe it to our nurses to provide the tools and support needed for their continued well-being.
