Lesson 1 - Positive Feedback
Lesson 1 - Positive FeedbackI guess whilst I'm talking about nursing I'll mention a story of one of the many relevant lessons I learnt.
The photo below crops out the patient and a nurse on the other side of the bed. At the time I was 1 of 2 people in my part of the state who was an Accredited Re-entry Assessor.
Back then, any Nurse who had not nursed for more than 5 years couldn't just get a job again as a Nurse. They were deregistered. Because of the shortage of Nurses, the Nursing Board came up with a solution: Nurses who hadn't worked for that 5+ years could regain their qualification by working with an Accredited Re-entry Assessor until such time as that Assessor said they were competent to practice.
The Nurse cropped out of this photo (I'll call her Mary) was working with me for however long it took for me to say she was competent. Mary was about 30 yo at the time, husband had left her with 3 little boys and she'd struggled along for a few years.
Friends talked her into doing the Re-entry Program
Friends talked her into doing the Re-entry Program and Mary was assigned to me.
On the first day we worked together Mary worked well. At the end of the day I sat down with her to reflect on what she'd done, how she'd done it and why. I asked Mary how she thought she went:
"I went okay with this, not so good with that, etc," she said.
I asked her if she'd wanted me to tell her how I thought she'd gone.
"Okay," said Mary.
So I told her:
"Fantastic. You have great empathy, your knowledge is very good, your understanding of why you do things is great, etc," I said.
Mary burst into tears
Mary burst into tears. And I thought I'd been nice!!
After she'd stopped crying she told me why she had cried. Apparently it was the first time in 5 years that anyone had said anything nice to her!
People crave, want and love positive feedback
When you think about it, it's not that often any of us receive positive feedback. People are quick to criticise, but not so quick to praise.
That day showed me how important it is to be nice. It can make a massive difference to a person's life (sounds a bit melodramatic that, but it's true).
Cheers
Brendon
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