Five New Year's Tips for Healthcare Leaders from Healthcare Communication Specialist Candy Campbell

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Jan 11, 2012, 08:35 ET

CONCORD, Calif., Jan.11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare Communication Specialist Candy Campbell, MSN, RN, offers five New Year's tips for healthcare leaders, based on her 30+ years as a nurse, educator and healthcare administrator.

1. If you're not still passionate about your work, find out why? Are you immobilized by a co-worker? A boss? The culture of the organization? After you finish your analysis, make a plan. What will you do to change your situation?

Consider this: Even if you cannot change who you work with, you can change how you work with them. Attitude is everything, but a course in assertiveness training, or dealing with difficult people might also help.

Is the irritation worth a transfer or a relocation? If you need another educational certificate or degree to move up or exit that culture, there's no better time!

2. What do you put first in your life? Work or personal relationships?

If you answered, "work," rethink this one. Perhaps it's not possible to have a complete balance to your crazy life, but you can aim for integration of work/play to renew, refresh, and stabilize your soul.

3. If you don't already have a "team" of friends/family who support you in thick and thin (hopefully these are NOT coworkers), find that group.

These should be people you can be REAL with, minus fear of recrimination. These are the folks you celebrate and grow with, by telling each other the truth, however painful. Having close confidantes who share the same moral/ethical convictions will pay dividends untold in the present as well as the future.

4. Payback. What are you doing to give back to your community?

"No, not for money," says Campbell, a healthcare speaker and author. "Studies show those who volunteer gain enormous sense of well-being. Why? The universal law: 'It's better to give than receive.' And why is that so? If you've ever volunteered, you know about this. If you will take time to give to someone else, no matter how small the deed, the universe will give back to you. True? Of course, true! You rarely 'get' back the same kindness you gave (i.e., despite some televangelist promise, if you give a donation you likely won't get money back), but in terms of peace and love, which cannot be measured, your life will be enriched."

5. Don't compare yourself to anyone else.

"No matter how tempting, you'll just drive yourself to despair by doing so. If you are at the novice level, there really can't be a fair comparison," she says.

"Look at all the people in the world. Then look at your gifts. Realize there is time and a place for you to develop your talents. So what if you're not the greatest (manager, supervisor, administrator, leader, etc.) ... yet. You are uniquely you, and if you work your best every day, that's all anyone could ask. Give yourself a break! Take a breath."

About Candy Campbell

Author, filmmaker, actor, and speaker Candace A. Campbell (also known as Candy the Nurse) specializes in healthcare communications. As a passionate proponent of maternal-child health and public health policy issues, she serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for two consumer magazines from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), and volunteers as a public health advocate through the American Nurses' Association of CA. She donates a significant portion of the proceeds of each of her books (and the film, Micropremature Babies: How Low Can You Go?) to the March of Dimes, for whom she serves as a media spokesperson in Northern CA. For more information, visit http://candycampbell.com or email [email protected]

Contact:
Candy Campbell
[email protected]
925-207-1376

SOURCE Candy Campbell