~4 minute read

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Nurse Confidence

Confidence is not something we are born with, it’s something that is made and has the potential to grow over time. Our lack of confidence peaks its head when we apply to nursing school, while we’re in nursing school, during clinical rotations and orientation, as new clinicians, and as new entrepreneurs. No matter how much success we’ve achieved, when we’re new to something our confidence is fragile. Too often we believe nursing school is supposed to teach us everything we need to be a successful, and partly that’s because we spend so much time there. In all fairness, schools and educators could do a better job emphasizing the limitations of academia (although, that could impact their bottom-line). But just like parents and partners can’t give us everything we need, neither can nursing programs or orientation.

Clinical Rotation & Orientation

Nursing curriculum is divided into didactic and clinical training. This categorization gives the false impression that you’re receiving comprehensive education. However, learning in a clinical environment always has and always will prioritize the patient. As a result, we risk prioritizing the patient above our own needs throughout the course of our career. Employers do it as evident by the tension between leadership and the nursing staff who often feel the care they are required to deliver is not bestowed upon them. It’s also evident in the rate of burnout.

Finding Your Identity

As a learner, you have needs that will not be met in the classroom or clinical setting because the hours are limited and attention span is finite. Your academic and clinical training will focus on helping you cultivate the skills needed to be a competent clinician. Many of us struggle with finding our identity outside of nursing and medicine because we haven’t spent as much time cultivating the skills needed to become our authentic self.

Physicians Have Mastered Mentorship

Physicians and medical schools have mastered the game of mentorship. It’s baked into their culture. They understand the short and long-term value of having at least one mentor, becoming a published author, participating in research, and networking. All of these activities increase their self-worth and the way the public values their contributions. The MedSchoolCoach recently published a webinar titled, How to Match into Your Dream Residency Program, which highlighted how much these activities are valued in medicine, with emphasis in dermatology.

Nursing Mentorship

While nurses are the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, we far too often work in silos as students, clinicians, and entrepreneurs. Our introduction to mentorship, publications, and research is often seen as optional, mandatory to get a grade, or isolated to only those in academia or who pursue doctoral studies. Professors tell students mentorship is important, but we still lack the strategy to finding one and maintaining the mentee-mentor partnership.

The Nurse and Nurse Practitioner Mentorship Guide

Mentorship is not optional, especially if you want to be in dermatology given the lack of exposure we receive in nursing and nurse practitioner school. In short, mentors can fast track your success, open doors, expand your network, and save you time and money. The advice: find a mentor, have more than one, and try to get one in and outside of healthcare. Mentors can help you build your confidence, remind you that what you’re going through is completely normal, and create pathways for you to surpass your dreams.

I created an e-book titled, Your Nurse Mentorship Match, to help you identify the criteria for your ideal match, communicate your value proposition, maintain a partnership, and reevaluate when that relationship needs to evolve or end. In Your Nurse Mentorship Match e-book, you’ll find:

-The mentorship needs of students at the bachelor, master's, and doctoral level.

-Actionable steps the mentor can take to best support bachelor, master's, and doctoral students.

-Several questions about the nursing business, the healthcare business, networking, innovation, continuing education, and finding your identity that can be repurposed for personal statements, scholarships, preceptors, and future employers or business partners.

-Scripts for contacting potential mentors via phone, email, and social media.

Mentorship for Dermatology Nurse Practitioners

Dermatology is a small world. Mentorship is essential if you're trying to get your first job in dermatology as a nurse or nurse practitioner. The best mentors are busy. To garner their attention and effectively present why investing in you is worth their time, I crafted Your Nurse Mentorship Match e-book to help you prepare for that first introduction, job interview, scholarship or fellowship opportunity, DNP project, and pitch! Visit the Virtual Preceptor Co. to download your copy today. Share the link with nursing students and aspiring and new nurse practitioners in dermatology.

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Kimberly Madison, DNP, AGPCNP-BC

I’m a nurse practitioner with a passion for writing, entrepreneurship, education, and mentorship. I created this blog to share my journey as source of motivation and as a blueprint as you embark on your journey. Most importantly, I’m looking forward to increasing access to dermatology education and clinical training for aspiring and practicing nurse practitioners. I invite you to view the mission and vision statement on the homepage to see how we can best partner to make our dreams align.

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