If serving others in crisis is something that entices you, nursing could be one of the best professions to explore.

Are you already into it?

That’s fantastic!

However, amid of all the saddening daily incidents of deaths, the trauma of diseases, and the depressing ambience of health ailments all over, you mustn’t allow the negativity to take a toll on you. Nursing careers are definitely not for just delivering the bad news and nursing leadership doesn’t demand you to teach about only the diseases, operation theatres, and everything that’s medical!

The scenario can be rather a broader and merrier one. Like any other job out there, nursing can be even fun and full of life. All that you need to do is just replenish your ‘fun bucket’ with some extraordinary team building activities and appealing nursing programs.

In this piece of writing, you would get an idea of such stupendous approaches through which you can make nursing a happier chapter of your life.

Read on

• Be easy at work

Nursing careers are meant to deal with tough situations and if you’ve chosen it, you are already aware of this. Aren’t you? You might find patients who are in extreme pain, their attendants who are lamenting every moment, and many more such negative things happening around you.

In such a scenario, one of the foremost aspects of nursing leadership is to make the environment as cheerful as you can. Don’t take everything too dejectedly. Rather, always believe that you’ve done whatever you can. Be gentle with yourself and move on.

Suppose, you had a long and serious day. Before the day ends, go for a coffee with your colleagues, crack jokes, do some chit-chats on random stuff. Thus, you, as well as the other nurses around you, will feel refreshed.

• Practice team building activities

You might scrunch your nose up at the idea of playing games in the meetings. But, they really work! Let’s face it, the nurses are always busy with their work and might find it pretty tough to connect with other members of a team and build a community dedicated to fun and liveliness. In such a condition, the interesting team building activities will push their hands at knowing more about the people they serve with every day.

• Be socially helpful as a team

One of the best ways to build camaraderie is volunteering together. Some of the pretty unique and noble nursing programs for helping others could be the following:

• Help a poor family on Christmas

You can find a local family that needs some help during the holidays and festivals. Be creative and come up with a bulletin board to list out all such items that they need for decorating a Christmas tree. Now, ask your colleagues to buy gifts and deliver them together to the family. It will not only help people who are in need but also bring the staff together to celebrate happily.

• Participate in health fairs

There are many ways to build the community in which you can have fun with your nursing staff apart from just doing the work. Representing your hospital at any local health fair is one of the best ones among them. A small team of nurses can work together for it while having a great time among each other. Thus, it will be easy for you and your group to enjoy a stress-free time together while providing health screenings at the same time.

• Go for fun lunches

Nurses are fond of food and there’s no doubt on that! However, thanks to their hectic schedule, they don’t get much time to sit together and munch on their favourite dishes. Hence, you just need to think a bit more smartly here and encourage your team of nursing colleagues to organize potluck parties at least once a month. It will let you all eat together and have fun.

• Think about fun awards

Of course, nursing stats and surveys are serious and important things. However, there’s no wrong in curating some fun awards that you can consider to be given away in the staff meetings. It will not only let the team feel rejoiced but also they will be accomplished for sure.

Do you want some fun award ideas for nurses?

Here are a couple of interesting ones :

• Pliability award– Do you have a nurse in your team who easily bends backwards to help others? He/she definitely deserves special attention. You can give away a play-doh or a slinky to him/her!
• Shining Idea– Ask for bright ideas to the nurses and eventually there will be an amazing fostering of creativity out there. When you finally select someone for giving the award, go for a pair of funky and cheap pair of sunglasses to him/her for their ‘shine’.
• Celebrate together

Don’t miss any opportunity to celebrate the existence of the lovely nurses around you. Let there be a list of birthdays and make sure that there’s some plan for a monthly cake-cutting day or an ice-cream day. It will help the team to remain engaged and happy at work.

Moreover, if you are having a staff of yours attending school back again, getting married soon, or going to have a baby: plan a celebration all the time! The more all you nurses will laugh and spend quality time together, the more fun it will be for you to bear the tough responsibilities of work.

• Keep it open

Suppose, you are one of the members in the organizing group or a senior nurse in the hospital, don’t keep the ‘how to make fun’ ideas limited to only yourself or your group. Rather, ask for the feedbacks of each and every nurse in the unit. They can obviously suggest you what they will like and what not. Hence, it is always smart to let there be some ‘fun committees’ which can plan activities for each and every shift.

So, this is how you can make your life joyful as a nurse. Don’t go to the hospital with the same old vibe anymore. Rather, keep the aforementioned tricks in your mind and make each and every day extremely fun and vibrant for you and your team.

Happy nursing!