Overcoming Mission Drift in Your Nursing Career - William Kabutu

Has your nursing career drifted off course? Do you feel that your current career path isn't aligned with your personal or professional mission? You're not alone, and there's something you can do about it.

Going Adrift

We all choose nursing as a career for a variety of reasons. For some, nursing is simply the prudent career choice in order to put food on the table for our families. For others, it's a lifelong dream. And for still others, the mission and vision of what being a nurse truly means develops over time, no matter the original reason for pursuing this particular professional path.

It's a given that our career choices are impacted by a wide variety of factors. It's also apparent that our personal and professional lives are governed by both foreseen and unforeseen circumstances. To be fair to ourselves, we can choose to see ourselves and our careers with compassion when our professional life goes off course, our work loses meaning, and we feel at sea on an ocean of self-doubt and mission drift.

Identifying Where You Went Off Course

Once you acknowledge that your career is off course, the next step is to identify where things went awry. This isn't always easy, but it can be done - with or without professional help in unpacking the state of your nursing career.

First, look back at why you chose to pursue nursing in the first place. Was it for the money? Were you influenced by a family legacy? Did you choose nursing because of a personal experience that inspired you? Did you see nursing as a solid career choice that would offer flexibility, a decent living, and a varied career?

Once you remember why nursing seemed right at the time, consider the course of your career from the beginning until now. What choices did you make? Did you find work environments that suited your personality and interests? If you managed to change specialties at some point during your nursing career, what prompted the change, and did it bring you increased satisfaction?