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  • 14 December 2022
  • 8 min read

How To Build Up Resilience & Self-Esteem

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    • Mat Martin
    • Richard Gill
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  • 1479
"I think the idea of building up resilience in general as a person and also as a professional is so, so important."

An open and honest discussion from Alex on the subject of self-esteem and resilience. Sharing her personal experiences as a newly qualified Nurse, the importance of reflection and motivational methods that will keep you bouncing back.

Hi everyone, my name is Alex, and I'm a newly qualified paediatric Nurse working in the NICU.

Today's video is just going to be a little discussion talking about how to build up your resilience and your self-esteem as a student Nurse, and also as a registered Nurse.

The Importance Of Resilience And Self- Esteem

As I was a student Nurse not that long ago, I feel like you can relate building up resilience and self-esteem quite a lot to both roles, both being a student and a registered Nurse, because even though both roles are very similar, they are also very, very different.

But the same values and the same ideas still apply to both roles.

I think the idea of building up resilience in general as a person and also as a professional is so, so important.

I think it's important in a job that is so intense, so tiring, so kind of emotionally draining, sometimes physically draining, and can be quite intellectually stimulating and challenging.

There's always something new to learn both as a student and as a registered Nurse.

All of these things rolling into one can become quite overwhelming at times.

Can I Do This Job?

Whichever stage you are at in your nursing journey, you got to where you are because you have the ability to do that, and you are smart enough, and you have the values that you need to become a student or a qualified Nurse.

Sometimes they can make you feel imposter syndrome.

I know I have definitely experienced imposter syndrome, starting in a new role, being newly registered, newly qualified.

And also, you can still experience that kind of feeling as a student as well, thinking, "Oh my gosh, do I really know enough?

Do I deserve to be here?" But you do.

I think it's really important that people realize you got onto your course for a reason, you got onto the register for a reason.

You've past your exams you've passed your placements, you've got your pin, you've got a degree.

Whichever stage you are at in your nursing journey, you got to where you are because you have the ability to do that, and you are smart enough, and you have the values that you need to become a student or a qualified Nurse.

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Learning To Bounce Back

It can be very hard, especially when you have hard days, bad days, sad days.

Whether that is because of things going on in your life personally, or if it's because of something that's happened to you at work.

If you may have had conflict with somebody, or if something happened at work with your patients that might have affected you emotionally.

Things like that can really bring you down and make you feel like you're struggling and that you can't cope.

You might have made a mistake, or you might have answered a question wrong, and those types of things can really knock your confidence and your self-esteem, and make you feel like you aren't good enough, or make you feel like, "Oh, I should have got that right, I shouldn't have done that."

But everybody makes mistakes, we're all human.

The Importance Of Reflection

I think a lot of the time people underestimate how useful reflection is.

As long as we are able to own up to mistakes, learn from them, let other people learn from them, and just reflect, I think that is the most important thing.

Reflection, as everybody knows, is a massive part of nursing right from day dot when you're in your first year of university.

I think a lot of the time people underestimate how useful reflection is.

I think when you are having down days, and this is something that really helps me when I've had down days in the past as a student or even just in the build-up to starting my job as a newly qualified Nurse, and doubting my abilities, doubting my knowledge.

Learning From Both The Positive As Well As The Negative

Being able to reflect on all the things that I have achieved in the past three years of my student life and thinking about patients that I made a difference for, and the exams that I struggled through but still managed to pass, and the fact that I've got to where I am today.

Reflecting on those positives really helps you to draw back from the negatives, and really kind of feel proud of yourself, and it helps you.

And having those types of positive reflections really helps you to build up that confidence and make you realize and say to yourself, "You know what, I am good enough, I can do this."

Learning To Handle The Negative

There may be people that you come across that might make you feel like you don't know enough, there might be people that aren't very nice to you.

You can come across people like that in all aspects of life in all areas of work, on the street, literally anywhere.

There will be people that may say things, but as long as you know yourself and that you do things that you're comfortable with doing, and you don't feel pressured to kind of do anything you don't want to do, and you don't listen to any negativity that's kind of thrown your way, then you'll be absolutely fine.

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Personal And Professional Growth Go Hand-In-Hand

If you're not working on yourself personally, then you can't deliver the best care to your patients because you need to make sure you're looking after yourself so that you can look after other people properly.

I think resilience and self-esteem are two big things that are something that you need to work on personally as an individual before you work on it in a professional setting.

I think if you don't have that self-belief and have that ability to be like, "No matter what happens, I'm still going to push through this."

If you don't have that ability in your personal endeavours, sometimes it can be hard to transfer that into your professional endeavours and making sure that you are kind of practicing to the best of your ability.

Part Of Being Human

But everybody has down days, the most confident person in the world will have doubts and days where they feel like they're not good enough.

Or they might have a period of time where they're suffering from major imposter syndrome.

It happens to absolutely everybody, it doesn't matter whether you're a really anxious person, or you're an introvert, extrovert.

It literally does not matter, it affects everybody.

I don't think I've ever met somebody that has not doubted their abilities, or felt nervous about something, or felt like, "Oh, what if I'm not good enough?"

Finding Motivational Methods

Everybody finds their own individual ways to motivate themselves, so that could be by just doing things you enjoy.

Everybody goes through it and it's so, so normal, but as long as you can kind of work out ways for yourself to really prove to yourself that you can do it, then that is so, so important.

And everybody finds their own individual ways to motivate themselves, so that could be by just doing things you enjoy.

Reflecting, that could be just by sitting and reflecting and thinking back.

It could be by writing things down and looking back at it to kind of look at how far you come.

There are so many different ways that you can allow yourself to really kind of rebuild your resilience and rebuild your confidence and your self-esteem.

The Domino Effect Of Building Confidence

And when you develop that skill, it really has a positive effect on your mental health, and then that will positively affect your professional performance as well.

And it will positively affect your relationships with other people in your personal life, it's kind of a massive domino effect.

So I feel like it's so important for people to reflect and really realize that they are good enough, and just always be kind of working on self-development as well as your professional development.

Because professional development is very important, keeping your skills up, making sure you are always learning new things, which is important for the job.

Self-Belief Means Better Care For Your Patients

But at the same time, if you're not working on yourself and making sure that you are on the best kind of mental state that you can be, you're feeling positive, you feel confident that you're going to smash your shift.

And if you're not working on yourself in that sense, then you can't deliver the best care to your patients because you need to make sure you're looking after yourself so that you can look after other people properly.

Oh yeah, I feel like this is a really important topic to cover, I feel like it's important that everyone develops their self-esteem and their resilience, so that they can perform the best that they can both personally and professionally.

Hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll see you in the next one, bye.

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About this contributor

I'm a Newly Registered Nurse specialising in Children’s Nursing, which I have a great passion for. I feel very strongly about equal treatment and care for everyone, as it sets all children and young people up for the best future possible! I create vlogs following my Nursing journey and advice videos to help others along their own journeys too.

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