to let the day go while laughing

Today during "Feedback Friday" session, Margaret and Shauna and I did a blind contour round robin. To mix things up we drew "post-it note" sized drawings with a thick line (sharpie marker). I have decided that an individual's response when faced with the suggestion of doing something like this is very telling about how well we will work together. 

Today as we sat around before we wrapped up the day, we talked about how impossible it would be to talk to anyone else about the things we saw this week. Who would believe it? How could we say it in a way that would capture such difficult moments in a life? So, instead we talked amongst ourselves, appreciating that we work in a "team" where we visit patients and families together, each calling upon our individual expertise to get the best outcome for each visit. One of the things that helps us stay strong as a team is to be able to give open, honest, timely, feedback about what went well and what could have gone better.

So while drawing on post-it's might seem a bit strange, it uses an entirely different part of the brain than we use all day long in tough conversations. To be able to let the day go while laughing at ourselves, appreciating our masterpieces is a gift beyond measure. 

Comments

[Emie]

I can understand how having a group of peers who are going through the same thing is a blessing during these times. I worry about the mental health of our healthcare workers. I'm retired from my RN job but NY has requested retired workers to help out giving vaccines. They offer special Covid vaccine training. I'll be returning to NY early May and I'm thinking about volunteering... I'd do it for free just to get more people vaccinated. It might just be a small way to help? My only concern is I quit work because of a foot surgery gone wrong and I do take pain meds so I wonder if that would disqualify me? I'll have to find out. I REALLY want to do SOMETHING.

[Janet Ghio]

Blind contour drawing-great therapy-uses a different side of the brain-much laughter at the results-a great idea for a way to end a stressful week!

[Chris Oliveira]

❤️

[SMM]

This reminds me of the stories my mom told me about her days as a RN on the wards. The way they would accept the reality of the hard parts of the job and keep each other lifted up. Clearly they were not nursing in a pandemic as this was in the late 40’s and early 1950’s yet they all had reasons to find the levity in life so they could keep caring for each other and the patients in their care.