Burn Out Continued

Burn out can take on several forms. In the last post, I discussed the long learning curve involved in becoming a surveyor. This can be very discouraging and it is especially ego-busting. Most nurses are high achievers and not being able to pick up this position and run with it in just a short time frame just sits sourly on your stomach. You may have been accustomed to receiving accolades from your former employers, patients, and maybe even peers. It won't happen in this job. Just learn to deal with it and realize it is not personal. This job truly difficult to learn and different than any other position you may have ever held.

After a couple of months, you will begin to feel pretty confident in your skills at performing the survey. You will also have a stronger grasp on the regulations by this time. This may be a delusion. Really. Close to the time the agency is ready to let you go out on your own (which is several weeks after you attend the federal training), you will begin to write the survey. All your confidence gained over the last few months of continued training and following other surveyors will probably go bust at this time. There is a quality review of the surveyor write-up of observations. The QA nurse is very experienced and knows the proper way to document all the regulations, tags, and conditions of participation. You may feel that you have been chewed up and spit out before the process is complete. Let me warn you, feelings of doubt about your skills as a nurse will come into question! Let me clarify. These feelings will be self-inflicted. Again, being a high-achiever, critism comes at a price to our egos. You may at some point, be the brunt of a tirade by the QA. Again, you must learn to take it and realize...this is a very difficult position and is unlike any other you may have had in the past. This seems a good place to stop for the day. Depressing? Only if you don't take it as truth. There truly is no need to beat yourself up. You will survive. I'm trying to warn you of the pit falls so that you won't be surprised and so you may develop coping techniques to get you past these bumps in your road to becoming a successful nurse surveyor.