time to be a travel nurse
Navigating New Work Cultures on Your Travel Assignments
By Megan M. Krischke, contributor
January 6, 2012 - Every time you accept a new travel nursing assignment, you can expect to be entering a new work culture and to encounter things that will surprise you. Each new group of co-workers has certain expectations about how things are done. For instance, on one assignment you might find that there is more of a hierarchical work structure, while in others there is a more collaborative atmosphere.
Learning how to approach each new situation--and how to identify and respond to the differences--can make your work experiences less stressful and far more enjoyable.
“When going into a new culture of any kind, it is important to be aware of your own worldview and values and how those affect your behaviors,” stated Linda Olson, Ph.D., executive director for learning communities and civic engagement at the University of Denver. “When you have that kind of awareness, it helps you to also see that other people have their own worldview and values and to respect that.”
Entering a new workplace can be intimidating and overwhelming. Olson recommends acknowledging the fears you may have about starting a new job and making a conscious effort to be open to learning and to trying new ways of doing things. When you choose to believe that your new co-workers also have the patients’ best interests in mind, you help to create trust on your team.
“Trust is what makes our interpersonal world work,” noted Olson, whose doctorate is in communication studies and who has worked preparing university students for overseas service projects. “As you build trust, you build good relationships and the result is good work outcomes. Not establishing trusting relationships can make you a poor performer and that can jeopardize your patients’ well-being.”
A quick way to create distrust is to come into a new setting with a sense of superiority, thinking, “I’m going to show these nurses how it is really done,” or to be oblivious to the fact that there is a new culture which will require you to adapt. A travel nurse needs to become very aware of how his or her attitude and actions affect others.
“Do what you can to anticipate the similarities and differences between where you are going and the work environment you are accustomed to, and take the time to be reflective. You could develop a set of questions to ask yourself at the end of the work day to help you better understand both yourself and your new work environment,” encouraged Olson.
“Perhaps you can ask questions such as, ‘When did I feel I was most effective? Least effective? Who did I have my best interactions with? My most difficult? What happened today that was unexpected? When did I feel most at ease? When did I feel the most uncomfortable or uncertain?’”
“In any new situation there are going to be some misunderstandings because you don’t know the ways of the people and the organization and your reaction can make a difference in whether you build good relationships or not,” she continued. “New things can frustrate us or intrigue us. Finding out people don’t operate the way you think they should is just inevitable; even in a permanent work situation these things come up.”
Olson urges travel nurses to pay attention to any feeling of unease because these are the clues that you missed something or that there was a miscommunication and can help you gather information that you need.
“I would encourage travel nurses to seek out a couple cultural informants--people you feel comfortable with and who understand the relational and situational dynamics of your team and organization,” advised Olson. “Ask them about things you found surprising or confusing. Having more than one of these informants is important to help you see what might be an individual’s perspective and what is truly the culture of the organization.”
When faced with these misunderstandings people typically react either by criticizing, rationalizing and isolating themselves or by observing, asking questions, learning and initiating conversations. The first type of reaction can lead to alienation and broken trust, while the second is more likely to result in empathy, understanding and strengthened relationships.
“When you are moving all the time you need to build in some sort of reflection process. In general, reflective people seem to do well and connect well when they are in new situations. Those who aren’t tend to either offend people and feel angry or they are aloof and don’t even notice the tensions around them, but leave behind people who are glad they are gone,” said Olson.
“Learning a new work culture and establishing new relationships with co-workers may feel overwhelming at times, but keep in mind that most people are forgiving and wanting to communicate. Most of our days are filled with successful interactions but it is just the few that don’t go well that cause tension--and create an opportunity for learning,” she concluded.
© 2011. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
