Welcome to my first blog!!! I am Linda, a nurse and coaching practitioner. I coach nurses, using creative processes, to identify ways to build compassionate resilience to reduce workplace stress and overwhelm and live a balanced life of health and well-being.

Living in these unprecedented times, what have we learned from this past year? Everyone’s experience, response to, and dwelling in the impact of a pandemic is unique. The degree of the effects felt is dependent upon a variety of factors; accessing the Internet and Social Media are two major factors. How individuals internalize the messaging from these sources can have negative or positive outcomes. Much has been written about the overwhelm, anxiety, fatigue as consequences of engagement with these sources.

On a personal note, as I have lived through this past year, like others, I have witnessed and felt the consequences of the pandemic on my family, friends, colleagues, work environment….and me. Professionally, the impact has been on my roles as a nurse and coach. I have been a nurse for 40 + years; much of my identity has been wrapped up in “being a nurse”. While I have not been on the front lines as a nurse during this pandemic, I was on the front lines during the SARS experience in Toronto, 2003. This pandemic is more intrusive and invading than SARS. My heart goes out to all health care workers and ALL WORKERS who helped to keep the rest of us safe. THANK YOU!

Coaching has been a natural evolution for me and while my nursing knowledge, skills and abilities as a nurse serve as a strong foundation for coaching, additionally I draw on the arts, sciences and qualities related to healing in my coaching practice. Now, as we move out of the pandemic, I am concluding that the world is in dire need of healing and for what I call Sacred Feminine Leadership in nursing. What does this type of leadership look like?

The Dalai Lama has been credited with saying that Western women will save the world. Perhaps….it is sacred feminine energy that will save the world. And, I believe nurses will contribute to this change to which the Dalai Lama refers. Also, to be clear, it is not my intent that men are excluded from this notion of sacred feminine leadership. My perspective is that the necessary leadership requires a strong feminine energy. Why? Because this type of energy seeks to promote connecting, belonging and building communities.

To be a sacred feminine leader involves one to allow their vulnerabilities to be visible within the context of courage to speak one’s truth. One of the aims of sacred feminine leadership is to nurture growth in each other and render the idea that we are all leaders in our own right.

There are many ways to foster this type of leadership. Given the challenges that nurses face, no matter their work environment, deep inner work and healing are required for development of what I call compassionate resilience for themselves. One way of developing this compassionate resilience is through a model I have developed for nurses: The Nurse Heroine’s Journey of Transformation (Figure 1 below). This model is a 7-step process. Each step is guided by an experiential process for you to uncover YOUR unique roadmap for a deeper journey of transformation to your health & well-being.

Future blogs will explore the progression through the Nurse Heroine’s Journey of Transformation. I hope you will join the tribe of Nurse Heroines!!

Figure 1. The Nurse Heroine’s Journey of Transformation

 

 

Linda Yetman, RN PhD is a nurse and coach. She is passionate about supporting persons, especially nurses and other health care providers, to build self-compassion and resilience. She can be reached at lindayetman@gmail.com