Work-Life Balance

I felt like work-life balance was much more manageable when I was working 12 hour shift work rather than Monday to Friday 0745-1600. In retrospect working in the Vancouver area was actually pretty good. There was so much more potential there than I could see at the time, perhaps because I was a bit burnt out and not as invested as I could have been. Or maybe, in the my current position of employment, I just have more time to reflect on my practice then and compare it to what I see now now. The inpatient mental health and addiction world is kind of a sad place that oddly enough holds so much hope of being a better place. I find that I have much more time now to reflect on the practice of mental health nursing in general. That being said, here are my goals for 2013:

1) Incorporate reflective practice into the lives of staff nurses in a tangible way
2) Encourage more thought about how human rights issues are challenged by current inpatient mental health practice

I find myself thinking a lot about the long term tertiary rehab clients that I worked with in 2011 and I kind of wish that the staff I worked with right now had the kind of energy and hopefulness of the Rehab staff that were not yet weighed down with the hopelessness of working on inpatient mental health for too long.

Answer this question for me: Why don't we share the successes of other units and other programs across provinces or between provinces? It is difficult to explain to someone the utility of a tertiary rehab mental health unit within a city when all they know is treat 'em and street 'em.

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