Welcome to Becoming a Stress-Free Nurse Practitioner, a show for new NPs, and students that want to pass their board exam the first time and make that transition from RN to NP as seamless as possible. I’m your host Sarah Michelle. Now, let’s dive into today’s episode.

Hey friends, Sarah Michelle here. I wanted to give you a little heads-up before you get into the episode today because it’s a bit different than our norm. One of my awesome team members, Rachel, who has actually been interviewed on this podcast before, is doing a guest interview for me.

And in this guest interview, she is interviewing Josie. And Josie is going to talk all about the beauty of mindset and imposter syndrome and how we can overcome that as new nurse practitioners. And so I hope you enjoy this guest interview, I hope you enjoy having something different on the podcast. And definitely reach out to me and let me know, but here you go.

Rachel: Hey everyone, my name is Rachel, I’m hosting for Sarah today. I hope you’re all having a great week. If you don’t remember, I am the program director at SMNP Reviews. And I’m super excited today because today we have Josie Tate on the podcast. And I think we’ve talked about her a little bit if you’re in our new nurse practitioner group.

But Josie is a family nurse practitioner and a career mentor with a real heart to see others succeed. She became a nurse practitioner in 2018 and she really saw that disconnect that we talk about a lot between obtaining an advanced degree and embracing this new advanced practitioner role.

So to bridge the gap she created Clincepts, a mentoring resource to help nurse practitioners get happily hired, which is the goal for everyone. And Josie is super passionate about her life outside of practice, which as we know is really important as well. Her favorite roles are being a wife to her college sweetheart and a mom to three fun-filled kids. And in her spare time you can catch her completing a home decor project or reading a self-development book.

So welcome, Josie. Thank you for joining us today.

Josie: Thanks, Rachel. I’m so excited to be here and I love that I get to interview with you, super exciting. Thank you for having me.

Rachel: Super exciting for me too. So I know you talk a lot about the mindset shift that empowers nurse practitioners, so what is mindset? Like what does that mean when you talk about mindset?

Josie: So yes, mindset is very important. I think it’s foundational to our role as a nurse practitioners and really just to be successful in life. But what mindset is, is it’s defined as the collection of beliefs, attitudes, values about ourselves and the world, and then how we integrate and live in the world. So that’s kind of the basis of mindset.

Rachel: I love that. And I think we talk a lot about mindset shifts and all of these big terms, but I think a lot of times it’s lost on how we actually need to change our mindset or why it is so important, especially when we’re moving from this role of RN to NP. So why do you think it is so important to help kind of shift that mindset?

Josie: Yeah, I mean the importance is it affects our success, and it affects the trajectory of where our careers are going. We talk about kind of the integration of our personal and professional lives, so having that successful mindset or positive mindset will really guide your direction in life, as well as your career. So yeah, I think it’s very important just to have a good basis for that.

Rachel: I totally agree, especially we’re in this pandemic world, it’s a huge shift from being an RN to being a NP and we all see this burnout that people are experiencing. So how do you help NPs or new NPs to shift their mindset to kind of move towards success versus being more stagnant in the workplace?

Josie: Yeah, yeah, the last three years have definitely been quite a challenge, lots of change. And when you have that, you know, you mentioned it’ll affect you and it can burn you out, and rightfully so. Nurse practitioners are already working in a high demand, kind of high stress area, high stress field.

So three things or three ideas that are really important to incorporate are, first you want to reframe your thinking. You want to change your self-talk. I have said that if you say something long enough and loud enough, whether it’s good, bad, or ugly, you start to believe it as truth. So if you’re able to make these small, you know, kind of small shifts in your thinking, you can have great results.

And it’s not just kind of going back to replacing that toxic positivity, where you kind of just tell yourself to get over it, you’ll be okay. You know, when you fail an exam, you fail your certification exam or you don’t get that job you wanted, it leaves you feeling deflated, defeated. And from there you kind of spiral downward into just all sorts of negative emotions.

So you want to take time to review and reevaluate your situation or experience. So those are just some things that I would say are really important for nurse practitioners to consider.

Rachel: I totally agree. And we see it all the time. And we all know that misery loves company. And I think once we start that downward spiral, just like you said, where we’re saying, this is so terrible, I failed my exam or I didn’t get this job I really wanted, we can find other people, unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess, to kind of feed into that. And then we’re all there together.

And while it’s great to have people to relate to, it’s not great to kind of continue just moving downward. We have to sort of break out of that and say, you know what? This is just a bump in the road, this is just a path, this is part of my journey. And then kind of shift those expectations, just like you said, to move our mindset to be more positive, and say, you know what? We can do this. We can get out of this. We can get the job we want, we can pass the exam.

But it is difficult, it’s a conscious movement.

Josie: Right.

Rachel: So how do you help people empower ourselves? Like how do we get there?

Josie: Yeah. Yeah, and like you said, misery loves company. So it’s much harder because it’s natural, your brain wants to take the path of least resistance. And really for us it’s whatever is easy. It’s easy to be negative, it’s much harder to live in that positive mindset. But you can make subtle shifts.

One of the things that I think is really important to help empower ourselves is to identify three big daily wins within your day. You can write these down in a journal or mentally review this on a daily basis, either in the beginning of the day reflecting back on the previous day, or doing this at the– Did I say the beginning of the day? Either way, you want to do it at the beginning of the day or end of the day, just reflecting back on what happened during the day.

And I find that journaling, when clients or other nurse practitioners write this down and your journaling, it tends to help with validation. When you know more, you do better. So really identifying those three big daily wins. And it kind of propels you into the next day to find those three big wins, instead of focusing on everything that you didn’t do, or everything you’re not yet, or everything you haven’t accomplished.

So another thing that you can do is embrace your role as a nurse practitioner when you’re transitioning from that RN role to the NP role. And this isn’t just saying that you leave your RN self and everything that you’ve accomplished as an RN. You take what you’ve learned as an RN, usually those soft skills, and you use it in your NP role.

Some of those soft skills would be like leadership, collaboration, the emotional intelligence, or cultural competence, or if you deal with any kind of conflict resolution. Those are some things that you can leverage in your role as a nurse practitioner.

And when you’re leaning on your team and you’re only focusing on your zone of genius, you’re able to do much more as a nurse practitioner. But really relying on other people to do their job, complete their role. And instead of you being the nurse practitioner, the nurse, the social worker, the pharmacist, trying to encompass all these roles. Just do the one thing that you set out to do, which was be a nurse practitioner, I feel that that’s really important.

Rachel: I totally agree. At SMNP Reviews we’re super big about you will pass, you will get that job. And it seems kind of silly to write those things down, but it is something we tell our testing soon to be NPs or our NPs looking for those jobs. Because just like you said whether you say good or bad or ugly, it helps to build what you actually truly believe and manifest those things.

So I think I love the idea of journaling, where you can just kind of write down some good things that happened. You know, did you update your resume? Did you have a great interview? Did you have a great study day? Those are all really important things. And then you can look back and see all these things kind of building up and say, “Okay, I did all of this work and here I am,” which is awesome.

And I also love that you brought in leaning on your team because I think as new NPs you kind of want to prove yourself and you can do everything. But you don’t have to do everything, which is also huge. So I love you brought in pharmacists who are great resources, especially when we’re prescribing. Or even leaning on our MAs, our RNs, all the people around us to kind of lift us up and help us focus more on that role.

I think that in itself is a huge mindset shift, whereas you’re an RN you’re more of a supporting role, and now you’re or more of a leading role as an NP. But you need to lean on all those supporting characters too. And I think that team mindset can really get you far.

Josie: For sure, yep. Yeah, and another thing that you can do with this mindset is to really recognize the difference between a fixed versus abundant mindset. And that’s a really popular term, you know, a popular philosophy that we’re all aware of. You hear it a lot, it’s very well recognized.

There’s this book called The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan, he’s a very well-known strategic coach. And he talks about living in the gap versus living in the gain. Which the gap could be similar to having a fixed mindset, and then the gain similar to having an abundant mindset. But when you live in that gap versus the gain, you have a limited belief. Versus when you’re living in the gain you have more of a mindset where you’re developing.

As an NP you feel like you should be born with it or you’re a natural NP. Whereas when you’re living in an abundant mindset or living in the gain, you’re improving. Every day you’re getting better, you can look back to see how you have improved.

When you’re living in that fixed mindset, you feel that things happen to you, you’re the victim. Versus on the flip side, things happen for you. If you didn’t get that job, or you failed your board exam, or you’re not testing with these practice questions quite the way you like or expect to be, you want to just reverse that and find a different viewpoint or perspective.

Another thing with a fixed mindset would be you feel like the market is over saturated and you’re never going to get a job. And that kind of leads to desperation. Versus when you’re living in an abundant mindset or you’re living in the gain, you feel that the job market is competitive.

You’re going to bring your A game, you’ve practiced, you’ve prepped, and you’re ready. You’re ready to interview, you’ve researched, and so you feel more prepared to compete in the market versus just getting the first thing or anything that comes your way.

When you do that you start, your career off kind of in a place of being reactive versus proactive. So those are some things to recognize the different types of mindset or kind of the flip side of mindset, the abundance versus fixed, and then the gain versus the gap.

Rachel: Yeah, I love that. Especially, you know, we see these posts all the time, we hear it all the time that the market is over saturated, no one’s looking for new NPs. But it’s actually not true, and I learned a lot about that from you and that there’s actually tons of new jobs being created and opened.

But kind of shifting that mindset to, oh, I’m not worthy of this job, or there’s too much competition in my area, to kind of, I am worthy of this job. I have all this training as an RN, I did all this schooling to become an NP, whether it’s an MSN or a DNP degree. And really, really making those efforts to change the mindset to I am worthy of this job, I can get this job, and I’m going to do what it takes to get where I want to be.

Which is huge, especially when you’re coming out of school and maybe you weren’t working as much as an RN, so you feel like you’re a little behind. Maybe you were in school full-time. But the truth of the matter is there is no over saturation, you just have to kind of shift the mindset and really market yourself. And I think that’s where you help a lot of new NPs come in and get ready for those things.

Josie: Right. Right, exactly.

Rachel: And, obviously, you are a great mentor, and you have all this good information. So can you talk a little bit about how you got into Clincepts and kind of what you offer for our new NPs out there?

Josie: Yeah, so Clincepts, like you mentioned in the beginning, is an online resource, more of a supportive resource to help nurse practitioners who are transitioning from their RN role to the NP role. I kind of say that I help nurse practitioners get happily hired, emphasis on happy just because, again, I don’t want that feeling of desperation.

So my services include helping with resume creation, taking all the things you did as a registered nurse and really focusing on your, you know, as a new grad NP, focusing on your clinical preceptorship and incorporating that into your resume. And really adding all the good things about you.

Since you’re only creating your resume when you look for jobs, there are lots of nurses that haven’t created the resume or don’t really know how to articulate all the good things about them. So your resume is a super important document. I say it’s the most important document of your nursing career because it’s the one that’s going to make you money when you hand it out.

And then we do some interview preparation, you know, giving you the strategies to think how your future prospective employer is thinking, what to research, mock interviews. And then also the contract. The contract review or contract agreement is super important when you’re a nurse practitioner, especially first starting out. You want to make sure that you’re starting off strong, but also fair.

You want to make sure your salary is par for the course with other nurse practitioners, that you’re not doing, again, an RN job in an NP role or doing both. Employers are trying to get the most bang for their buck, and with a nurse practitioner you can, you were an RN so you can do both. But you should not have to. You want to practice to the peak of your scope. And that’s what you worked so hard for to pass your exam, you want to make sure that you’re getting a good deal with this job that you’re getting.

And then, of course, I want nurse practitioners to stay happily hired. So coaching them through getting into imposter syndrome and how to have this work life balance, which I think does exist. I don’t think it’s like a one stop destination, I think it’s kind of a lifestyle, work life balance. And it’s maintaining balance between your clinical role and then outside of your clinical role, your personal life. So, just really coaching other nurse practitioners that they can thrive in and out of the workplace.

Rachel: I love that. And I think it’s so important, so I’d just like to thank you, Josie for bringing this to our space. And I think this is really useful for all our new nurse practitioners, because sometimes we just don’t know where to start.

And I think having someone to coach us through all of that and say, okay, this is what you should look for in a contract. These are fair salary ranges, just those things. And, like you said, not working as an RN. I mean, you can work as an RN and an NP if you choose, but not necessarily being forced into that role. Those are all huge things, so I really thank you for coming on and talking about this mindset shift today.

And your courses that you offer, I think are super, super valuable. So if anyone listening wants to check it out, it’s clincepts.com. And it looks like you can do your resume, you can do some interview prep, all these things to really build yourself up, shift the mindset from becoming an RN to an NP and landing, and I love that you said happily hired, a job that you’re really happy with.

Well, thank you so much, Josie. It was so lovely talking to you. And I hope you have a great rest of your week, everyone.

Josie: Thank you, this was a privilege. I really appreciate being on the podcast with you.

As an extra bonus, friends, if you’re looking for support, no matter what phase of your nurse practitioner journey that you’re currently in, I have communities available for both students and new nurse practitioners. In these communities we work to uplift one another and grow this profession together every single day. Links to join will be included for you in the show notes.

Thanks for listening to Becoming a Stress-Free Nurse Practitioner. If you want more information about the different types of support we offer to students and new NPs, visit stressfreenp.com. See you next week.