It’s rare for parents to begin a new career because they believe it will make them a better parent. However, some jobs may end up doing that by default. While demanding on your time, a nursing career can produce some surprising benefits for you and your loved ones. Read on to find out how entering the healthcare industry may help your children.
Body Awareness
When you begin a nursing degree, you learn about the human body without judgment, shame, or embarrassment. Once you enter the workforce and start working with the very bodies you learned about, you may then become familiar and comfortable talking about them in all capacities. To a degree, you can pass this knowledge and acceptance onto your children. While some parents may feel awkward talking with their children about their bodies and their changes, most nurses don’t. It’s a part of life, and children have a right to know what body parts are and what they do as much as adults.
Communication
Verbal and non-verbal communication is a significant part of being a healthcare worker. You have to listen to what a patient tells you and be aware of what they’re not telling you through their physical and emotional pain.
As you become more in tune with verbal and non-verbal communication, you can begin to use these skills with your children. You may find that nursing helps you to listen, bring up uncomfortable topics in the right way, and work through problems with your children with patience and without judgment.
Priorities
Working in a busy medical clinic or hospital as a nurse requires you to prioritize. You have to focus on the most pressing problems first, then work your way down to the non-urgent ones. Running a household can operate similarly.
You not only have to prioritize your time to relax, but you also have to make sure the kids get off to school okay, attend their extracurricular activities, eat a balanced diet, and get enough sleep. These tasks are all between managing your work life. Over time, you learn how to prioritise your life and its tasks to ensure everyone is happy and healthy.
Gratefulness
When working in healthcare, you care for sick and injured people every day. Seeing people in their darkest hours, including those who never expected to get sick, is now a part of daily life.
Many nurses become acutely aware of how precious life is. As a result, you may learn to become incredibly grateful for the life you lead and the family you can return to when your shift ends. No matter how much stress you’re carrying, that feeling of gratefulness manages to shine through when you need it the most.
Being a nurse can require you to juggle a lot in your average day. If there’s ever a moment you feel guilty about leaving your kids and going to work, know that some of those valuable skills you learn in your job may end up benefiting your children.
