No one responded to the new nurse’s comment as she returned from answering the patient’s call light.
“I don’t know why they can’t just text me,” she complained. “All the patients have cell phones. I’d rather they just text me so I don’t have to go into the room.”
Only the nursing instructor paused and stared, no doubt saving her counsel for a private moment. She understood that this nurse would truly prefer texting to being or speaking with another human being because she’d heard it before.
Then last week a manager shared:
“I was meeting with Christie for her one-year performance evaluation when she said, ‘I can’t believe I got the job because I am so anxious talking on the phone. I really wished you could have just texted me the job interview.’ “
Isolated incidents? Or trend?
Why do nurses feel more comfortable with their cell phones than they do with human interaction?
In his new book, The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt discusses “The Great Re-wiring.” He explains why the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s and rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply. Haidt makes a compelling case for addressing social media use and the phone-based childhood experienced by Gen Z.
Haidt explains that the human brain has two sub-systems: discover mode (for approaching opportunities) and defend mode (for defending against threats). “Young people born after 1995 are more likely to be stuck in defend mode,” Haidt explains, “They are permanently alert for threats. They are anxious.” And defend mode creates burnout. It’s exhausting.
Anxious nurses?
How will the habits of this generation and the rising rates of anxiety and depression affect the nursing profession? What will happen if a generation of nurses is stuck in defend mode?
- Anxious nurses can’t be fully present.
- Anxious nurses can’t offer compassionate healing.
- Anxiety begets anxiety—one anxious person affects the whole team.
- Anxious nurses make more mistakes (personal experience!).
What can you do?
Focus on our children and the next generation of nurses. Proactively address this issue in nursing schools by focusing on the affective domain and building reflection into the curriculum, and teach healthy digital habits and offer self-assessments.
Share Jonathan Haidt’s four recommendations to encourage the discover mode:
- No smartphones before high school
- No social media before 16
- Phone free schools
- More unsupervised free play and childhood independence
My heart fell when I read an article in The Seattle Times about a nurse who had transitioned from the bedside to off-site digital nursing. When asked if she missed the bedside, she replied, “No.”
Maybe what she didn’t miss were the 600 tasks we do each shift, or the short staffing, the lack of time to go to the bathroom or to eat, or the time to share a tough day with a peer. Maybe that’s what she meant. I hope so.
Because the entire essence of our profession lies in the sacred art of being fully present. These precious face-to face interactions inspire us and create the stories that are the heart of our profession and connect us with our shared humanity. In these moments, patients heal.
Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN, is an internationally recognized patient safety and health culture expert. Kathleen has spoken on leadership, communication, patient safety, and peer relationships to hospital executives and nurse leaders for twenty years.
All of her books come from her passion to understand the stories of nurses. Her books, “Ending Nurse to Nurse Hostility” and “Speak Your Truth” illuminate our relationships with our peers and physician partners. She is also co-author of “The Dauntless Nurse” which was written as a communication confidence builder.
Kathleen is also a guest Op Ed writer to the Seattle Times and has been interviewed twice on NPR’s “People’s Pharmacy”. Her Tedx Talk calls for changing our belief system from a hierarchy to equality in order to keep our patients safe – and also explains how disaster thrust her into ‘the best profession ever’.
You can also find more information about Kathleen on her website, Twitter, and Facebook.
