Talk about a time that you had to deal with a significant change in your work procedures or in your workplace. How did you handle that change?

"In my last job, my organization went through a buyout to become the current organization that it is. Upon the buyout, just about everything about my job changed. We were working on a new EMR, our pay structure changed, our benefits changed, our leadership structure changed and some of our work processes did too. Knowing about the buyout ahead of time, I was able to prepare myself under the notion that I only can control what I can control. In this instance of a total buyout, my attitude was under my control. As I saw other coworkers complain, cry and even look for new jobs, I took this as an opportunity to embrace change and become a better organization. Learning a new EMR and learning new work processes did end up making me a better nurse in the end and for that, I am grateful for that opportunity."

"As an inexperienced nurse starting my clinical rotations, every rotation was a significant change. With each rotation, I had to familiarize myself with a new facility, a new staff, a new EMR and new work processes. I feel like these changes from rotation to rotation helped round me out as a new nurse entering the workforce and helped me gain a lot of great knowledge on how to be the best nurse that I can be."

"During my 10 years working as an emergency nurse, my department saw several leadership changes. With each leadership change came a change in philosophy on how the work schedule would be made and worked. In those 10 years, I've worked standard eight, 10 and 12-hour shifts. I've worked straight day shifts, straight evening shifts, straight night shifts and swing shifts from week to week. Each change in work schedule had an effect on my life at home due to childcare and being available for my children's school and recreational events. With planning and communication, I was able to embrace each change in schedule and I learned over time that being flexible to these changes was extremely vital to both my personal and professional well-being."

"I have been working as an outpatient clinical nurse for a couple of years now, and six months ago, my company's leadership team began rolling out LEAN initiatives in each department, which significantly changed the way we operate in almost all areas of our practice. At first, when the LEAN project teams were helping us change our procedures, it was very difficult, and I resisted a bit. However, once I started seeing how much the LEAN methodologies were helping us save time and improve our efficiencies, I became more excited and I have even volunteered to lead a few of the implementations. This experience helped me realize that when procedures change, I don't need to resist, and instead, I should help with the rollout to make it easier."

"Over my years of nursing, I have learned that change is part of nursing and part of life. I feel that I am able to handle change well and that I actually welcome it because I believe it's necessary in order to grow. One big change that I was recently part of was the change from one EHR to another. It was a long in-depth process for our organization to change this. I had to meet with several extended team members who helped to format the EHR for our specific department and our needs. Once the EHR was rolled out, it was incredibly different than the previous one, and there was a huge learning curve. It was definitely challenging at times, but I maintained a positive attitude about it and worked diligently to learn the new system so that I could continue to provide the best care possible to my patients and in a timely manner."

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