Life unfolds around us every day, and our individual choices shape what life “looks like” as it evolves. Maintaining a healthy life means navigating daily challenges personally and at work while living in an ever-changing world. This is especially true in the healthcare environment, where daily challenges include life-and-death decisions and outcomes, crises, and the constant need to remain current and relevant both clinically and professionally. There has never been a more exciting time to work in health care. This is a time when a healing presence is paramount, and effective and innovative leadership is desperately needed to reshape the healthcare system so providers can deliver care that supports healing and connectedness while working in one of the most challenging professions imaginable (Bowcutt, 2004).
Most healthcare administrators spend a great deal of time strategizing about the future, trying to improve clinical processes and patient care outcomes, determining which new technologies are needed to deliver exceptional care, and attempting to ensure corporate health and viability. Many staff members spend a great deal of their time addressing clinical and technological advances in health care and less time than they would like actually caring for patients. Caring is the capacity to care for others and self, including selffulfillment, self-integration, and self-transformation (Hines, 2017). One of the most important aspects of health care is people—healthy people involved in healthy relationships (with patients and each other) supporting an organization’s healthy growth and development (Bowcutt, 2004).
When patients or their loved ones come into contact with a healthcare facility, what are they most likely to remember? While the buildings can be impressive, it is the people—the employees, specifically—that they most often recall. Usually, the nurse is the person with whom they have the most contact and with whom they share their most intimate, critical, and life-altering moments. However, all healthcare providers have the gift of sharing inspiring and important moments with their clients and each other. This gift means they invest their heart and soul in their work, allowing them to not only earn a living but also make a difference in the lives of others. Whether we work in health care or other fields, the only way we can invest our hearts and souls into our work is by understanding and practicing balance in our own lives. One of the most important ways to achieve balance is through healthy, meaningful relationships—with ourselves and others.