—Background—- Part One—
For now, put yourself in the shoes of a healthcare professional —- to be exact, a nurse.
Overworked. Overstretched. Over Exhausted. Overloaded.
Working long hours, being away from your loved ones, family, friends and constantly being on your feet, attending to patients and catering to their needs, doing clinical changes on the ground, working against time and dealing with all sorts of pressure. All while carrying out nursing duties and coordinating care between the various different healthcare providers.
But hey, do you know that nurses wear many hats?
We are the advocates, listeners, caregivers, educators, coordinators, phlebotomists, porters, even to the cleaners - one of my colleagues had to clean the bed to receive a new admit from the Emergency Department as the cleaners themselves had gone for a break.
^ It can be said that nurses, especially the ward nurses are baristas and waitresses too.
Moments like this can make you wonder if you are working in a hospital or a coffee shop.
^ picture by sgnightingales
Sometimes, barely even having the time to take a sip of water or let alone going to the toilet…. Since patients’ conditions can deteriorate anytime and ANYTHING can happen —- when you work in healthcare, there is no such thing as “ending your work right on the dot”, even if it is without any form of monetary compensation.
Undervalued. Underappreciated. Underpaid. Under-resourced.
Being short-staffed and sometimes, sad to say, encountering abuse/ harassment from the patients or dealing with overly demanding and difficult next of kins on the unit, has become so normalised until you have numbed your feelings, over apologising for things that are not even within your control, muttering to yourself: “I am used to it already” and learnt to simply rely on yourself at work to get things done.
^Credits to Code Blue Memes - pretty sure most nurses can relate to this.
This is the harsh reality of nursing without seeing through rose-tinted glasses, or having stars in the eyes— Something that they do not teach you back in nursing schools —— how to juggle between having unsafe nurse to patients ratio workload and how to navigate and thrive in a rather hostile working environments itself, all while trying to provide quality care for the patients, helping your colleagues, protecting your nursing license and maintaining your sanity……
On top of all those, having unreasonable shift working patterns does not help with the matter, when all it does is to add on to the outstanding fatigue and sleep debt.
(am sure that most nurses who work shift hours can relate)
For an example: (PM-AM-PM-AM) - the notorious PAPA shift that no nurse would want to see on their roster.
And other forms of really exhausting work roster, such as:
(ND-ND-OFF-AM),
(ND-ND-OFF-PM-AM),
(ND-OFF-AM-AM).
Or pretty much having to work 5,6 or even up to 8 days straight without a proper rest day in between. That might also include having your post-night as your day off…..
No doubt that working shift hours can allow you to earn additional income but it is at the cost of your own health:
Studies have shown that not only does shift work mess up your body clock, increases the risk of having chronic health conditions such as developing type two diabetes or heart conditions, people who work shift hours are also more likely to have an increase of gastric problems due to having meals at irregular, odd timings. Hence, shift work is probably something that you can do when you are young, but not for long nor even until retirement simply because it is not sustainable for the body.
Sidetrack: Funny how being a healthcare professional, we aren’t practising what we preach to patients and the general public…..
Occasionally, a nurse might have to be required to work on public holidays and weekends, missing out on important family events or your own social life (It is okay if you are young and willing to work for shift allowances, but not so family friendly for some with own personal commitments) Getting called back on your day off or having last minute shift assignment changes just because the unit is short handed due to someone taking sick or urgent leave, and the vicious cycle continues:
Lack of manpower → Overstretching nurses → Feeling too exhausted or falling sick → Call in for sick leave → Lack of manpower → Overstretching nurses….. Do you see it now?
The never ending vicious cycle continues.
Sometimes, I feel so sorry for the patients when their fate or their quality of care depends on how well the staffing is for the day or even the shift, it is like playing slow russian roulette - just waiting for incidents to happen, when in actual fact, it can be prevented, simply because of the lack of manpower issues. Clearly a system error, however, no higher ups actually takes any accountability for it, but just puts the blame on the nurses who actually show up to work as “punishment” —-to do the work that was meant to be done by a few nurses and not just one.
^ picture by sgnightingales
Moreover, not even forgetting, sad to say, having unhelpful colleagues on your shift (sometimes), managers who practise favouritism, dealing with rude patients, rude next of kins, rude doctors, or other rude healthcare professionals, being verbally abusive, just adds more fuel to the already burning fire. It's no surprise why resignations were sky high especially during covid period. As a matter of fact, Covid actually exposes and exacerbates the flaws of the whole healthcare system.
Here are some articles and videos that portray the reality of nursing in Singapore, and no, we are not talking about “You can be an Angel too” Chinese TV drama series which is pretty inaccurate, I would very frankly say.
Or even Grey’s Anatomy.
^Some articles and videos that I have resonated deeply with.
All credits go to them for speaking up.
I believe that most nurses chose to go into nursing to serve others and to help others as much as possible. (It is not always "oh you did not do that well in O levels" or "you did not have other choices" or "you cannot get into Medicine, hence you settled for nursing which is just second best.")
But, dear nurses, helping others for the sake of altruism without learning to set healthy boundaries is unfortunately self-destructive.
Just like the theory behind the “oxygen mask” – you have to learn and know how to put on your own oxygen mask, by helping yourself first, before you can help others. As the saying goes: you cannot pour from an empty cup.
—Self-sufficiency—- part two—--
Anyway, back to the main topic of striving to be financially savvy—-
By taking responsibility and being serious about your finances in knowing where your money goes, means that you are taking accountability and being in charge of your life.
Think about it this way, by being financially responsible means that you have your finances in check, keeping track of your expenses, you will be able to have that safety net that you can fall back on regardless of the circumstances.
This safety net can help to enable you:
To work shorter hours,
To work part time, instead of the usual full time hours.
Having more time flexibility in enabling you doing the things that you wish to do.
Being able to quit your job and to nurse yourself back to health.
Being able to take a work sabbatical,
To be more selective of your job search.
No more choosing a nursing job just for the sake of having a job and just settling “just because” you desperately need the job solely for monetary purposes.
Taking the time to find a job that is more aligned to your own values in life.
Having more work-life balance, you will not hate your job so much, and you will have more meaning and purpose to it, without feeling the additional stress or the pressure of “working for the sake of working”.
All of these without worrying or losing sleep about monetary issues, it is not just a right but a huge, huge privilege. My wish for ALL my fellow healthcare professionals ESPECIALLY my fellow nurses is to have this privilege of choice and know that there are other kinds of career or even other jobs alternatives available. And to never settle for anything less than you deserve.
The last thing that I want is to see my fellow nurses leading a life that feels false to their inner selves or being deeply unfulfilled, stagnant at their role, when in fact, we all have so much potential in us that we can contribute back to society - only if we were to be more self aware of our own individual strengths and unique capabilities.
It is okay if your starting job or your current job is not the “dream job” that you aspire to have.
There is nothing wrong in admitting that you need to work, and you need the job just because of the money that it gives you. Work is work. Work is never ending. Money is just a tool, a means to an end, to give more options, and money is not the end.
That being said, do not work without having an SPECIFIC end goal in mind - and it does not have to be about money, but rather, what kind of work really makes you feel purposeful and fulfilled?
It is a different sense of feeling that you get to experience when you say:
“I chose/ I get to work at this job”, rather than “I have to work at this job.”
Notice the word play difference?
The former sounds more liberated and has an informed choice, a decision, while the latter sounds like he is being forced to, a passive way of thinking, simply adhering to work obligations and simply just resigning it to fate.
Additionally, I hope that all nurses will be able to make good career decisions for themselves - be it deciding to continue or to leave the nursing profession. Nursing is a very versatile profession. And even if a nurse wishes to explore other career options, there are various careers that would employ nurses, due to their background in healthcare knowledge.
With that being said, I hope to see more nurses in knowing their rights, learning to stand up for themselves and be able to see their true value and worth, without compromising on their own personal finances even if the organisations, upper management, or coworkers do not give you the right form of recognition for the hard work that you do.
Healthcare workers, especially us nurses have to be financially savvy, as trust me, no one will care about your financial well-being other than ourselves- not even your financial agents will care about your own money as much as you do! When retirement age comes around, it is better to know that you can retire comfortably rather than not being able to afford retirement! And even if you were to continue working, it should be because you WANT or CHOSE to work, to contribute back to society, to give value, instead of being unable to retire.
***Please do not allow society to gaslight you by thinking that “as healthcare providers, nurses, in particular, we are here to help others, and we should not care too much about money”. Well, the last time I checked, claps cannot help to pay my bills.
—Mind over matter-Part three—
Not just limited to having a safety net, think of being financially savvy acting like a propeller on a lifeboat, that can help to “sail” smoothly and quickly out from the storm.
Here are some first few steps that nurses can take to start things off:
Build up on your emergency fund. This is like your lifeboat.
A general rule of thumb is about 3 to 6 months of your monthly income but this I must say: You have to decide how much is ‘enough’ as different people have different financial commitments and different lifestyle choices.
2. Get insurance -
Again, I am not affiliated with any financial or insurance companies; this was even preached by some of my thoughtful and overly-concerned patients:
“Missy, you must have insurance ok, very important!!!!”
Some of which includes health insurance, team/whole life insurance, early Critical Illness (CI) insurance, CI insurance, personal accidents insurance (so important for the nurses especially those who ride motorbikes to work!!)
^ pretty decent article from Seedly, to read and for your consideration.
I am also a firm believer of not mixing investments and insurance together (Investment-linked policies), but to each other's own opinion okay.
3. Learn basic investment -
Never ever rely or be content with just one source of income. Fixed deposits, Singapore Saving Bonds (SSBs), Money Market Funds, T-Bills, are some examples of lower risk investments that you can start off first and consider.
And just like what this dietitian once said:
^Credits to TDL. This post is spitting the truth.
As a matter of fact, I am not saying that we should not be grateful for those one time payouts, or salary increments, what I meant is that we simply CANNOT be just waiting for or relying on one time handouts, increments, or just passively waiting for promotions.
(lol actually come to think of it: even promotion quotas are also capped)
Plus, honestly, salaries are capped; which means that even your earnings have a certain maximum limit. Nursing salary is not paid by sales earnings, hence, just because you see a certain number of patients or you do more clinical changes on the ground, it does not mean that you will get paid more, unlike some locum doctors. (This might be a reason why some nurses who started off passionate in the career are slowly turning to “quiet quitting” simply because they might not feel that they are being compensated fairly for the amount of work and effort that they put in, hence do not blame your colleagues if they are sometimes lazy, or unmotivated, this might be a mental factor that they might be facing internally and are unable to express their thoughts out)
It is not just limited to nursing skills that you can practise and learn, but also learning to educate yourself as your mindset is the most valuable asset that you can ever invest in.Here are some financial blogs that has helped me to navigate my finances in adulting:
MoneySense is also pretty educational and informative on finances. Do check out their site or their telegram channels for free financial seminars on certain topics.
4. When you learn more, you earn more - not just limited to a (nursing) career.
Think more like an entrepreneur rather than an employee - see yourself as if you are the business, the product.
Think about what brings you more joy and go out there, try to work around it.
Not necessarily to monetise your interest, but in order to grow, having self-awareness is key. There is the importance of cultivating a growth mindset and being committed to lifelong learning. Will elaborate more on part 7.
In my previous article that I have written, I have shared that I have had better increments as I switched my job from the primary care sector back to the hospital settings. Being, staying relevant, and being competitive in today’s society is one thing, but genuinely having the interest in order to learn more and be “teachable”, is another. You make the change, because you are genuinely interested in learning more - in self improvement, self-development, rather than just learning for the sake of it or for fear of missing out.
5. Your network is your net worth.
I cannot stress the importance of networking. Not only does it enable you to meet other like-minded people, be it from or outside your own industry, it will expand your own horizons, and you never know that your next job position might be through a work acquaintance.
I encourage healthcare professionals, especially my fellow nurses to have a Linkedin account and to update your resume every now and then.
It also helps to ask yourself what is your next career goal and be on the lookout for openings through online job portals.
Know that the whole world is your oyster, do not put yourself in a box.You are worth so much more than your job title, the job that you are in and your rank. Go where you are appreciated, valued and not just tolerated.
6. Learn when to use a certain particular kind of payment system.
Example: knowing the differences in situations between when to use a debit card and a credit card.
Debit cards- smaller purchases like top up ez-link cards, simple meals. Basically cheaper purchases.
Credit cards - for online shopping, to pay in larger amounts so as to be able to earn cashback rebates, to get certain discounts from dining out at certain restaurants, helps you to build up your credit score.
Tip: It is good to sign up for a credit card when they are having a promotion like a $350 cashback via paylah! Or an airpods as a free gift. Got to keep an outlook each month to see their promotions though as it varies from time to time.
(OK, if you are really the kind who lacks discipline ESPECIALLY on paying off credit card bills ON TIME, then, you might be better off using debit cards instead.)
By taking advantage of apps that promote cashbacks like paying via GooglePay through favepay/paylah!, or even using the shopback app, can help you to earn some cash back into your accounts, through your online and offline shopping neccessities.
You will realise that I am not supportive of the “Buy Now, Pay Later” schemes. To me, these are essentially digital loans and if you have to split your payments into three or other forms of instalments, you might actually want to even consider your purchase one more time.
(Call me a wet blanket, I do not care. Others’ opinions do not pay my bills or fund my lifestyle. I am just trying to be financially responsible and reach my financial goals that I have set for myself.)
7. I leave the most morbid one for the last —
The realistic and hard truth as employees, is that we are all replaceable and disposable.
To put it quite bluntly: we are all just employees IDs, numbers to the system.
Calling off sick? Well, either the team for the shift will be working understaffed or someone will be called back to replace you. Work still goes on regardless if you report to work or not.
Besides that, as a healthcare professional, you cannot have the luxury of working from home or doing remote work, as healthcare professionals HAVE to be physically there. Societal expectations of WFH meant: working from home, but to healthcare professionals,
WFH means: working from Hospital.
We use our precious, limited time and energy, in return to get a decent pay check.
It is about time that we learn how not just to exchange our time for money, but also, to learn how to make money work hard for us as well.
And instead of thinking of being paid for the time exchange that you put in, think about how you can contribute and earn by the amount of true VALUE that you bring in.
Food for thought #1: Salary does not reflect an individual’s true value.
Food for thought #2: Earn with your mind, rather than your time.
Moreover, healthcare is essentially a huge, huge business - something that they do not cover in nursing schools as well. I do not recall having financial classes as a part of the nursing curriculum, and one of the flaws in nursing is that nursing does not have a strong foundation in understanding finances and the true impact of it.
Having my own experiences of nursing both subsided and private patients — made me witness first hand on how money or the lack of money, can have a huge difference on one’s quality of life and the kind of timely care being rendered.
I can attest that most of us healthcare workers, especially nurses are naturally empathic, compassionate and nurturing, which are all plus points specifically when it comes to direct patient care. However, realistically, if we do not place emphasis on learning the importance of how money really works, the importance of finances, planning proper budgeting and fund allocations, it would be difficult to understand how organisations are actually performing financially. Think about supply and demand, and the resources that we need to start a surgical clinic or an endoscopy centre, for example. It is not just about manpower but other logistics, especially dollars and cents that are involved too. Nurses should look beyond their clinical roles and try to see things from a shrewd and monetary perspective.
There is a reason why short staffing on units is allowed despite the fact that it is not safe at all, simply because it is to save, cut manpower costs, with the hopes of getting more profits. Bringing my point back to the fact that healthcare IS actually a huge, huge business.
^ picture by sgnightingales
Financial aside, things are changing very rapidly, especially with Artificial Intelligence (AI) development, in this time and age and in more time to come. No doubt that it is being said that “healthcare, especially nursing is an iron rice bowl, because everyone and anyone will get sick somehow.” However, I wish to emphasise on the fact that we as nurses must not ever get complacent in learning new skills and honing our craft.
Sure, AI is not as creative, compassionate, nor can it ever possibly replace a human touch.
But if you look at the news, AI technology in healthcare is advancing super fast:
And look at this! A robot nurse - she can speak three languages!!
A robot that can help to draw blood:
Just imagine a robot taking over a nurse’s duties: no medications errors, no sleep debt, no emotions to be affected by some rowdy patients’ behaviours, no calling in sick, no language barriers, etc, etc. A robot would probably be the A+ employee in upper management’s eyes.
Sure, maybe I am just exaggerating, but if you paid more attention, hospitals, private organisations are willing to pay locum nurses more, and by the hour even, rather than paying the regular full time employees with more wages.
If we do not strive to be financially savvy, and learn to fend for ourselves,
Who will act it out for us?
Think deeper.
I shall end of this super lengthy post by saying this:
As much as I hope to see changes in the healthcare systems especially in terms of manpower and budgeting issues, I know that deep down, it is a tall order, as no matter what, money talks, money supersedes, that is just how practical and realistic things are in this modern day, capitalistic society.
But instead of waiting for the change and relying on the system or even upper management, why not we start from within us and be that change?
Adding on, more importantly, as healthcare professionals, I hope that we treat others, especially other healthcare professionals with respect, as a basic form of courtesy, knowing that our nature of work in the various roles is already tough enough, why create additional stressors for each other? Regardless of job titles, ranks, etc, we are all human beings, and we all deserve having that basic respect and empathy for each other.
—- Shall save this topic for my next post, so stay tuned!
Thank you once again for reading my long word vomit. I hope that this article made you think a little deeper about what work really means to you.
^ my writing account.
Follow for even more word vomit.
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