 Hi everyone and welcome back to another vlog. Thank you so, so much as always for tuning in and taking the time out to come and watch this vlog today. So today's vlog is all about staying confident in your work. So this is quite a good one I think because especially now with the COVID pandemic, a lot of people are quite nervous, a little bit unconfident with what they're doing and the constantly questioning yourselves. I've done it as well, 100% all the way throughout my whole career and still do it now as a general practice nurse. So it's perfectly normal to question things and actually that's what keeps you safe and that is my first tip. So yes, constantly question yourself. I know this sounds silly because you're trying to get confidence but actually if you're doubting yourself then you don't feel confident. So it's like a, yeah, it's like a double-ended knife or sword or whatever that phrase is but one thing that someone said to me, if you're questioning yourself, you're a safe practitioner because if you think that you know it all and you're out there going, yeah, do this, do this, that's very unsafe practice. So as long as you're asking questions still and you've still got that niggling voice in your head, you will always be a safe practitioner. So please always remind yourself of that and just give yourself a little break. Tip number two or advice, it's not really a tip. I think it's more advice for this one but so my advice would be for this one, I'm gonna tell you something that I tell myself a lot. I try to tell myself a lot. I don't always listen to my own advice. Very good at giving it to everyone else but I don't always take my own advice like everyone else, I'm sure. But my words of wisdom today are, just think back. If you're having a wobble and you're feeling unconfident about doing something, think back to a time where you felt like this before. So for example, I remind myself of being that first year student nurse, very first placement, walking onto the ward and thinking I've got no idea how I'm gonna get through this place and I know nothing. I haven't got a clue if I'm a good enough nurse. I don't know if I should be here, all of those doubts but look at me now, I'm a qualified nurse. I'm working in general practice. I'm doing things that I never thought I would ever do when I think back to my first placement. So look at everything that you've overcome. Look back and think, do you know what? I actually felt like this before, I felt like this before an exam, before writing an assignment when I'm reading my assignment brief and I've got no idea what this assignment brief says when I'm, let's just say if you're not in healthcare you're just starting healthcare now. Think about a previous time when you first started a job and you weren't too sure what it was gonna be like or if you could do it but you went in there and you did it and you smashed it. So just remind yourself of those little milestones that you've done along the way and just think, do you know what? I can do this. It's not familiar right now but I will get familiar with it. I'll be more confident the more I practice and away you go. And that leads me onto my tip number three, very, very nicely. So tip number three is practice, practice, practice. If you're not confident at something, that's perfectly fine. If you feel unconfident with something, just gain more practice. Just speak to the people around you, speak to your family, speak to your friends, speak to your colleagues at work, speak to your patients if you want to and just practice wherever you can, whatever you're feeling unconfident with or get more training. There's loads of free training out there online, free webinars and things like that. Just gain that knowledge if you're struggling with it. Do whatever you can and put into place whatever you can to help gain that confidence because it's literally just the simplest of things like just practicing, just makes a big, big difference. My next little tip is, of course, it's probably an obvious one. I don't know, but stay up to date with your mandatory training. That's how you're gonna stay confident and updated. Policies, guidelines, everything changed so much especially with COVID, especially with the pandemic. Everything changes daily. So just keep your mind refreshed on all these things that you need to know depending where you're working and that'll just help you stay confident. So if someone questions something, you can say, well, actually the policy says this or the guideline says this. So yeah, so just always keep up to date and that's a really, really good tip. And my last tip is more about mind over matter because a lot of the time it's ourselves, it's our own self-doubt and self-worth that actually makes us feel unconfident and I'm speaking from absolutely personal experience with this one. I don't feel confident if I don't know something as well or if I'm having a really wobbly day, I'm feeling a bit anxious maybe about the day. It's gonna put my confidence down, but if I'm feeling good, I'm getting up, I'm energetic, I'm having a great morning, I go to work, I feel a lot more confident when that happens. So I think having a really good morning routine where if you're waking up and you're not feeling great, stand in the mirror, do your power pose, which I've spoke about many times, do your power pose, look at yourself in that mirror and say, do you know what, I'm confident, I'm great, I'm gonna do a great job, let's do this. If you do that regularly every single day when you get up, you will start believing it. Trust me, you will believe it. I do this myself on my wobbly days, I don't do it every day, I have to admit it, but it really does have an effect when you tell yourself that and you change that mindset, can make a huge huge difference to the way your day goes and how you respond to things and just little things like that. So definitely, definitely think about doing that. It might not be for everyone, but just find what works for you to get rid of that self-doubt, self-worth, build yourself up, make yourself feel like, do you know what, you can do this, you're amazing and you're gonna smash it. Anything that's gonna help you feel like that, just do it. Unless it's illegal, then maybe leave that out. So that is it from me. So just a final message. Do you know what, it is one of those things that we do have days that knock our confidence, but it's really important that we get back out there, we get back on the horse and off we sail into the sunset for happy days. Just make sure if you are really struggling and you are really feeling any effects or anything like that, seek help, speak to your supervisor, speak to your mentors, speak to your line managers, anyone out there that's gonna help you speak to, don't suffer in silence, don't struggle because that's not safe and it's not fair on you or your patients. So please look after yourselves guys, come on. And I'm gonna end on a quote that I heard today, self care for healthcare.