The Leap

By Eric Hodson, Critical Care Nurse

Do you get really frustrated at a coworker who should be way ahead in their career but struggle with the simplest of things?

Is there someone you looked up to, but soon discovered that despite their years of experience just aren’t the kind of person you aspire to be? What you are experiencing is what I call “the Gap”, and what you need, is to Leap.

As students and young people, we live our entire life looking up. We look up to mentors and teachers and instructions and preceptors and anyone more experienced than we are, as a kind of benchmark or standard of what we should be striving for. What happens to everyone at some point is the number of people you look up to shrinks. You more clearly define who you are and what you want to become. Then by becoming more proficient, you start to see that others are not as great or impressive as you may have thought. This is completely natural and expected.

You are in the Gap, the scary and unfamiliar space where you are transitioning from being a person who asks questions to a person that answers them. Instead of always asking someone else to double check your work, you are annoyed when someone is interrupting your process, only to discover time and time again that you had it right. Coworkers start to ask you questions that you just barely started to know, and remember asking yourself just a short time ago.

The Gap is a difficult and frustrating time. Like a teenager who starts to rebel against the house to find their own way, so too is the Provider in the Gap wrestling with the disenchantment of no longer being the dumbest person on the floor. Like that teenager, you are starting to think for yourself and decide that your decisions are valid and valuable. The important point is to not fall victom to the burnout and frustration. This is a time for you to Leap.

Take the Leap and start being the mentor you wish you had. Take an interest in doing things right, consistently, and support others who are struggling regardless of their age or experience. Take your practice seriously because it is YOURS, not because someone else is going grade or judge you. The time of impressing others is over, it’s time for you to support others. Stand strong, be the provider you are becoming, and take the LEAP from teenager to adult, from student to teacher, from Mente’ to Mentor.