120: Confidence Not Cockiness: How NPs Can Own the Room & Gain Patient Trust

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Confident. You’re gonna be confident. I’ll show you the proper poise when you talk to patients. Okay, let’s be real. I don’t need to sing. I just need to podcast. I’m so excited to talk to you guys about today’s nurse practitioner related practice tip confidence. We are going to be diving into real world advice for nurse practitioners and NP students to grow in their careers or in their clinical practice because, here at SuccessNP we are all about preparing you for clinical rotation, making it easy. Today we are tackling a big one. And it is how to be confident as a nurse practitioner without coming off as cocky. Confidence is key in healthcare, but there’s a fine line between being self assured and being arrogant. So let’s break it down. Confidence is defined as self assuredness in your knowledge base, experience and decision making.

Arrogance on the other hand, so we’ve got confidence over here, arrogance over here, arrogance is overestimating your abilities and dismissing others input. We’re going to go through today’s episode, an example of what both of those look like. And I think that’ll be really helpful.

A confident nurse practitioner Calmly explains a treatment plan to a patient, while an arrogant NP dismisses questions as unnecessary and doesn’t feel like they have time for that and that’s not important and there’s almost a hubris to that NP. So we’re going to kind of delineate between the two and why one is important and why the other one you’ve really got to fight against any of that in your practice.

Confidence matters because it impacts everything that we do. from decision making to getting our patients trust. When you exude confidence, patients are more likely to feel at ease in your care. Likewise, your colleagues and other professionals take you more seriously. There is a fostering of a collaborative, positive work environment.

It’s really a key part in working at your NP job or as an NP student. Confidence doesn’t come overnight though. It’s one of those things that has to be grown. It takes practice, it takes mindset shifts, and it also takes continuous learning. to be a confident nurse practitioner.

Let’s start with some keys that we can use to cultivate confidence as a nurse practitioner or as a student. One of the first things is to realize that knowledge is power and that you need to be learning always, we’re staying up to date with evidence based practice and guidelines.

We are visualizing ourselves as a lifelong learner. Just because you’re done with school doesn’t mean that. Your learning is over. It just means a new chapter is opened and you’re turning the corner on a new learning street.

You’re not stopping the car. Experience also builds assurance. So your confidence grows as you continue to do something. We mean that’s common sense as you continue to practice a certain skill as you continue to hone in on your abilities and you work to improve them, they will continue to get better.

And of course, admitting what you don’t know, because if you don’t know something and you need to learn, admitting that actually, I think in practice as a nurse practitioner, it really does inspire a level of confidence because you are showing I know my boundaries, I know where I know something and where I don’t.

And so I think that builds a level of confidence as well and seeking guidance, knowing where your help should come from as, as you’re in practice is also another confidence builder. Communication matters in the way that you communicate to those around you, coworkers, patients with warmth, professionalism, speaking clearly, actively, and showing empathy as you practice is another way that confidence begins to build.

One of the things that I know a lot of nurse practitioners struggle with is imposter syndrome and it’s very common in your early career just because you’re new at something. You’re trying something new and are my good enough? What if I make a mistake? It can be overwhelming to overcome it. Some of the things that I encourage nurses that are learning to be nurse practitioners and the nurse practitioners in practice is To combat imposter syndrome, you’ve got to recognize that it’s common, it’s normal, you can’t fix normal, and it doesn’t mean you’re incapable, it just is something that little voice in the back of your mind that’s telling you that You don’t know something and there is gaps and I don’t think that’s abnormal to realize that because it’s true.

Now, you want to reflect on your wins. So keep a journal of the positive things that are happening in your clinicals, in your practice as a nurse practitioner. I know sometimes this is hard, but even something by the bedside that you could write down one thing and say, hey, this happened today at work and this was a win.

This was a strong point. Because you’re just focusing in on the gratitude that you have for that moment. And then finding experienced nurse practitioners or physicians that can help guide you, give you reassurance, let you know that you’re on the right path and help you as you are learning.

And then just embracing the fact that this is it, that this is the grind, that the more you learn, the more assured you’ll feel. And then also You’ll turn another corner on something, right? You’ll get better at it, you’ll get more responsibility, and then you’ll be in something you don’t know again, and you’ll be back in that space.

And so just realizing that that’s the grind, that’s the journey that I’ve talked about many times on the podcast, is enjoying that journey into the unknown, and what you are capable of is what each of these experiences are. How do you show confidence without coming across as cocky? What I recommend, we’ll go through four tips for how to come across as confident and not cocky is by saying a couple of things.

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These things that I’m going to share with you are for you to be confident without being arrogant. A patient may ask you a question and you’re like, I don’t know, should I make something up?

Don’t make anything up. Just be honest and say, I don’t know. I’m going to work to find the answer for you because that’s going to be a game changer in your patients having confidence that you’re going to take care of them well. The next thing I have on here is using collaborative learning or collaborative language instead of you need to do this.

Say based on what I see here I recommend this approach. What do you think? Because that invites people to speak into you, if you’re very like, you need to do this and I’m saying that maybe just approach it in a way that feels you are collaborating with those around you so that people can speak into you.

You can get feedback. That’s another way. Body language is huge. Maintaining eye contact. Standing tall, but don’t cross your arms like this. If you’re watching on YouTube, just don’t put your arms across your chest. Appearing kind of dismissive. Being more open. Keep yourself relaxed. And welcoming criticism.

It’s the final one. And I know that’s really hard because one of the things that you might kind of start to feel is, I don’t want feedback because that means I’m doing something wrong, which I want to be perfect. And it’s like, no, no, no, no, no, no. That’s the opposite. That’s the wrong way to look at it.

Criticism is an opportunity to improve. It’s an opportunity to look in the mirror. And you don’t want to walk around with something in your teeth and think that there’s nothing there, and you look great, and you’re killing it, you’re crushing it, and there’s this huge thing on your face. A friend is going to come in and say, like I think you had asparagus in your teeth.

Because that’s the only way we can get better. This thing is, like, blowing up. There’s, like, there’s, like, fireworks happening right now. I think the computer loves what I’m doing. I don’t know. And then Ways to build confidence. So that strategies for how to show confidence. But how do you build confidence?

And we talked a little bit about imposter syndrome, how to work through imposter syndrome. Going back to staying prepared. Realizing that you’ve always are going to be a lifelong learner improving your communication skills, always finding ways to say things better, work on the way that you present yourself to others.

Believing in yourself is something that I think a lot of nurse practitioners struggle with. And so that’s why when you write in the journal, the different techniques and the different things that you did, you could start to see like, No, I did do some good things here. I am doing this job. I can do it.

And that belief begins to grow and the feedback we’ve spoken about and then taking care of yourself. And this is another big thing that, in the self care space are always kind of touting as the, the key to burnout. That really looks like something very specific for a different people and, getting enough rest, eating the right foods Getting the proper work life balance, pursuing things that allow you to be creative, are all self care things that you can do that allow you to operate out of the best form of yourself.

It’s tough to not be dismissive when you’re tired. It’s tough to Have a great personality if your diet’s not great. I know these things can affect your mood and the way that you are. I wanted to offer some real life examples so that we compare and contrast what it looks like so you guys can kind of conceptualize it.

For situations that you might be in, right? So it’s good to hear all these things, but sometimes it’s good to hear a story so that you can make it more concrete, let’s say a patient says, this is a classic one we see in practice, but you know, I want to talk to the doctor, you know, I don’t know if what you’re saying is correct.

Don’t take offense to that. You can’t control their belief in. What care they’re getting at that time. You can only explain your reasoning, provide your education, and then remain open to the concerns that they may have. And if they’re still asking to see another provider, whichever, then you honor what the patient wants.

I mean, that’s That’s just unfortunately a level of what we deal with in our job and it just comes with the territory. When working with other providers or physicians collaborating, showing, using the tools that we said earlier, this is what I think we should do. What do you think? Kind of showing that mutual respect as a practical way to do that.

Now we’re going to do a scenario and I’m going to show you guys or give you two scenarios and I want you to guess which nurse practitioner this is. Is it the cocky nurse practitioner or the confident? Okay. So we’re going to go through some scenarios and let’s see how this goes.

Our nurse practitioner, his name is Jake. He works in an urgent care clinic. All right, and he’s been practicing for a couple years, so he’s not fully imposter syndrome. He’s believing in his skills a little bit. And one afternoon, a patient comes in and he’s got some chest discomfort. He’s like, Oh, my chest is burning a little bit and his vitals are stable.

And so Jake just. Says, you know what? This is acid reflux. So I’m not even going to order an EKG. I just feel pretty, pretty confident. You just need to take some pepsin. But the nurse comes in and she’s like, you think we should get an EKG? And Jake is like, ah, nah, you don’t need to get an EKG.

I’ve seen this a hundred times. It’s textbook, textbook GERD. I think we’re good. An hour later. The patient collapses in the waiting room and EMS is called he’s got an acute MI and the other provider sees the patient and determines that he had a heart attack and that an EKG could have potentially caught this earlier.

So which one do you think he is? You’re thinking confident, you’re thinking cocky. All right, I’m going to give you some time, some background music. 📍 All right. Cocky. Very good. That is a cocky nurse practitioner. That is not what to do. You really want to be opposite of all that. And what does that look like?

Okay. Let’s do another scenario. Here we are. Lisa. Huh? She’s also a nurse practitioner at the Urgent Care Clinic and she’s got a couple years experience, same. She comes in with a patient

who’s 45 years old, with mild chest discomfort. Vitals are stable and she knows the symptoms can sometimes present atypical. She calmly tells the patient, I’d like to run some tests. Let’s just do an EKG to make sure we’re not missing anything. when a nurse suggests additional labs a nurse comes up to him and says, Hey, good call.

Why don’t we check a troponin too while he’s here? Lab’s about to leave, so let me just have him come and grab it. The EKG shows slight ST changes. And prompts the nurse practitioner to send the patient to the emergency room. The attending physician later confirms that he had a heart attack and that the patient receives an immediate intervention.

What do you think? Do you think she’s cocky or confident? I confident. If you said confident, perfect, perfect. That’s the right answer. That’s exactly what this is. It’s a confident nurse practitioner. She’s trusting her knowledge. She’s open to input. She’s following protocol and she is prioritizing the patient’s safety.

Confident nurse practitioner makes. Decisions based on her clinical reasoning and her judgment not her ego. That’s a practical example of both of those things and, these are simple, but I think they’re still important to realize that the purpose of what we’re doing Confidence is not to put ourselves on a pedestal and to show how much we know, but to treat and care for our patients.

Confidence is not about knowing everything. It’s about trusting yourself to make the best decision with the information that you have. And keep Learning as a nurse practitioner. Seek support and believe in your abilities. You can do this. If you found this episode helpful guys, please share it with a fellow nurse practitioner. to the podcast and leave a five star rating, it helps increase the visibility to other nurse practitioners looking for a podcast to help them with their career.

Until next time, take care.

  Thanks for tuning into another episode of success, NPS, we hope today’s discussion has shed some light on the diverse career options or taught you how to improve your clinical practice as a nurse practitioner.

Options. Remember whether you’re considering a specialization pursuing advanced certifications or exploring non-traditional roles, there’s a wealth of opportunities out there waiting for you.

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