Have you ever felt that when something so unexpectedly happens, it’s like you’ve been kicked in the gut?  This is how a lot of my nurses and other health care providers feel when they are terminated from their position or get a complaint before the Licensing Board.  They are good practitioners, but then out of the blue something happens.

When this happens, take responsibility.  I’m not saying that you necessarily should admit the incident is your fault, but to take responsibility from the standpoint of “this happened and now I can do something about it.”

If you’re blaming a co-worker, the patient, your employer or whoever for the situation, you will never have the power to do something about it.  We tend to interpret responsibility as being fault or blame, but it simply means having the ability to respond.

How we respond is more telling than what happened in the first place.  Are we victimized by it or do we take ownership and responsibility for it?

Again, taking ownership and responsibility gives you the power to go on to different choices and have something different happen in the future.