Episode: “Nurse Burnout with Mary Buffington RN ”

Welcome to another episode of Nurse Marketing: The Business of Nursing!

While this interview was done Pre COVID, I know that recent events have many nurses looking for ways to navigate our new normal.

Yet today, we are navigating uncertain times along with burnout.

Please note these feeling of burnout among nurses is not new and is an old problem.

In fact, back in February, things finally lined up for Burnout expert Mary Buffington to share a bit about her work over at the Burnout Ward.

March was a bit of a blur, so her episode JUST went live today.

Even with all that is going on, now is the great time to get reflective on how you are re-evaluating your self care efforts, take a listen to the interview below:

About our Guest

Mary Buffington has been a registered nurse since 2006. She graduated from Shepherd University in West Virginia and spent the majority of her career working in cancer care. She has a Master's of Science in herbal medicine and will complete her master's in nursing leadership in 2020, this year. She will have received coaching training through wisdom of the whole Coaching Academy and as a certified life coach with the Life Coach School. She's the owner of the Burnout Ward and offers an exclusive coaching program for nurses struggling with deep burnout.

Topics Covered:

0:17 – Amelia introduces Mary as someone who offers an exclusive coaching program for nurses struggling with deep burnout. She also introduces her business and what it does.

1:15 – Shares how she ended up doing what she does and how she started her own business.

3:27 – Shears why she had a life coach and all the importance of having a coach especially when you are experiencing a burnout.

7:03 – Talks about her business and what unique thing that it does for its ideal customers.

10:12 - Explains what would happen if people continue on in this state of deep burnout and don't really have this problem was resolved.

12:36 - Talks about the testimonies of her customers and what it feels like for them on the other side of her business.

16:48 – Shares some words of encouragement to people who are just starting out or is starting a new chapter or is pivoting in some way.

18:06 – Shares the story of what changed her life completely.

21:51 – Shares how she helps her clients land on their new clients.

32:58 – Talks about collaborations and partnerships and why she thinks it’s important in a business.

37:00 - Shares her suggestions to nurses about rebuilding a professional network and audience.

Main Takeaways and Quotes

“My story started back in 2014. I actually had severe burnout at that point in my career. And what ended up happening was, I felt really alone. And I spent two years afterward, just basically trying to figure things out, I quit the job that I had sort of hit my burnout in.” - Mary Buffington

“It’s such a hard time to be in and it's such a vulnerable time. You really need someone that's been there that really can speak to it, and I wanted to give that gift back to nurses that my coach gave to me.” - Mary Buffington

“For those of you who are coaches and are thinking about how you need to get the word out about what it is that you do, podcasts are an amazing medium to do that.” – Amelia

“I don't just simply say like, let's focus on self-care, I actually have four domains that I work with them because I think there are people that have other issues than self-care.” - Mary Buffington

“There’s so much a fate at stake if you're basically someone that's just like I'm just going to keep pushing through, and there's a difference between pushing through for something worthwhile, as opposed to basically putting yourself in a situation that you are cutting off your nose off your face to basically be alive, and is it worth it?” - Mary Buffington

“I think one of the big causes of obscurity is having a level of deficit in your self-love and how you view yourself in self value.” - Mary Buffington

“one of the things that I think is a very powerful statement that I use for myself is, whenever I'm in that place where I feel like I'm not able, I'm small, I'm not bringing enough value. I'm always telling myself, I am enough and I deserve this.” - Mary Buffington

“If you're trying to be someone else, you're going to burn yourself out in the process.” - Mary Buffington

“Just because I am more competent at doing certain things doesn't mean that I don't have the voice back my brain saying, “You're going to fail. You suck.” Like, I have my inner mean girl that I have to work with a lot.” - Mary Buffington

“Every single person needs a coach and coaches have coaches.” – Amelia

“Know what it is that you want.” – Amelia

“I do think you need to have like that spider web of people like you can't be the lone person. You need to like to be connecting with other people.” - Mary Buffington

“You can either grow your rice field or else you can go to the store and get rice.” - Mary Buffington

“I do think your story has value, and even though you might not know who needs to hear your story, there is a person that needs to hear your story.” - Mary Buffington

“People do business with people they know and trust.” – Amelia

“When you help and serve enough people, people will conspire ways to work with you and try to figure it out.” - Amelia