Professional Development Activity

Jing Lu

Department of Nursing, The University of Arizona

NURS 478: Nursing Leadership and Management in Health Systems

Professor Parmar

September 21th, 2022

 For my professional development activity, I enrolled as a learner into the Science of

Well-Being course instructed by Laurie Santos on Coursera. The course taught about the science

behind happiness and discussed recent findings in the psychology field. The goal was for

learners to identify what would increase happiness in our day to day lives, develop skills to drive

productivity, and to show how we can use simple techniques to help society as a whole. My goal

by the end of the course was to learn about how to incorporate new habits into my life that would

help me increase my sense of fulfillment. The course was held completely online through the use

of interactive videos, quizzes, and discussion boards. I started the program on September 10th,

2022 and it took me about 10 hours over the course of a week and a half to complete.

This course was truly eye opening and I really enjoyed it. It made me realize that many of

the things I thought that I would value, don’t actually end up producing much happiness. For

example, we really aren't as happy as we think we will be when we end up getting the job we

want or the salary we want. Since we are always striving for more, we will never truly be

satisfied with what we have, unless we really change our habits and our beliefs. This drive to

always get something better, brings down happiness and brings up feelings of dissatisfaction. So

investing that time into adventures and helping other people will always provide a higher sense

of happiness. In the future, I will definitely try to value my time over money, since there is so

much data to support that it produces the most happiness. I also found out how much mind power

actually goes into committing to a change. Just having the idea for change will never be enough

to alter a mindset, a critical part will always be setting micro goals and finding support.

From the nursing perspective, I learned a couple of strategies that can help reduce

burnout in the future and increase patient satisfaction. Throughout the course, I thought a lot

about nurse burnout and why it occurs. The concept that helped me form an answer was, that
wonderful things are always great the first time they occur, but that happiness will wean over

time. Nurses are always helping people and saving lives, and eventually we start to think that it is

just an everyday task that is no longer as meaningful. It doesn’t produce the same rush of

adrenaline or boost of endorphins that it used to. Thus, an exercise that might help stop the

weaning sense of accomplishment is a gratitude journal. It involves taking a couple minutes each

night to write down five things that you’re grateful for that happened throughout the day. This

can help to reduce the emotional burden that can occur from bad days, increase positivity, and

improve self-esteem . Another thing that was applicable, especially in nursing, was that despite

when people seem like they want to be left alone, talking to them will always make you and

them happier. This is important to remember when talking to those patients who appear to be

distant as a little 10 minute conversation can really boost their mood even when you don’t think

it will.

I would definitely recommend this course, especially to those in the medical community.

I think that within the medical community there has always been a huge sense of competition,

especially between peers. The course emphasizes the fact that looking down on people won’t

give you the confidence boost that you think it will. This is such an essential thing to realize

because comparing ourselves to others will never make anyone involved feel good, so it is best

to avoid it. Giving gratitude and praising people for good work is something that lacks in

everyone's lives. However, sharing gratitude is able to boost your mood and the mood of those

around you for a substantial amount of time. Overall, I would encourage everyone to take the

course, the class was full of tips and tricks that can help encourage changes in behavior and

allow happiness enhancing habits to form.