This week Honey (the best Physician’s Assistant ever) became my neighbor. For those of you that haven’t met Honey, she has been a PA at Johnson Dermatology for about 3 years and truely is a gem! She is my work sister. For most of her time at the clinic she has commuted from Tulsa, OK. I’m not sure if she moved here because she was tired of the drive, loves the Fort Smith community, got sick of people asking why she commuted or just really wanted to be my neighbor. I am sure of one thing though and that is that Honey and I would both move mountains to be able to work at Johnson Dermatology forever. Some people never find a job they are happy going to every day. Your work life really does affect your overall happiness. When I sit back and reflect about why I love my job so much the obvious things come to mind first. I love my patients, I love what I do, I love my coworkers, I love my hours, I love the location and I have great bosses. There are some things about being happy at work that are just up to the person though and so this week you may not learn a skin trick but you will learn something about Johnson Dermatology and why we love our jobs. Here are some of the Johnson Dermatology Midlevel tricks to a happy job inspired by my new neighbor Honey Hill.

1. We try to be healthy– Don’t get me wrong, we currently have a large bag of chocolate in our office. But generally speaking we both stay on each other about sticking to healthy food. We recently did a juice cleanse together. We ban ourselves from Starbucks sometimes when it gets to be too frequent a habit. I go to barre regularly and Honey runs with her fiance. The point is, our bodies feel good and are feuled to feel good at work. If you feel good and look good, you’re setting yourself up for a better work jive.

2. We find a reason to dance, every morning– Have you ever seen kid president? If not, go to you tube and watch all his videos. In every single one he dances at some point or recommends it in making the world a better place. Every morning Honey and I play music to dance to while we get ready for our first patient. We may only get 20 seconds of a song, we may get 2-3 songs in, but we don’t skip dance party time. If my baby woke up 50 times last night or Honey is sick of driving (not anymore) it clears that bad mambajamba and brings happiness and joy to start the day with a good attitude. I am usually the only one dancing in my chair and I nominated myself DJ but Honey does a lot of the lip syncing. Most of the time we don’t need a reason to dance but some days we choose something great about work and dedicate our dance party to that. So instead of thinking about how tired we are, we think about the patient we saved from Melanoma. Try it! I don’t have the science behind it but it works everytime, I mean 100% of the time… Dance people!

3. We don’t make excuses– Excuses are great, aren’t they? I mean they totally take a little of the blame off of you. Whether you’re placing the blame on circumstances or someone else, with an excuse problems are less your fault. Get rid of excuses. Honey and I were covering a duty while one of our co-workers was out. Honey had Wednesday and Friday to finish this task and I had Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Well, when we got to work Wednesday morning we realized that the person who sets everything up for Honey to do this task wasn’t told about the change of plans, so it wasn’t ready to go. The easy thing to do would be to say that because it wasn’t set up and ready to go, Honey could just do the task later. But being that it was not set up and ready to go would just be an excuse, because really, that would just be a bump in the road that slows you down but you can still get it done. So Honey and I set it up together, helped each other finish the task, got it done twice as efficiently and boom, it was done. When someone asks you to do something at work, do you say “I won’t have time” or “I don’t know how”? Those are excuses. Make time and learn how. I think you will be proud of yourself, feel like a harder worker and therefore be happier in your job.

4. We admit we have weaknesses and make mistakes– Honey told me last week that she was sorry for biting my head off. I apologize daily for being inpatient. My blunt, straight forward attitude is my best friend and worst enemy. I apologize for it often. We know we aren’t the best to share an office with or to work for. We aren’t perfect employees. But we want to be the best we can be. We try to recognize our faults and improve on them. It’s like a step program. The first step is always admitting you have a problem. I got 99 problems but finding ‘em ain’t one.

5. We put others before ourselves– All day, every day. We try to never tell our bosses no, as a general rule. We try to keep our nurses happy. We try to do things the way the lab staff asks us to do them. Above all else we put our patients first. They are always right, their needs come first. If a patient is waiting to be seen and I need to potty, patient first, everytime. If I’m hungry but my first patient after lunch got here 30 minutes early, patient first, then lunch. Kid president says you should treat everyone like it’s their birthday. That is especially true with your co-workers and in our case our patients. If everyone around you is happy that vibe surrounds you and you’re happier by association.

I know you all join me in welcoming Honey to the River Valley as her new home. I am originally from Fayetteville but Fort Smith has been my home since 2007 and I wouldn’t leave it for the world. I have lived in San Francisco, CA, Orlando, FL and many places in between but this little community is special and one that Johnson Dermatology is honored to serve.

Hope to see you all at the clinic this week with any skin needs you may have!

Peace, Love and Skin care, Nina

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