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On RCN Nursing Support Workers’ Day, Chloe and Stephanie from Superchoir, shared their love for music with RCN members. Here Chloe explains why she thinks singing with colleagues can transform how you’re feeling in work and life.

We all know that feeling when you hear your favourite song on the radio. You find yourself singing along and it can transform your day. 
 
Music is a superpower we can all use, but for nursing staff, it can be especially helpful. When you’re working long hours in stressful conditions, with huge responsibilities which require exceptional skills, it can be easy to deprioritise your own personal wellbeing.
 
Singing is a great way to help lift your mood and connect you to other people. It releases your endorphins and reduces cortisol, which helps you naturally feel better in yourself. And the more often you do it, the bigger the benefits will be.  

When any group gets together to sing, you can feel the energy in the room. It’s a connecting experience which helps improve bonding as you come together and unite through song.  

Music is a superpower we can all use

I use workplace choirs to remind everyone they are important as individuals. Music is for everyone; it doesn’t matter how good you are at singing or what your workplace role is when you sing with us. 

We get people singing a range of feel-good pop and teach harmonies by ear using studio tracks so it doesn’t matter if you can’t read music. Everything is colour-coded, and we split each section down so that when you finally hear the whole arrangement the harmonies sound so impressive.

I love seeing people realise what they have done. I can see it makes them feel amazing. 
 
If I had one tip, I’d say don’t ever feel embarrassed about singing. Rather than focusing on what you perceive you can’t do, look for the benefits. 
 
We help those who feel shy about singing by using a process so gentle, they don’t even realise what they’re doing. To build trust we focus on breathing exercises and vocal warm-ups to start and then introduce simple feel-good songs with repetition in the arrangements.  

It doesn’t matter how good you are at singing or what your workplace role is

We can all sing and when people hear how good they sound in a group, they often can’t believe what they’ve achieved. Seeing people translate the positive feelings they feel after singing into their working and personal lives absolutely makes my day.

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