Nurse Manager Interview
This semester, I had the chance of interviewing Susan Holley-Washer, nurse manger of 4 Northwest. This floor is a telemetry and step down unit at the Loma Linda Veteran Affairs Medical Center. During this time, I had the opportunity to ask many questions covering several topics. The topics discussed her perspective on interviewing potential employees, counseling employees, employee evaluations, orientation of new personnel, budgetary processes, manager roles in governance, determining staffing need, attendance of management meetings, and current unit projects. In the end, I was able to obtain valuable information about the functions of a nurse manager and information about my opportunities as a potential employee on this unit.
My question discussed the interviewing process of potential employees. Holley-Washer answered by saying that it was a grid/panel-based interview process. She stated that this format helps her and others on the panel eliminate applicants that do not meet the requirements of the unit. However, she added that they do make exceptions to this process. The can intentionally pull applicants out of the grid system to interview personally in order to progress them through the interview process. There is also a point-based system when hiring: 5 points for being a veteran and 10 points if still enrolled in the service. The level of degree the applicant possesses also awards points and continuing education is important. Lastly, 6 extra
My second clinical day took place on September 24th, 2015 at Saint Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, New Jersey. My preceptor Maria Brilhante, MSN, RN, allowed me to observe the morning huddle that took place with all the nurse managers that are in the hospital. The purpose of this huddle was to keep the director of nursing informed about the census on each unit. I found this processed to be very uniformed and professional because the DON was engaged. The day went on with me attending meetings on how managers could implement plans to contain cost for the hospital. Maria did her daily rounds on her patients and her nursing staff. She has a folder that contains papers on how each nurse is progressing from the time they get off orientation. Her motto to the nurses is, “You are good at what you do, so when I coach don’t take offense. I am only trying to get you to be great”. This boost their confidence which I thought to be important.
Your motivation for pursuing a career in the MSN specialty for which you are applying
With an ever-increasing body of knowledge in the field of nursing, more education is being required to enter the field of nursing. Many healthcare institutions are raising the educational requirements in order to become employed or maintain employment in their facilities. Healthcare organizations are transitioning to hiring registered nurses (RN) who have a higher level of education, such as, a graduate from a Baccalaureate Degree Nursing (BSN) program. The goal of these institutions is to have nurses with a broader array of skills that can meet the growing demands of our patient population. BSN prepared nurses are recognized for their well-rounded skills in critical thinking, management, case management and health promotion versus Associate Degree nurses (ADN)/Diploma nurses that focus on direct patient care.
On November 1st, 2016 I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Katherine M. Sawyer RN, BSN of Owosso, Michigan. Katherine, a female nurse who has worked in the nursing field for thirty-six years began her nursing career at Ingham Medical where she was a full-time staff-nurse for three years; then worked as a per-diem staff-nurse for eleven years. After working at Ingham for a total of fourteen years, Katherine obtained a position at Memorial Healthcare in Owosso where she worked as a nurse educator for fifteen years. Shortly after this she became a Basic Life Saving (BLS) instructor as her main role as a nurse educator was to provide nursing orientation and this additional role fit in perfectly. After some time she became involved in Quality Improvement for four years, and she has now switched back to the nurse educator role where she once again has the role of nursing orientation for Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and Patient Care Techs (PCTs). The number of staff she teaches and orientates each month varies between one and ten individuals. She also teaches BLS and First Aid at Baker College of Owosso. Her contact information is as follows: Phone number (989) 413-1974 and e-mail address kmsawyer521@gmail.com. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader of Sawyer’s role in the nursing profession as a nurse leader. Individuals will learn of Sawyer’s many different roles, responsibilities, and the organizational structure of Memorial
I chose to interview a former Director of Nursing of Fayette Medical Center, Ms. Rebekah Logan, MSN, RN. I feel I was lucky to have had the opportunity to work with her, learn from her, and experience her leadership style. Ms. Logan now serves as Chief Nursing Officer at a hospital in North Alabama. She earned her Associate in Science in Nursing in Phil Campbell, Alabama; her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Clayton State College in Morrow, Georgia; and a Masters of Science in Nursing Administration from Georgia College in Milledgeville, Georgia. She has served in executive hospital leadership roles as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer for the past 18 years with Tenet Healthcare, Lifepoint Hospitals.
The role of the master’s prepared nurse is just unlimited and life changing. I do not see just patient care in one specific route, but patient care in numerous ways. It is so diverse that there are numerous opportunities for me to, directly and indirectly, tend to patient care as well as advocate health care. I see more than just the role in providing direct patient care to be the only way to promote health care because a lot of time, the behind the scene people are the people who continuously help spread knowledge and awareness all over the world. There is a range of career roles I could take on such as clinical nurse leaders, nurse educators, and nurse practitioner and they all provide amazing healthcare in their own specific ways. When people hear delivering patient-centered care, all the focus shifts to
Coastal Surgical Institute’s structure provides the Director of Nursing, Nancy Steffora, the freedom and flexibility to attract and hire great staff members. Nancy wears every hat in this small surgery center, but perhaps the most impactful is her implicit title: Director of Human Resources. Nancy is responsible for a strategic hiring process, along with employee retention, training, and conflict resolution. As discussed by Bolman and Deal in the context of managers, Nancy spends much of her time relating to people, whether through face-to-face conversations, meetings, committees, phone calls, or text messages. At CSI, Nancy’s communication is paramount; similarly, Nancy’s round-the-clock commitment to the surgery center sets the tone for the rest of the employees.
There are many different professions that one can choose when entering the healthcare field. Nursing is a very popular and needed profession that is vital to care for patients. For this paper I have chosen to interview my younger cousin who currently works for the VA Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada as a Registered Nurse in the Medical Surgical Unit. I will describe the targeted facility and unit she works for, the type of work done within her unit, any interesting, informative, or specific information related to the chosen unit which makes it unique, and a comprehensive description of my cousin, and her responsibilities.
For my health care interview, I conduct an interview with Ayanna Randle Banks she is Quality Assurance Nurse at Kensington Place located at 3405 S. Michigan, Chicago IL. Kensington Place is a nursing home and rehabilitation facility. She has worked at Kensington Place for three years and was recently promoted to a Quality Assurance Nurse. As a Quality Assurance Nurse, she works to the review of clinical cases that may be related to quality of care issues identified by appeals and grievance process, adverse events occurring in the hospital or an outpatient setting, which provides clinical interventions. She also evaluates the work and behavior of employees in her departments. And also educate other nurses on the best practices and implement innovative procedures to improve the quality of work. This managerial role is often considered to relate more closely to the business side of health services than patient care.
According to my interviewee, the Master’s graduate program as compared to the undergraduate program was more challenging but yet rewarding. This was attributed to the fact that she had a strong passion for informatics and wanted to obtain a higher level of education.
The APN leader interviewed for this paper is a Board Certified Nurse Practitioner (CNP), Chery Arnett works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for Memorial Hospital of Carbondale. She began as a registered nurse in 1981, then in 2001earned her CNP title. She manages and cares for the ill neonate, collaborates with Neonatologist and Pediatricians to improve overall health outcomes. She provides support and assists ventilation, assists with deliveries both “normal” and high risk infants, provides care for the healthy newborns, also providing guidance to parents for caring for the “neonate” or healthy newborns. She is also responsible for assessments, orders, treatment plans, medications, and discharge of the infant. CNP’s provide initial, ongoing and comprehensive care, including managing patients with acute and chronic illness and diseases for both premature infants and term infants.
The interview started with a very common question., to what extent this manager, as a nurse leader ensures nursing staff on the unit support patient centered care of individuals and families whose values differ from their own. If there are some barriers to ensure nursing staff support patient centered care, and how she as a nurse leader can improve patient centered care in her unit. Her plan seems to be very interesting and can be used as a model for other units. She said: “We maintain the same expectations and standard of care
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In the interview the question about any advice she wanted to offer was asked, with a big smile on her face, I am sure, she responded that the field is “wide open” ("Nursing Informatics as a Career," 2011) she continued on to say, if you are a self-starter it
A hospital's human resource department handles hundreds of nursing resumes a week. A good portion of those resumes are for nursing occupations with a hefty percentage of qualifying applicants. A prospective applicant should consider ways to make his or her resume stand out from the rest of the pile. A nursing assistant scans each nursing resume through a computerized database, queries the database based on keywords assigned by the nursing supervisor, and assures that each resume meets the minimal requirements before submitting the winning resumes to the human resource manager for further review. Resumes that do not make it to the human resource manager will receive a rejection notice, or quite possibly hear nothing at all. If the