I decided to interview Yolanda Aaron, RN-MSN, MA for the purpose of this paper, because I believe Mrs. Aaron is a great leader amongst the nurse managers at Central DuPage Hospital. I was introduced to Mrs. Aaron by a close friend who was praised so highly of her skills and willingness to help others. Mrs. Aaron has demonstrated compassion with the patients, their families, and employees. She has an open door policy, welcoming communication among the employees in her cardiac, step-down unit, in order to have a copasetic environment. She is an extremely resourceful and patient person, always demonstrating the essence of a nursing leader. She has spent the last twenty years of her career as a nurse and the last ten years as a nurse manager. Mrs. Aaron has spent most of her years in the medical surgical unit. She states she fell in love with her current practice as well as her patients. Mrs. Aaron believes that being a leader and nurse manager is a selfless act. “It’s about being able to not only care about the delivery of phenomenal bedside care, health management, and communication; but it requires patience, guidance, and trust.” She stated, “Trust is important to establish with the patients and employees. The employees need to feel that they can trust their manager to listen to their work issues, suggestions for improvements, and acknowledgement for co-workers who are going above the call of duty.” Mrs. Aaron is a visionary, and believes that it is
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.
The nurse I chose to interview has been a family friend for a while, as she has worked closely with my mother for several years. She is the first nurse I met when I decided I was interested in going into the nursing field, and she is actually the person who encouraged me to apply to Truman State University’s nursing program. I was confident that she would be able to share her capacity of nursing knowledge and wisdom with me when I asked if I could interview her. I will expand on our interview which took place in her office at work throughout the next couple of pages, and to keep confidentiality, I will allude to her by her initials, J.W.
Prior to her current role, she worked as an Assistant Director of Nursing for over 5 years at Sun Air Convalescent Hospital and a Sub-Acute coordinator for 1 year. She has been working now at Berkley Valley Convalescent Hospital as Director of Nursing for over 20
For this assignment, I had the opportunity to interview Samantha Hage De Reyes, family nurse practitioner, currently working at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) Health Center in Riverside, CA. Family nurse practitioners are described as health professionals with analytic skills for evaluating and providing evidence-based, patient-centered care across settings, and advanced knowledge of the health care delivery system (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy & O’Grady, 2014). My objective was to ask a series of questions pertaining to the role of a family nurse practitioner, challenges concerning this nursing role, opinions regarding the future of family nurse practitioners, and more. This interview was conducted over the phone, and it was a valuable opportunity to learn more about what it means to be a family nurse practitioner and to start thinking about what I want to achieve in my own
There are many challenges facing today’s nursing leaders and managers. From staffing and scheduling, to budget cuts and reduced reimbursements, today’s nursing leaders must evolve to meet the ever changing health care environment. Constance Schmidt, Chief Nursing Officer at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC), identified retaining experienced registered nurses (RN) as one of the biggest problems she faces as a nursing leader. She went on to state “Nationally, most hospitals have more than 60% of their nurses with at least 5 years of experience. At CRMC, it’s the reverse. We have more than 60% of our nurses with less than 5 years of experience” (personal communication, March 28, 2014). The two largest factors affecting those numbers are the nursing shortage and nursing retention. The first, the nursing shortage, was identified years ago and has been researched countless times. Some projections indicate the number representing the gap between available registered nurses, and the positions needing to be filled, could be over a million before the end of the current decade. The latter, retention of nurses, is a problem in every health care facility in the nation. Nursing turnover results in both a significant financial cost to hospitals, and a significant impact on the community through its effects on patient outcome.
I have scheduled an interview and time to observe a nurse leader with the Director of Nursing (DON) for the Virginian Nursing and Rehab facility in Fairfax, Virginia for Thursday October 2, 2014 at 7:30am. I plan on spending a full eight-hour shift with the nurse leader observing the following three leadership activities: 1) Observing her making rounds on the units 2) Observing and or participating in a nursing leadership meeting and 3) Observing the facility’s interdisciplinary team meeting.
This Nursing leadership interview was conducted with Gessy Targete-Johnson, who is currently the Director of Nursing Family Birthplace at Memorial Miramar Hospital. I decided to conduct my interview on her, due to the fact that this is a career goal I wish to accomplish. She has been in the Nursing Field for over 25 years. Gessy decided to enter the nursing field because, she has compassion for others and she wanted to make a difference in lives. She started out as a Labor & Delivery Nurse in 1991, she later went on to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing, followed by her Master’s Degree immediately after. Gessy thrives on being productive, and she quickly learned the meaning of the word perseverance. In 2001, she was promoted to Nurse Manager in Labor & Delivery, and worked in that position for 8 years. While maintaining an active role in this area, she also went back to school for her ARNP license. In 2009, she became the Director of Nursing Family Birthplace at Memorial Miramar Hospital.
Slide 1: The expectations of nurses today are higher than ever with goals such as achieving top percentiles in nursing and patient satisfaction, to being among the top leaders in quality outcomes, and to build productive work relationships and environments. Nursing leaders serve as the primary link between staff, physicians, and the community. They are expected to be innovative, highly skilled, possess a certain degree of nursing knowledge, and produce qualified individuals to care for the growing population. According to Lorber, Treven, and Mumel (2016) “nursing leadership is pivotal because nurses represent the most extensive discipline in health care”. Because of this growing need for diversity in leadership and my background in the military, I decided to focus on the MSN Executive Track at Chamberlain College of Nursing.
Being a leader in the profession of nursing requires pride and dedication to the nursing career path. This is why I decided to conduct my interview with Pamela Prefontaine, a leader in the nursing field. Prefontaine graduated from Bellin School of Nursing in 1982. She then went on to get her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1990 from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. Prefontaine then graduated from the Milwaukee School of Engineering in 2009 with a master’s degree in medical informatics. Prefontaine was the team leader of pediatrics at Bellin from 2001-2007. She has also been a team leader of a medical and surgical floor at Bellin also. Furthermore, Prefontaine was also the assistant director of the NICU at Saint Vincent’s Hospital. She currently is a consultant for informatics.
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
Interviewing a nurse leader was a great opportunity to learn what is encompassed in what a nurse leader is as well as what they are responsible for. It was very eye opening to see how important is it to have these nurse leaders in our places of employment. They encourage a smooth workflow, and make sure the employees work in a cohesive unit. They set a great example for individuals to look up to and follow to be a better nurse, and provide the best care. It is important for everyone to strive to have these qualities and values, as the opportunity to become a leader could present itself at
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.
I chose to interview Mrs. Banks for a number of reasons; she is my former sister-in-law and has a worked hard to become a nurse. Mrs. Banks dropped out of high school at the age of 16 years old and also had her first child. She went back to school and got her GED and she later went to Dawson Technical Institute of Kennedy-King College and graduated and received a certificate as a Licensed Practical Nurse. As a LPN she worked to compile patient health information, take vital signs, administered medication and monitored frequency and amounts, provided personal
A transformational leadership style along with good communication skills can be used to manage the multiples issues Hartland Memorial faces. “Transformational leadership involves anticipating future trends, inspiring followers to understand and embrace a new vision of possibilities, developing others to be leaders, and reward learners” (Hellriegal & Slocum, 2009, p. 301). Elizabeth and her associates should have the necessary qualities of a transformational leader; integrity, accountability, and motivation, so the staff can identify with them. The nurse manager could give nurses opportunities to demonstrate and experience leadership in their profession on a regular basis. Effective leadership is critical in delivering high quality care; equally
In the healthcare field, nursing leaders and managers face consistent issues in their respective practices that force them to alter the way they work and the way they think. In taking on a role as a leader within the field, nursing leaders and managers also take on the role of ensuring that work within an organization runs smoothly regardless of new issues that may arise in the healthcare arena. For instance, in today's healthcare environment, the issues of nurse shortage and nurse turnover have the capacity to alter the healthcare field and many of its respective branches and organizations should these problems not be managed properly by the leaders in the field. In viewing the issue at hand and in discovering how nursing leaders and managers are expected to act, and do act, in order to approach this issues, along with pinpointing the best approach possible to aid this issue, one can better understand which leadership styles are necessary for leaders to function.