Journal 5

This week my clinical experience was a different learning experience. My preceptor was putting together data for the Divisional meeting organized once a year on strategic budget planning. She explained that she has to master different data such as surgery turn over, nursing turn over, and falls in strategic budget planning as well as defending the budget in from of the board of trustees. She was trying to round up with the Nursing Directors who have not submitted their report. My preceptor advocates for nursing. The Director of med-surgical submitted staffing proposal and explained why it is important to reduce ratios with fall data, patient satisfaction, capital dollar request, budget on the needs of the floor and historical data on what was spent last year. I realized that it is not an easy task to reduce ratios because I used to think it was so easy for the manager to do that. We nurses always say that management does not care; why can’t they cut the patient-nurse ratio? It really involves lots of facts and data.
We attended the morning staff meeting and discussed some issues on misunderstanding with transfers of staffing to other floors, discussed present census, discharges, transfers, assigned transfers, available beds and other clinical issues. After that we made our usual rounds, stopped at women services, ICU, Endoscopy and then at the director of operations to see how they were doing. During the rounds my preceptor greeted any person she came across and also helped visitors to find their way. We also attended a confidential meeting and she explained to me the importance of confidentiality of that meeting.
After that, we went through the SPAE program. SPAE is an acronym for serious preventable adverse event. The SPAE includes UTI, pressure ulcers, DVT, and falls which could be prevented during the hospital stay. She instructed me on how to fill an incident report. She also had a meeting with the risk manager over the phone. The risk manager is new to the position, so my preceptor went over some of her roles with her. The preceptor needed the risk manager to consider staffing to analyze and prepare data on falls. My preceptor and the risk manager discussed programs to help reduce falls, and they also talked a little bit about peer review.
I also attended a meeting with my preceptor, VP of human resources, Director of education with one of the trainers for this LPI (Leadership Practice Inventory) Training .The trainer explained the importance of the workshop. The trainer talked about five practices of exemplary leadership; Model the Way, Inspire, Enable others To Act, Encourage the Heart, A Share Vision, and Challenge the Process. He further explained that the sections will engage the leaders to think on higher levels and also challenge workers who are not happy to work to work better. It will help them make decisions for themselves by asking yourself, how you see yourself at work, are you On purpose, Prison or a passenger. He identifies training development for trainers that will help them develop job skills. management performance and leadership job skills performance. The trainer again suggested adding an additional training matrix which is moving people to purpose. He gave them books to read and offered me one. VP of human recourses added that good effective management comes from good leadership and developing your leadership skills makes a difference in an organization. They all applauded the strategy and discussed the implementation of the workshop.
This was a challenging week and learning experience that increased my skills and knowledge in nursing. I am so grateful to have her as my preceptor.