Journal 6

Journal
This week was very exciting with my preceptor. This was the first time we had our clinical on Friday. There is always something new learn from her. She is a very busy but focused person who tries to meet her goals in spite of the side distractions. She makes room for all the side distractions. She first went through her emails and talked through it with me. She told me of section on her mails classified as "You have a task". This include request from staff on pay change, bonus, change of status and budgeting. J.M. needs to approve or disapprove the request. She further explained that any supplies over $100.00 amount must be approved by her. She stated that this helps her to keep her eyes on everything that is going on. She made calls right away as she read the emails. J.M termed this as real multitasking. On Fridays she goes over her daily calendar with her- to-do list to see what she might have missed during the week. She prepares for the following weeks meeting and her agenda as well. She also talked about the directors meeting the following week.
J.M had a phone meeting with the chief medical staff in charge of surgery about a corrective measure to prevent it from happening again. After that we went for the usual staff meeting and walked around med-surge 5, surgery, endoscopy, Human resources and ER. At surgery she had a brief meeting with the director of surgery concerning staff not clocking in for lunch breaks. She expressed to the director nobody is clocking at her department. She feels every staff should take her lunch break, clock out and in. J.M. insisted that is required by policy to punch in/out for lunch. They want to improve healthy staff environment, she further stated that this change is prevalent now. She asked the director what she can do differently for staff at surgery to take lunch. After that, she explained the impact of staff no clocking in for lunch on budget. It also increases FTE (Full Time Equivalent), which she stated is the number of hours a employee works. She further explained a couple of key figures one has to know with FTE. She lives with this number all the time in order not to go over budget. If the FTE goes over, she needs to justify that over hours she used. She also mentioned EEPOB (Employee Equivalent per occupied bed) which is a formula they used based on inpatient/out -patient factor to help them stay within their budget. She concluded that nursing hours per day is where the productivity falls and managing is all about budgeting. Budgeting include operating services, staffing and supplies. The CNO has a developmental plan that builds and helps some of the directors who has budgeting as a weakness. They also offer continues education on budgeting for them. She said developed her budgeting skills over time along with her experience from holding different managerial positions. This really changed my attitude towards clocking in for lunch. Somebody has to render accounts for all the hours used in the hospital. She also told me that she wants to develop an oncology floor and was in the processes of contacting other people for resources to help with this new vision.
Finally I commended her ability of knowing most of the staff and the way she greets and interacts with them during the day. I shared with a comment made by one of from my course mates; "a CNO greeting all the time, she might have a huge morale". She replied that during her nursing days she never got to see the CNO or her manager but it is important for her to talk to people, happiness comes from following your passion. She stated that when she is over stressed, talking and touching people motivate her to keep up with whatever she is doing. She ended that this helps in building good staffing and good resources.