Regisered+Nurse+Interview

REGISTERED NURSE INTERVIEW

Education Consultant, Education Services

Genesis Healthcare System

By John Gordon College of Nursing East Tennessee State University

JD (fictitious ID for privacy) is a full time RN with Genesis Health Care System, Zanesville, OH, where she has been for the last eleven years. JD is an Education Consultant and American Heart Association Course Director for Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). This position requires a BSN and the following certifications: AHA approved instructor for ACLS and CPR as well as Emergency Nurse Association approved instructor for Trauma Nurse Core Courses. The staff educator makes sacrifices for the role due the number of hours spent training others as opposed to being at the patient’s bed side. JD was forced to let her Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) certification lapse due the very strict clinical hour requirements of the AACN.

Her typical schedule is Monday-Friday, 8am – 5pm, but she is frequently in as early as 3 am in order to meet the needs of the night shift. JD is a highly experienced nurse who has served for the past eleven years with Genesis Healthcare and the previous three years in house-wide education. She has also been a Critical Care educator for four years, clinical coordinator in Critical Care for four years, and has also served on active duty with the Army Nurse Corps with two years in Critical Care and two years in Oncology.

In JD's current role, she is involved in nursing education starting when nurses enter the facility on through their retirement or transition to another employer. She works with recently graduated nurses on basic skills and development including their own self-development outside of work. JD stresses to new nurses that you can’t learn everything you need to know in the 8 or 12 hour shift. There must be study and research outside of work. As new nurses begin serving in their assigned position, she works with them to develop educational opportunities starting in their current position. As nurses progress, she then works to develop additional educational opportunities, such as patient care for the critically ill, neurosurgery, pacemaker employment, pulmonary artery catheters, etc.

For the staff as a whole, JD develops and delivers education on any competency needs identified within the facility. Some of the specific areas are: ABG Analysis, basic and advanced 12 lead classes including how to recognize and manage STEMI, ACLS courses for nurses, respiratory therapists and MD’s which includes trauma courses, as well as basic life support. One of her very important roles is to hold “hands-on” competencies annually for high risk, low volume procedures which ensure the hospital system can provide a wide range of care procedures even in rare cases.

JD also encourages staff nurses to obtain appropriate certifications and aids them in attaining these. She is proud to note the she has “coached (the) staff for a very respectable pass rate for Critical Care Registered Nurse and Progressive Care Certified Nurse.” Throughout all of this, she also finds time to encourage the staff to obtain further education including higher level education.

Finally, MD duties also involve training paramedics in Muskingum County, Ohio. A key area is that paramedics must not only recognize STEMI but also to activate a STEMI alert appropriately. This allows the cardiac cath lab team to be prepared immediately upon patient arrival. This minimizes door to revascularization time and improves overall patient outcomes.

Regarding health promotions, risk reduction, and disease prevention are continuous with hospital staff education, JD says, “In all of my classes we include this in reference to educating the patient about these important items. On a personal note I volunteer for the hospital and in the community at health fairs and wellness screenings.”

When asked about today’s greatest challenges to nurses today she noted two great concerns. First, that there are many people entering nursing; including those as a 2nd or 3rd career; who do not have the innate desire to help others, compassion for patients, and/or the critical thinking skills to provide the level of care patients need. Secondly, patients are getting larger and sicker, which makes the demands on nursing that much harder. JD and I used to discuss how a decade or two earlier many of today’s critical care patients would have already died except for recent advances. An important lesson here is that if one is entering nursing for the wrong reasons, not only will you be unhappy but good people could be hurt.

JD’s advice to the new nursing student: “Take every opportunity to learn then try your hardest to retain what you have learned and apply it. Being a nurse does not stop when you clock out at the end of the day. In order to provide the best nursing care possible and have the knowledge to care for your patients, it does take time outside of work to develop yourself. Honesty always prevails- even if you have made a mistake, own up to it and learn from it. It may help someone in the future from making the same mistake. You are not going to know everything when you leave nursing school so it is very helpful to ask questions, pick people’s brain when appropriate, look up info on-line, etc. Be familiar with and follow your hospital policies- they are there for a reason. The learning never stops. When you feel that you know everything about nursing, it is time to leave the profession. That is the great thing about the profession; it is always changing and improving.”

I also asked JD for advice for a newly graduated nurse taking on a first position. First, she says you don’t have to start off big and that Med-Surg is great place to get the basics of patient care, time management, calling the doctor, etc. “The nurses with Med-Surg experience are some of the most clinically well-rounded nurses I have worked with,” says JD. Second, you must also continuously educate yourself and never wait for someone to approach you with an educational opportunity. Third, you must be a patient advocate because the patient will not know that something is going wrong. “If you have a feeling that something is not right, it probably isn’t; trust your gut.” An MD might yell at you once in a while but such events will become distant memories. What you will not forget are the bad outcomes of your patients if you fail to meet your responsibilities. JD says that it’s “kind of like the military, we as nurses are here to protect and serve the patients who are in need of care. They put their life in our hands and trust us to do the right thing, every time.” Lastly, the MD is not always right. The more you educate yourself the better you will able help both the MD and the patient. “If you approach an MD about a potential error they may be making, a patient care issue, concern, etc in an educated and unthreatening manner, you will forever earn their respect,” says JD.

I have had the pleasure to know JD since about 2002. I am also one of those she took to time to educate from time to time although she did not have to. She lives what she says and leads those around her to improve a little every day. Because of this, JD was one of several nurses who inspired me to make the decision to become a nurse.

For more information about a Genesis Health Care Systems, please see: [|http://www.genesishcs.org]