Nursing Leadership Reflections

This week I learned about how to care for a patient who needs to be physically restrained. We were presented with the following case study and asked several questions about what we would do after the situation and what we would do in the future to prevent similar situations. " A 27 year old male patient was brought to the emergency department (ED) by paramedics.  The Patient was intoxicated, agitated and aggressive. The patient was a frequent flyer in the ED. The patient's behavior limited the RN and ED staff from completing a comprehensive initial assessment. For the patient's safety. Four point physical restraints were orders by the ED Physician.  The RN requested that ED security apply the restraints, in accordance with hospital policy. Policy dictated that security preform a check of the patient for contraband. The RN assigned the patient to a quiet seclusion room to decrease stimulation.  The hope was to allow the patient to sleep and clam the patient. Per ...

1.  What did you actually learn  from the unit. This unit we learned about ways to motivate staff. I'm going to put down ideas I had and then other ideas my team had that stood out to me:  7 part program: Patient Award System: Nurse recognition/CNA recognition cards are available for patients to fill out to thank nurses and CNAs for their care. Supervisor Thank You System: Supervisors that have visited patients on their rounds and heard positive comments from the patients about the nurses/CNAs can award these nurses with a “Dollar Thank You Buck”. These “Bucks” can be turned in for gift cards. Unit Award System: Awards can be given from the nursing director and nursing supervisors to employees that have gone above and beyond/have done an exceptional job. These awards would be given at monthly staff meetings; 1 nurse and 1 CNA would be chosen each month. This would include a thank you card with examples of exemplary performance and include 2 movie tickets. Employ...

This week we learned about conflict resolution. We got to watch a movie called The Guardian, a show I'd never heard of before. I rented it from Amazon as I had problems accessing it through the UVU Fulton Library. It cost $4 to rent and it worked well with no lags and it was a great movie. There were several examples of conflict and conflict resolution. Here are some of the lessons of positive conflict resolution I learned from the movie:  Having patience and tolerance and cooling off instead of reacting and doing something “stupid”. When Kevin Costner had the students experience hypothermia and the director of the program approached Kevin...the director asked why this exercise wasn’t approved by him first...that hypothermia was just meant to be taught in the classroom. Kevin briefly took a moment to explain why he was teaching it the way he was (all the while going through hypothermia with is students). The director seemed to understand. Kevin spoke to the director calmly and ...

This week we learned about strategic planning, which I oddly enjoyed. I did research on what nursing needs are in Utah and what healthcare providers are needed in Utah Valley. I found a lot of information that I would like to keep in this journal: The current Master Degrees I found it Utah are the following: Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo M.S. Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Independence University (merged with Stevens-Henager College) in Salt Lake M.S. in Health Services-Health Promotion M.S. in Nurse Education M.S. in Nursing Administration University of Utah (U of U) in Salt Lake M.S. in Nursing Informatics M.S. in Nursing Education M.S. in Care Management M.S. in Gerontology Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem M.S. in Nursing Education Weber State University in Ogden M.S. in Nursing Education M.S. in Nursing Administration Westminster College in Salt Lake M.S. Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) M.S. in...

This week I enjoyed reading "Who Moved My Cheese". Here's the link:  http://jef.mentalis.org/hersenspinsels/downloads/WhoMovedMyCheese_DrSpencerJohnson.pdf The story is about two mice named Sniff and Scurry, and two tiny humans named Hem and Haw. They live in a maze and have to find their source of cheese in the maze. There are sections in the maze that have large amounts of cheese. Once they found a large amount of cheese in Section C, they made their home in that area and didn't wander far from Section C. As the supply of cheese slowly dwindled, Sniff sensed that soon the cheese would be gone and he'd/they would need to move on. Scurry was quick to follow the change. Haw was slow to adapt to change, but once it made sense to go with the change he did. Hem was stubborn and refused the change.  Sniff and Scurry left long before Haw and Hem and were able to find another large source of cheese. Haw eventually left the comfort of his "home" and went in...