Graduation Time

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone your graduation. If anyone has been in my shoes this has been a struggle for me with personal issues and family. I wish everyone luck with future endeavors and it has been a pleasure to take this class.

APIC

Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) is to improve health and patient safety by reducing risks of infection and other adverse outcomes. The association primary responsibility for infection prevention, control and hospital epidemiology in healthcare settings around the globe. A majority of the ambulatory care service centers are now required to become members of this organization. Along with this the government has set aside $50 million dollars to go in and fix the infection control breaches in such facilities. This is a good deed for patients and healthcare workers.

Management

Nurse managers should evaluate their management skills and take continuing education courses to improve their skills. They must listen carefully to staff concern and represent staff associates' wishes to top management. As you can see communication skills are very important to me. I feel that if I can communicate effectively I can conquer some of my fears of nursing.

Communication

I have learned that communication is important at all leadership levels. For this reason, it is important for nurse leaders to understand the communication process, to be able to identify barriers to communication. I believe that this is an important skill for any nurses to have and doing the change project I did lots of interviews and had to communicate with staff members of all levels.

This Semester.....

This semester I have learned a lot in this class especially how technology effects the nursing profession and also how evidence-based practice can influence the safety and outcome of patient care and how it can overall make us better nurses. I will never forget in an article I read recently regarding evidence-based practice. The author stated, "Always be able to answer why you do what you in nursing." That statement will always stick with me and that's a question I will ask myself often.

Change Project/Paper

Well I am excited to say that as result of my change project in the endo center nursing home patients will no longer be seen in this facility. It wasmainly due to the surveillance screening project that I did for my project. It was found that there was no way to get accurate information on these patients prior to procedures and they were not properly prepped. The decision stemmed from the lack of safety for the staff and other patients and family members that were at risk of being unknowingly exposed to contagious diseases. However, these patients will be referred to inpatient facilities.

Professional Nurse

I am very excited to be receiving my BSN. I have been through trials and tribulations to get here. I am sad to say it is not going to make a difference at my present job. They do not recognize the difference in degrees. I know that if I wanted to pursue other opportunities such as management, I am now able to do so without an employer questioning my education. For me, getting my BSN is a stepping to stone to the master's program and I am able to apply to the nurse practitioner program. I am honeslty taking away new information that I can use and apply in my career and I do not regret one day of it.

Infection Control in healthcare facilities

In the midst of doing research for my change project I find that many incidences involving infection control could have been easily prevented. Everyday hospital leaders choose what to spend their money on. They choose to give raises for administrators, build a parking lot and even build a new wing for the facility. The choice to implement infection control is often overlooked. Infection control is a fundamental issue of safety. As health care workers we must be the group that makes this happen better yet, demand that it happens. Prevention can only occur when top leaders target zero as their goal, invest in their infection control programs to assure the resources need for optimal programs.

This is a very serious issue. I have been reading lately of how physicians and nurses are reusing syringes and needles on patients. We know way better than this. This a scary thought that people would risk your life in this way. This is the reason why some people have little trust in the health care system. We must do better to protect our patience and ourselves.

Close to the End

My preceptorship has not been exactly what I expected it to be. However, I have observed from her perspective of what it takes to be an effective leader and have staff and others respect you. I have been working hard on this change paper/project and I feel that was good experience. Having wrapped up a Intervention project in another class was quite an experience. I was interacting with 6th graders.
During this preceptorship I have learned to be a better communicator with staff members. I feel that if you have an open door policy for your staff you will be respected a lot more. The staff will feel that they can to you and get help to solve the problem. During my experience with this semester, I have been convinced that I can go further and pursue my dreams of being a nurse practitioner. I think there are a few things that I have to work on but I can overcome this obstacle. I have learned so much this last semester and I think that it will make me a better nurse. Being introduced to evidence-based practice I look at situations with a different perspective. I will always ask myself and be able to explain: "Why do you do what you do as a nurse?"

Hello,

My preceptor and I have been discussing the change project. I'm precepting in an endoscopy center so it was kind of difficult to come up with something. The major problem in endoscopy is infection control. It has been in the news for the past 4-6 months now. The VA hospital in Miami found that the scopes were not being properly cleaned and patients have been allegedly infected with Hep C, HIV, amongs other infections. A privately owned clinic in Las Vegas found that an Anesthesiologist was reusing syringes even though he changes out the needles were infecting patients with Hep C. As i continue read on the affects of infection control in outpatient setting I have decided to do what my preceptor and I called surveillance screening on nursing home patients.

Nursing home patients have procedures in outpatients faclilities and their only historians are their nursing aides. Althought they may have been working with that patient they don't know all the information we need in order to properly care for the patient. I have noticed that the nursing home patients come to the center with wounds that we were not informed about in the pre-op assessment. They have hx of MRSA,VRE, Hep C, Swine flu,C-diff amongst other infections that are not revealed.

My plan is to do surveillance screening on recent infections of nursing home patients prior to procedures.This is for the safety of the staff and to decrease the chances of the patient passing the infection on to staff and other families waiting for their procedures. The outcome of this is to wean out these patients and to ultimately be able to implement this into policy. These patients would not be able to have procedures done in an outpatient setting. The reasoning behind this is because outpatient facilities are not always able to follow these patients and they may not have a procedure done in this particular facility again.

Nsg Journal Blog

This post is actually for last week. The place where I chose to do my preceptorship is actually a little different from most of yours. I go to an endoscopy center. My preceptor is very autonomous. Her meetings usually consist of emails and phone conferences. She has quarterly staff meetings to keep up to date on what's going on in the facility and the endocopy world. Today, I witnessed her doing payroll, submit invoices to corporate so they can approve the bills that she has to pay. She had short meetings with vendors to discuss contracts for supplies they use for the center. There was a patient complaint regarding the copay that the patient was required to pay and she didn't have the money. My preceptor had to get approval from the doctor and was willing to make payment arrangements so the patient can have her procedure done. In today's healthcare I think a majority of patients would have been cancelled and/or rescheduled to come back when they had the money together. My preceptor has her BSN and a MBA, she states, "with my MBA I'm not limited to bedside care. " This makes since because bedside care can cause burnout to some and this cushion can give you peace of mind.

Leadership

The preceptor I shadow is more of a leader than manager. She doesn't micromanage. She encourage her staff to do the job that they know how to do. Her attitude to me is: if you need me for something I'm here otherwise do your job. If there are problems that needs to be handled she is there in a hurry. I admire her as well because is hands on 50% of the time to show the staff that's she is dedicated and she's know their job as well as her own.