Clincals Week 2

I did my second week of clinicals with O.C. this week. Just a reminder, he is the director of a surgical floor and a rehab floor at Cook Children's. I spent a total of 8 hours on Monday 9/21 and Wednesday 9/23. We spent one day looking at the budget and discussing how the departments were each doing financially. We also discussed how he deals with staff, nurse managers, physicians, and other administrators. I found all of this information very useful. Just this year, I took a promotion to Clinical Coordinator in the Endocrinology Clinic at Cook Children's. This position functions a lot like a nurse manager in the clinic setting. I have never been in a management position before, so I am very green when it comes to knowing how to manage people at times. I hope that I can take a lot of great lessons away from this clinical experience.
I also was able to sit in on a meeting with the nurse managers from the surgical floor. They discussed quality projects, unit initiatives and also some of the unit problems. I think from this meeting, I have identified an idea for my Change Paper. So far, this has been a very good experience.

Clinicals Week 1

I found a great preceptor. O.C. is the director of a surgical floor and a rehab floor at Cook Children's hospital. He is a BSN nurse and he also has his MBA. I spent my first clinical day with him on 9/14/09. I spent 3 hours during the day and 2.5 hours in the evening, for a total of 5.5 hours. We went to a hospital wide directors' meeting that was for informational purposes. O.C. ran this meeting and directors from all different departments shared information that would be useful hospital wide. This included IS, ED, and Occupational Health, to name just a few. The meeting was very informative. We then went to a pain meeting, where they discussed pain protocols used at Cook Children's. Many changes were decided upon at this meeting. That evening, I joined in at the Family Advisory Council meeting. This meeting was so great. It involved parents and employees of Cook Children's. They created this council so that parents could get involved in making Cook Children's a better place for patients and families and to take suggestions on making their approach more family centered.
O.C. had a very busy day and I loved it. I feel like I am seeing a completely different side of nursing!