Reflective Journal Leadership week #16

1.    What did you actually learned from the unit.

a.     I learned that nurses can say “sorry” to their patient without it meaning that they admit fault.  I also learned that risk management involves a lot of investigating and research.  I also learned that to be a risk management nurse that you will probably need a bachelor’s degree.

2.    Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

a.     Paul brought up a very good point during the discussion that the patient shouldn’t have been put in a room so far away from the nurse’s station because it made it more difficult to check on him and respond to any issues. It makes a lot of sense.  I just didn’t think of it.  No one in my group, including myself, was sure about the extent of the legal ramifications.

3.    How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

a.    I’m going to start saying sorry to my patients about all sorts of stuff.  In the past I’ve been very hesitant to say anything that may implicate myself, but now that I can say sorry without worrying about that, I think it will make me and the patient’s feel better.  A lot of the time patients are upset about things that are not my fault and I’m afraid if I say “I’m sorry” that they will think it is my fault, but I think that sometimes they just want someone to hear them, apologize, and fix the situation. 

4.    You personal feelings about the material covered.

a.     Risk management seems like it could be a stressful, but also exciting job.  Not a job I would be ready to take on anytime soon, but I think that it is important for nurses to understand how to avoid events from happening.  

Reflective journal leadership week 15

1. What did you actually learned from the unit.

I learned how important it is for nurse leaders to have soft skills to be able to effective communicate and motivate employees.  I also learned how important is can be to take feed back from employees through employee satisfaction surveys to avoid high turnover.  

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

I thought that there were a lot of good and diverse suggestions for the motivation discussion.  I was a little frustrated with the collective bargaining discussion because my team members were slow/reluctant to participate.  I think it may have been because there was some confusion about the assignment, but I'm not certain.  I thought the collective bargaining assignment was awesome!  I love math and being able to figure out real life problems with formulas and mathematics.  

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

If I ever decide to go on strike, I will be able to calculate the cost.  I'll also be better able to assess problems and motivate the CNAs I work with so that we can work better together as a team to give better care to our patients.  

4. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I think that knowing how to motivate someone is an extremely valuable skill to have as a as a nurse. I can educate my patients all I want on eating healthy, exercising, and using the IS until I'm blue in the face.  But it doesn't make a lot of difference unless they are motivated to do those things.  Sometimes it is very difficult to figure out what motivates certain people.

Reflective Journal Leadership Week 14

1.   What did you actually learned from the unit?

a.     I learned the difference between assertive and aggressive communication.  I also learned about how to be a good listener and how to improve my listening skills.  I also learned a little bit about work unions and some of the pros and cons of belonging to one.

2.   Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

a.     We pretty much agreed on everything.  I did enjoy reading the ideas from my teammates, and they brought up very good points.  But I still think that my definitions were the best.

3.   How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

a.     I will definitely try to take a moment before I open my mouth to make sure I am using assertive and not aggressive communication.  I come from a family where a lot of the communication is emotionally driven so I need to be extra careful to make sure that I avoid aggressive communication that is emotionally driven. 

4.   Your personal feelings about the material covered.

a.     I think that the material about being a good listener and communicator are such vital and important skills to have, not just as a nurse, but as a human being.  Good communication and negotiation skills can serve you well in basically every aspect of your life. 

Leadership Reflective Journal week 13

1. What did you actually learned from the unit.

I learned that there is a lot I do not know about developing a strategic marketing growth plan for a healthcare system.  I learned about how a company's values and beliefs can influence how the company functions and is marketed.  I also learned how difficult it can be when company and personal values conflict.

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

I thought the strategic planning activity was a little bit difficult because I couldn't get my team member to communicate or participate in our portion of the activity.  It was also difficult because there was a lot of information I wish I had to make decisions that wasn't available.  For the discussion, my team members did come up with some ideas that i hadn't thought of, but mostly we all agreed.

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

In my nursing practice I will use this information to try and understand why certain changes and planning is important so that I can better support those who are trying to make these types of decisions.  

4. You personal feelings about the material covered.

I think that the information that we covered is extremely important to make a successful healthcare system work and grow.  I feel that it would take a lot of research to be able to make good decisions to create strategic marketing growth.

Leadership Reflective Journal eek 12

1.   What did you actually learned from the unit.

a.     I learned about how to look at change is a positive way.  I also learned how to help change go smoothly in a nursing environment.  I also learned about budgeting in a non-healthcare environment.

2.   Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

a.     One thing I learned from the team is that education helps a lot when it comes to change.  Other than that the team agreed on most everything for the discussion.

3.   How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

a.     I will try to do a better job of looking for signs of change in my nursing environment so that I can prepare and adapt for it. 

4.   You personal feelings about the material covered.

a.     I think that learning how to positively deal with change is one of the more valuable skills an individual can have.  I enjoyed the challenge to do something different this week.  This week I started swimming for part of my workout instead of just running and weightlifting.  I really enjoyed it and I will now work in swimming into my regular workout routine.

Bedgeting Interview

             For this assignment I interviewed my husband, Benjamin Dailey.  He works at Intel as a financial analyst.  It was interesting to hear about his work and perspective on budgeting.  One thing he told me that I thought was interesting was that the budget is always wrong.  And that no matter how carefully you plan, there is no way to predict the future so you just have to do the best you can.  Another thing I thought was interesting is that he said that it is not always a good thing to come in under budget, especially with companies like Intel.  When Intel comes in under budget it means that there are millions of dollars sitting in the bank not being utilized, which is a huge waist since it could have been invested into something else to make more money.  One of the questions our team came up with was “How much flexibility do you allow in your budget?”  And my husband said “plus or minus 5 million dollar.”  I can’t even imagine having to deal with such big numbers that 5 million in your buffer.  But I guess that’s what happens when the annual budget is about 8 billion.  Even though I wouldn’t want to be responsible for such a large budget, it was very educational to talk with Ben about his experiences. 

Reflective Journal Leadership Week 10

1.   What did you actually learned from the unit.

a.     I learned about the different techniques and way that there are to schedule healthcare facilities, the pro and cons, and how some may work better for different facilities. 

2.   Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

a.     Mt feelings on the subject didn’t really change.  I did think it was interesting to see how different facilities put their schedules and staffing together. 

3.   How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

a.     It is always good to reflect on the long term career goals.  It is easy to become comfortable in a specific job and forget about what your goals are.  The career goals discussion will help motive me to enroll in language classes after finishing the BSN program.

4.   You personal feelings about the material covered.

a.   I think that staffing and scheduling can be an exhausting job.  I’ve never done it for a healthcare facility, but I did have to do it with teachers at schools in China and Mexico and it is impossible to make everyone happy all the time.  I think it is wise to focus on what is best for the unit rather than what is fair.