Two for the Price of One

Week 2: June 14-20th

This week I began my clinical experience. My preceptor is Rosemary an RN with a Masters in Public Health. She oversees the Wellness for Life center of a hospital in downtown Fort Worth. This includes the mobile health clinics that are used to serve the community and provide health fairs for corporations. She also oversees health fairs and a few other outpatient clinical sites at the hospital itself.

Rosemary was my first choice in preceptor because I am interested in community health. In my past experience, I have worked with FNPs who developed and operated mobile health clinics to serve people in outlying areas without access to care. I wanted to know what was involved in the management of this type of service.

I had 2 clinical days this week one in the office and one in the field. The day in the office I observed Rosemary work on time and resource management. We also had a meeting about Magnet re-certification. As part of the Magnet preparation, we realized the unit needed to document it's CI project and form a functioning UBC. The problem is that the "unit" (the people who make the unit) are mobile. I proposed a mobile UBC. I am developing a blog UBC, where the unit can access the information from UBC and submit comments while in the field. Within the blog, I will document the CI project that they have been working on, meeting the two goals for Magnet preparation.

My second day was at a corporate health fair where they were performing men's health screenings for employees. The focus was on early detection, education, and encouraging regular PCP visits while building hospital loyalty. I spent most of my day with Gayle an RN with a Masters in Nursing Education who was helping Rosemary. Gayle runs the prostate cancer education center and is the head of the nursing research board for the facility.

Gayle talked to me in depth about the behind the scenes funding that goes on in our facility. She was a wealth of information about the politics in funding. She also shared her passion for prostate cancer and men's health. I watched as she educated the men, using EBP, with the most current information available on prostate cancer. She also shared how she is working to develop a new service for patients who are diagnosed with lung cancer.

At the end of my day, I felt glad to contribute and grateful for the wealth of knowledge these two ladies shared with me. My preceptorship is going to be a great experience!

6/16: 7 hours
6/19: 6 hours
Total: 13 hours

Preceptor Selection

Week 1: June 7-13th

The task of selecting a preceptor came as an unexpected one. It was another frustration in the lack of preparation I have felt through this BSN process. It is easy to feel disconnected from the University when you are an online student. The school of nursing has failed to provide leadership for online RN-BSN students that is consistent. For the task of finding a preceptor, it would have been helpful to make us aware in the leadership class that we would be completing clinical hours and we could have been locating a preceptor over the break.

It may seem like I am just complaining. In fact, I am looking at the process of being an online RN-BSN student from the management/professional nursing perspective and seeing opportunity for improvement. When your BSN program is unorganized and no on seems to be planning ahead or know what is coming next, what does that say about the quality of the program? What does it say about the professionalism of the program?

In every setting there are ways to improve the process. Who is the professional nursing leader that is evaluating the process and working on improving it? I have recently begun to ask this question in my clinical setting (as well as at TWU). I have recognized the strengths in my manager and some opportunities. Our unit is in a time of transition and watching her 'lead' us through has revealed she may not be up to the task.

When I realized I needed to find a preceptor I sent an email to my manager and the department director on the same day. While they both are very busy with many responsibilities the director got back to me within 24 hours. Within a few days she had sought out information from me about what I desired in my clinical experience and contacted a potential preceptor. By four days later I had an emailed preceptor agreement.

My manager responded to me 8 days after my original email. 8 days. I received her email on the day I completed my first clinical. This slow response and unprofessional behavior makes it difficult to respect her as my 'leader'. It did however reinforce a lesson to go to the right resource person. It also gave me new respect for my director.

Unofficially Underway!

Summer semester is unofficially underway. I am nervous about this class and maintaining my GPA. Since spring semester ended I had surgery and am off work until July. Now trying to figure out how to get in the clinical hours for this course is weighing heavily on me. My biggest concern is that my employer won't let me precept at our facility because I am on disability...so I am just having to wait it out and see what happens.

I have been involved in leadership in some way or another all my life. From leading a group of girls on the school yard to being both formal and informal leader on my current unit. It is funny that even while I am off work, the issues on the unit are being brought to me via email or facebook!

I enjoy helping my coworkers navigate conflict situation. I am thinking about this role in the development of my personal objectives for this class. I think I need to improve my communication style and techniques. Some of the problems I have had relationally at work revolve around communication. My manager recently told me she thought I would fit well into a CI position. So these are some of the things I am considering to discuss with my as yet unknown preceptor.