Journal 4

This week, on the day that I had to meet with my preceptor, she had to be at the HR office most part of the day to prepare the necessary documents for an employee she was getting ready to terminate. She explained to me that she had given this employee lots of oppotunities to change her attitude and ways about work. This employee according to her was making racial remarks at both co-workers and patients as well as not giving the proper patient care she was suppose to. I was not allowed in the whole termination process but she expressed how difficult it is to be the carrier of bad news.

While she was away, she asked me to perform clean sweeps and overall skin checks of the patients on the unit. These activities are carried out to ensure that the nurses are doing what they are suppose to do with respect to having things they work with be in the right place and keep proper record of the patient's skin condition as well as if they develop something new during admission. She also asked me to help her with typing up some treatment protocols her unit was hoping to adapt so that the doctors are called less and patients receive the needed treatment on time. Sometimes the doctors take a long time to call back with orders for the patient so these protocols will help reduce the time that an order has to be obtained from the doctor.

Journal 3

My preceptor had to be out of the office so I had the permission of the Director of nursing to sit in a meeting of unit managers. This meeting was very interesting. The managers were sharing with each other their different experiences and what helps to make each others work a little easier. The Vice President of Nursing Operations was also there to explain in detail the new employee evaluation process. This meeting in my opinion was a good one because the managers got to share ideas and it even helps to create more cordial relationships amongst themselves. Some of the managers that I spoke to were also very happy about the meeting and the new things they had learnt. it was a day well spent.

Journal 2

I was with my preceptor in the 19th of September and worked on her staffing and unit budget. Her unit has not been meeting the needed census in order to keep all her staff on schedule so she was trying to find ways of having her staff work on other units in order to make up their lost hours because they had to canceled. Also she was making sure that the staff who were attending meetings are paid as such and not as if they were working.

I felt bad for her that her staff were upset with her for them getting canceled as if it was her fault they all could not be kept on the schedule. I learned that in times like these as the manager one can not take these things personal but be an effective leader and handle the situation at stake as well as being sensitive to the staff's situation. This will most likely change thier mind set that you as their leader care about them.