World Breastfeeding Week!

The last two years celebrating World Breastfeeding Week have been pretty amazing!   Last year, I represented the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition at the United States Breastfeeding Committee annual meeting in Washington, DC.   I was a part of a group of breastfeeding advocates that had a day on Capitol Hill to talk to our senators and representatives about the importance of breastfeeding for both mothers and babies.  

Speaking in Congressman Francis Rooney's office.

This year, I stayed home and it was still amazing.   I was able to work with my team and my hospital hosting the Big Latch On. 

www.biglatchon.org is a global event where mothers across the world latch their babies or provide breastmilk for their babies at the same time.   The community around them comes to show their support for these mothers and their children.   We have hosted this event for many years at our hospital.  It was very exciting this year as we were hosting for the first year as a Baby-Friendly Designated Hospital!  It was so fun to see our mothers and babies come back to this event and see the babies all healthy and happy!  I want to thank my wonderful team who came out to help with the event and the Healthy Life Center of Cape Coral for their work on today's event!   

Food is Medicine, right from the start!   Doing the right thing for mothers and babies is what it is all about!  Support breastfeeding mothers out there in your community!   It takes a village!

The news was there for a story about breastfeeding for World Breastfeeding Week at our event!  Here is a link to the story!  http://www.winknews.com/2018/08/03/lee-healths-big-latch-on-events-give-support-to-breastfeeding-moms/

What is the Best Thing About Your Job?

Someone recently asked me, "what is the best thing about your job?"  I have been a nurse for 40+ years and I can say I have mostly loved all of it.   All of my career, I have worked in some aspect of maternal child nursing.   I have gone from a small community hospital pediatric unit to a major teaching children's hospital, to a newborn nursery while learning labor and delivery nursery, to primary care and urgent care and back to hospital nursing in women's care.   I think I  have a passion for caring for women and babies. 

Some one saw something in me long ago and sent me on my journey to not only caring for patients but also caring for other employees as a nursing leader.  In 1986 I took on the role of Nursing Director and I haven't looked back since.   So, for 32 years I have been not only taking care of patients but taking care of and mentoring employees.  All of those nurses and allied health personnel who have worked with me over those 32 years have made an impact on my life and given me gifts along the way.

I have a pretty amazing nursing staff that I have been working with for the last 18 years.   We have a nursing staff that is comprised of 100% certified nurses.  They go to conferences and they learn new things.   At one time, we had 20+ people on our team that were in school for one thing or another.  We love learning.

The really fun part of it is they are open to trying new things.  We have some what prided ourselves on being the trend setters in our area as far as birthing practices go.   They take ideas and run with them and make them even better than I ever imagined.   Ideas come from every where!  We read journals, we network, we share ideas with each other and put them into practice to make birthing better for our mothers, babies and their families.  I love when my team is inspired and put their ideas into action!  I love watching when they work together to solve problems.   

Watching your team grow is a huge satisfier.   As a leader, you want to watch your team to grow and develop to do amazing things.   From presenting a project as a poster presentation for the team to presenting at a staff meeting to their peers.  I have watched them participate and run hospital committees. I have also had the honor of watching my team members present at national meetings.   Something they thought they "never could do", they did with ease.   All of this shows growth and development in the professional practice of nursing.  

Give your team wings and let them fly!   Every idea is a gift.   Being a mentor is a wonderful thing.

Going to AWHONN Convention as a Section Leader

This past January, I became the Florida Section Leader.   I have been mentored by the best, Shannon Morse and Pat DuRant to take on this position.   I have been to the annual AWHONN Convention many times in the past.  Some as a Chapter Leader some as a member.   This was a  different experience for me and I want to share why.

First, there is more planning to do!  This year, we had an AWHONN Emerging Leader in our Section.  Shannon Stalbird had her project which was having the first ever Student Symposium at an AWHONN Convention!   The Florida Section has been doing this successfully for quite a few years at our Section Conferences.  Our "Shannons" as we call them, Shannon #1 Morse and Shannon #2 Stalbird worked together to come up with a plan to present to National AWHONN and we were given a GO!  They got the very best Florida Section Leaders together by teleconference and came up with a plan.  We developed our sessions, came up with speakers and decided to do a lot of skits that our leaders would act out for our students/new grads.  We had to come up with registration process and work with the Convention Center for the room and how we would set up, food, etc.  Our amazing Leaders came in on Saturday night and set up for our conference and gave up time to get ready for our wonderful students. We had our Student Symposium on Sunday morning and it was a huge success!!  Check out our Facebook page to see some of the skits!   We used FB Live to record them!  https://www.facebook.com/FloridaAWHONN/

A photo of all the students and new grads that attended the 1st EVER Student Symposium at an AWHONN Convention!! The Florida Leaders who helped with this are all scattered in there too!

Another first was AWHONN National asked us to help with the first ever Student Ambassadors!   We were able to have students help with giving convention goers directions, helping with the booths, helping with all kinds of activities during the whole convention.  The Florida Section Leaders interviewed students/new grads and picked out the best of the best!   We hope you met some of them at Convention!

You also get invited to some activities that you have never attended before.   Like a VIP reception that you have to wear cocktail attire too....   I have never been that fancy at an AWHONN Convention before.  Luckily, I have become friends with AWHONN VP of Nursing Liz Rochin over the last year or so and I was able to make a call first and do the "what are you wearing?" call!  Thanks Liz!   This was a very fun night meeting the AIM Sponsors and thanking them.   Here is a picture of us at the reception.  We cleaned up good don't you think?

Another thing that happened to me that has not happened before is I met so many people who follow me on Social Media.... Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc.... People coming up and saying they like what I post and I post interesting things. Thank you!   I will continue to do it!   A joke was when my room mate Dr. Carol Lawrence said, "There is Kathleen Simpson!"  I said, "Oh Kate?   Kate and I are Twitter buddies!"   Then later in the evening when we walked by Kate, she said, "There is my Twitter buddy!"  Talking about me????!!!!!  WOW!!!!

Sunday afternoon, I spoke on a panel with some pretty incredible people!   Our session was called "Are You Prepared?  Disaster Planning:  Fires, Floods and Hurricanes"  Let me tell you, speaking on Sunday is the way to go!   No stressing, just get it over with!  I will remember this if I am ever fortunate enough to speak at Convention again!

You meet the most incredible vendors when you are working on Section conferences and at National Convention.   It was cool when one of my vendor friends, GE Healthcare, asked me to do a short video clip about their Monica Novii.   I said yes and here is a photo of my film debut.   That has definitely never happened before!

Because I am a Section Leader and know the importance of "being there"  I also talked my employer to "be there" as a vendor and we had the best recruiting team there from Lee Health!  Thank you!  And, if you want to work with an amazing Women's and Neonatal team, call us!  www.leehealth.org

The President's Party was fun with all these great Florida Section members and Leaders!

Then there is a Section event to plan and our Florida Leaders did not disappoint!   We planned a Pajama Party!!   This involved working with the hotel and arranging the event months before it happened and then gathering the Leaders together to plan the activities for the night.  As usual, Florida Leaders did not disappoint!   We had the Student Ambassadors providing aromatherapy hand massages, get  the baby on the breast game, Jenga, shadow puppets, pictures, prizes and more.  It was great to meet members from across Florida during the party!  Thanks to Hologic for sponsoring our party!  ALSO, thank you for all the AWHONN National Headquarters people who joined us!  

Oh, we also sold AWHONN Florida tee-shirts!   This didn't happen on it's own either.  Thank you to our Lee Health uniform store who was able to help us with the tee-shirt order!   

Thank you to my partner, Pat DuRant, Florida Secretary/Treasurer, for all your help during this Convention!

So, Wednesday it ended....That's a wrap!  I learned a lot more about leadership during the Convention and what is expected of a Section Leader. Thank you #AWHONN for a fabulous 2018 Convention! Thank you to all the vendors and speakers!  We learned so much!  We connected!   We re-charged our passion!  We are now off to our homes do great things for our women, babies and their families!   #NotOnMyWatch  #SpeakUp

Florida Section is indeed, THE BEST!

Getting Ready for AWHONN2018

One of my favorite times of year is June because I always get to go to the AWHONN Convention!  It is a fabulous time getting together with my AWHONN Family and exchanging stories and hugs.   And Learning!  We do a lot of learning during convention.   This year is special because I am the Florida Section Chair and this year's convention is in TAMPA Florida!!

There has been lots to get ready and to plan!  The Florida Section is hosting the FIRST EVER Student Symposium which is part of the convention's pre-conference.   We have had a fabulous team of leaders working hard on getting this ready to present for student nurses and new graduates who will also be spending all day Sunday at Convention!

Oh and did I tell you I was also asked to speak about getting ready for HURRICANES!!!  So I have that to look forward to on Sunday!   I will be a part of a disaster panel!

Then there is a pretty cool event going on on Tuesday night, the Florida Section Pajama Party!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/awhonn-florida-section-pajama-party-tickets-45820085108?ref=eios&aff=eios  Pretty cool huh?  You do have to register to come!   

And then there were TeeShirts to order.... and Ribbons to find....and other stuff to do too!  Just to get ready!   Taking the day off tomorrow to prepare and pack!  

SEE YOU SOON #AWHONN2018!

Cape Coral Hospital Receives Prestigious Award

Our journey to Baby Friendly designation was a long one.  We started on the journey alone.   We did many things over the years starting with the unit design even before I joined them as the director.  Our unit was designed as a LDRP that opened in 1987.   The unit had Rooming In for mothers right from the opening day.  There was no newborn nursery.  We did other things along the way like Ban the Bags https://www.facebook.com/BanTheBags/   We got rid of pacifiers.  We worked with the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition http://www.flbreastfeeding.org/hospital-award/ and were the first hospital in the State to receive the 1 star, 2 star, 3 star and 4 star.  We studied the Baby Steps to Baby Friendly.  

We applied for the Best Fed Beginnings program in 2011 and we were turned down.  https://www.nichq.org/project/best-fed-beginnings   When we were turned down, we decided to start educating our staff ourselves.  Nursing staff took one of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and prepared a lecture to give to their co-workers.   We started doing Gentle Cesareans and offering the same skin-to-skin care for cesarean birth moms that our vaginal birth moms had.   We even were the first hospital in the United States to put triplets skin-to-skin during their cesarean birth and all three babies nursed on the OR table.

We learned about the Certified Breastfeeding Counselor program through Prepared Childbirth Educators and we were able to convince hospital administration that this would be a great thing to have all of our maternity nurses certified through this program.  https://www.childbirtheducation.org/breastfeeding-counselor-certification-examination/

When we heard about the EMPower Breastfeeding program we decided to apply for this program and see if we could get accepted. We did!   Then the other two maternity hospitals in our System also applied.  We were so fortunate to be chosen for the EMPower Breastfeeding program for all 3 of our maternity hospital in our System.  http://empowerbreastfeeding.org/training/about-us/  Every part of EMPower was a gift to our team.  We are given the tools and guidance for every part of our journey from webinars, to site visits to personal phone calls from our coach and data quality analyst, to support when I wanted to throw in the towel and give up.

During EMPower we were approached by the Lee County Health Department and offered a grant to further assist us on our journey.   This helped with the development of a collaborative relationship as we made our way through the 4-D Pathway.  http://www.healthiestweightflorida.com/activities/baby-steps.html Our county was also a recipient of a NACHO grant http://breastfeeding.naccho.org to reduce disparities in breastfeeding.   Through this grant we were able to work together and have several WIC peer counselors and Lee Health employees trained and certified as Lactation Specialists to assist us with the support of women in our community.   Our collaboration with the Lee County Health Department also led to the formation of the Lee County Breastfeeding Coalition which is a part of Healthy Lee.  http://healthylee.com

The end of January 2018 two of the three Lee Health maternity hospitals had their Baby-Friendly designation site visits.   At the opening session the Lee County Health Department was at the table with us.  It was a great moment when Kevin Kirkwood, Health Promotion Program Administrator  at the Health Department said what an honor it was to be a part of a generational change for our community to normalize breastfeeding.

Last Monday, my hospital was named #493 in the United States as a Baby-Friendly Designated Hospital.   A long journey that was entirely a labor of love by a group that is dedicated to doing the very best for mothers and babies! TEAM WORK! Every single person did their part!

Albany, NY - Baby-Friendly USA, announces that Cape Coral Hospital has received prestigious international recognition as a Designated Baby-Friendly birth facility.

Baby-Friendly USA, Inc is the U.S. authority for the implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (“BFHI”), a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The initiative encourages and recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for breastfeeding mothers and their babies. Based on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, this prestigious international award recognizes birth facilities that offer breastfeeding mothers the information, confidence, and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies.

There are more than 20,000 designated Baby-Friendly hospitals and birth centers worldwide. Currently there are 493 active Baby-Friendly hospitals and birth centers in the United States. Cape Coral Hospital joins the 16 active Baby-Friendly hospitals in the State of Florida.  The “Baby-Friendly” re-designation is given after a rigorous on-site survey is completed. The award is maintained by continuing to practice the Ten Steps as demonstrated by quality processes.

https://www.babyfriendlyusa.org/find-facilities

Continuous Labor Support for Every Woman

Last year at the AWHONN (Association Women's Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses) national convention I spoke with two other colleagues, Catherine Ruhl and Paris Maloof-Bury on Labor Support for Every Woman:  Changing Unit Culture.  This is a topic that the three of us are very passionate about.   We are also huge AWHONN supporters and volunteer for AWHONN in many different ways.

In late summer we were contacted by AWHONN because they were interested in revision of the Position Statement that was originally approved in April of 2000 and revised and retitled "Nursing Support of Laboring Women" and re-approved in June 2011.   We were very excited about working together again this 'new' project and met with AWHONN in August and then by synchronizing our calendars and our time zones (Cathy lives and works in New Mexico, Paris lives and works in California and I live and work in Florida) set up some meetings where we could hash out the position statement.  We used Google docs and went back and forth with ideas and sharing to get the best possible document to send back to AWHONN in October.  

During this time I was also working with the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative on the development of the PROVIDE Initiative that would be rolled out to hospitals across Florida to work together to decrease the primary cesarean rate for Nulliparous, Term, Singleton, Vertex deliveries.  This Labor Support for Every Woman AWHONN Position Statement will be very helpful for hospitals working to decrease their cesarean rates.

I am pleased to report that the newly revised Position Statement, Continuous Labor Support for Every Woman was just published in JOGNN this month!   Here is a link to the article:  http://www.jognn.org/article/S0884-2175(17)30482-3/pdf

Nurses often ask me how do I get involved with AWHONN?   I give this advice, first, join.   Go to the chapter meetings in your area, go to the section meetings in your state and then try to go to the national convention every year.   Reach out, ask if you can help and you will be surprised who will take you up on your offer!   Follow your passion.  Meet with other colleagues and don't be afraid to make new friends outside of your organization!   

p.s.  Let me know what you think of the position statement!