A Vision

Several years ago I had a vision.  The vision was to improve the breastfeeding rates and help women to have the best possible start with their babies by breastfeeding their newborns.  One of my pediatrician colleagues, Eleanor Blitzer, MD, said, "Nancy, why not become a Baby-Friendly Hospital?"  I investigated the Baby-Friendly USA website and thought this is going to be an enormous task.  I thought to myself, I am not even sure our hospital system is ready for it. But, I purchased a video from a hospital in Boston and showed it to my team.  Baby-steps.   Yes, Baby-steps, got us to this point.  We didn't have any support, so we decided we will start this on our own.  Again, I purchased a curriculum to teach the 10 Steps and we began to have nursing staff teach one step every month.  The staff was so creative!   We had fun.

  

The Florida Breastfeeding Coalition started a new program called Florida Quest for Quality Maternity Services and we found a way to go through the steps one star at a time.... so we started.... we were awarded one star.... we expanded our Lactation Lounge the employees at our hospital and applied and got awarded as a Gold Level Employer for our Breastfeeding practices.   We worked with our Human Resources department and got electric breast pumps approved for our employees who delivered a baby in our System.

We got accepted as an EMPower Breastfeeding Hospital and were awarded grants from our local Lee County Health Department to help us on our way to becoming a Baby-Friendly Hospital.  Not only that, we got our hospital administration, obstetricians, pediatricians on board with us!   We started support groups for mothers.  We hosted Big Latch On events during World Breastfeeding Week.  We trained 100% of our nursing staff as Certified Breastfeeding Counselors putting someone at the bedside of each new mother 24/7 to help her with breastfeeding when our IBCLC was not available.   I even ran for the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition Board of Directors and was appointed!  

Last year, we became a Baby-Friendly Hospital.  We are so proud of that designation.  All of our county maternity hospitals achieved designation in the last year.  We are all 5 star Maternity Hospitals according to the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition.  We started the Lee County Breastfeeding Coalition.  

Tomorrow, something amazing is going to happen.   We are going to be at Cape Coral City Hall for a meeting of the City Council when we are going to receive a Resolution made by the City of Cape Coral to support breastfeeding mothers in Cape Coral and to help business to become more breastfeeding friendly.  I never thought my simple vision a few years ago would go so far.  It indeed, has taken the whole village to see it through!  On Friday, I was interviewed about this and a story was shared with the public.   

https://www.nbc-2.com/story/40455683/cape-coral-city-leaders-want-to-make-businesses-more-baby-friendly

Dream it.   Vision it.   Make it reality.  

Going Up?

In the last few months I have been working in a new role and my office has moved from the second floor to the fifth floor.  In my role as Director of the Family Birth Place, my side of the building only has two floors.  It is pretty easy to make conversation with people going up to the Family Birth Place.  I looked for new dads with their "baby" bracelet on their arm and say, "So you have a new baby, how exciting!"  They would typically say yes, and tell me if they had a boy or a girl or twins!  I could comment about how tired they looked and tell them how to get some sleep today.  If it was someone without a bracelet they typically carry flowers or gifts and the same conversations would happen.

But, now, I am in the main part of our hospital and my office is on the fifth floor.  It is rare that I ride the elevator all alone and I have noticed that people want to talk on the elevator.  After I say what floor are you going to, they want to talk.   Even if it is a smile and saying hello, how are you doing today?   I haven't ever met someone who didn't want to talk on the elevator.  Connection.   It is a good thing.   If they are totally lost, I can stop what I am doing and walk them to where they need to go.  We call it 10-5 Connect.  

This led to a new idea that I am looking into.   Putting a volunteer on our elevators just for this purpose, to connect with families and visitors riding up the elevators.   <after all, as much as I would like, I can't spend my whole day riding the elevators to make this connection>   It is the little things that make a difference when you work in a  health care facility.   

AWHONN on Capitol Hill 2019

The second AWHONN on Capitol Hill was held April 8 & 9^thin Washington DC.   This was a chance for 100 AWHONN members to gather in DC and go to the Hill and talk to members of Congress about three important issues.   

Day one was a day where we met with AWHONN Headquarters staff and talked about the three important topics that we would be going to discuss with our Senators and Representatives the following day.   A leading subject matter expert gave a lecture on what each bill was about and why it was important.  We also had a lecture from Frank Percell on how to lobby.  

The day started with Seth Chase the AWHONN Director of Government Affairs explaining Federal policymaking and giving an update on public policy for women and newborns and explaining how Lobby Day would work.   We also got to see photos of Seth's brand new baby! A very cool thing happened when Seth used a picture of Pat DuRant and I talking with NY Representative Paul Tonko at  the 2018 AWHONN on Capital Hill event  in his presentation.

This was followed by Tiffany Kaszuba explaining the essentials of public health funding.   

The first bill was the FAMILY Act, S.463 and H.R. 1185 the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act.   This bill will establish an opportunity Office of Paid Medical Leave within the Social Security Administration and will provide paid leave for 12 weeks for any family member for any family-related medical leave including maternity care.  The really great thing about this bill is that it will allow mothers to get breastfeeding off to a great start.   Breastfeeding is a way to keep not only babies healthy but also provides health benefits for women.

The second bill was the MAMMA’s Act,  H.R. 1897 and S. 916 Mother's and Offspring Mortality and Morbidity Awareness Act.   Last year at AWHONN on the Hill we went to ask for the Maternal Mortality Bill and this was signed into law in December of 2018.   This new bill is icing on the cake! This bill would provide grant money for health care centers to implement best practices.   This would allow hospitals the resources needed to implement the AIM Safety Bundles.  https://safehealthcareforeverywoman.org/patient-safety-bundles/ It would also extend the postpartum period under Medicaid to insure women receive much needed healthcare after they give birth (from 2 months postpartum to 12 months postpartum).

The third bill was the Title VIII Nursing Reauthorization Bill of 2019.   This is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.   This bill addresses the education, practice, recruitment and retention of the nursing workforce.   This supports nursing education at all levels, helps the institutions that educate future nurses  and helps to ensure that the demand for nursing care is met.  

The end of day one was a keynote address by the Honorable Lauren Underwood, RN, BSN, MSN, MPH, US Representative (D-IL-14).  Representative Underwood is a nurse and the youngest black woman to serve in Congress.  She got everyone pumped up and asked us to become involved and to share our stories.    

Tuesday, we descended upon Capitol Hill-- all 100 of us!!  The AWHONN staff had made appointments for each of us with our Senators and Representative's offices.   I was fortunate enough to have Pat DuRant, our Florida Section Treasurer/Secretary and AWHONN CEO, Suzanne Berry accompany me on visits to our Florida policy makers!  First stop, Senator Rick Scott's office!   We met with Jared Honts, Legislative Correspondent for Senator Scott.  Prior to our meeting, we discussed how we would approach each meeting and who would discuss each bill.   It worked great right from the start!

One meeting down, and on to Senator Marco Rubio's office!   In Senator Rubio's office we met with Eduardo Sacasa, Legislative Aide.   This was my third visit to Senator Rubio's office and my third time talking with Eduardo.   We had a great discussion with him about the three bills.

We had a little break after this meeting and decided to have lunch inside the Capitol.  Of course we stopped to have the usual pictures on the steps!

After lunch it was back at it!   We visited Pat's representative,  Representative Stephanie Murphy.   Everything there went well and we were again well received!   We met with Dao Nguyen, Senior Policy Advisor.  

After this meeting we said good bye to Suzanne and we headed off to the last meeting of the day with my representative, Representative Francis Rooney.   Pat and I met with Ken Clifford, Senior Legislative Assistant.  I was also able to see my friend, Chris Berardi who serves at Representative Rooney's Communication Director while at his office.  

So, what was the additional information we were able to share with the people we met with?  We provided additional information that brought these three issues to life!  We were able to share the state of breastfeeding in Florida.   How we had increased the number of Baby-Friendly Designated Hospitals in Florida since our last visit.   We were able to share our great work with AWHONN and the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative and how the initiatives that many of the Florida hospitals have instituted thanks to the FPQC are saving mother's lives in our state.  We were able to share how faculty is working with student nurses to turn them in to competent practitioners to staff our hospitals.   We were also able to share how a shortage of nurses impacts hospitals in Florida during busy tourist season.  We made it personal by telling our stories.  This will make it easier for the staff members to share the importance of what we are asking to their bosses.    This will hopefully encourage some of the members of congress to co-sponsor or support these three important bills.

If you are an AWHONN member, consider attending AWHONN on Capitol Hill in 2020.   It is the experience of a lifetime.   You may decide like me, it is something you want to do every year!

  

Big Brothers Big Sisters Beyond School Walls

Part of an Optimal Healing Environment means we work with our community.   This year we have had an amazing opportunity at Lee Health Cape Coral Hospital.  One of our directors, Beth Dowd, recruited our hospital staff to become Big Brothers or Big Sisters for a program called Beyond School Walls.   The idea of the program was to pair Cape Coral High School students with mentors who work at Cape Coral Hospital and we would meet together one day a month for the school year to develop friendships and to allow the students to have some time and exposure to the medical field.

Beth Dowd, RN Director of Emergency Services

I was excited to do this as a grandmother of 14 and a mother of 6, I love being around young people.  I signed up!  This involved an interview to match me with my little and of course the background checks and making sure each mentor was appropriate.  Each month we have had a half day session where we get to do a project or talk with our student and share ideas with them and they with us!

Here are some photos of our Big Brothers Big Sisters Beyond School Walls program from a recently day when we shared a CPR Friends and Family Course AND we had FOX 4 here to do a story on our program which is the first in the area! Great fun and learning by the whole group!

  

Rick Helvey Director of Environmental Services

Stephanie Smoker, LPN Emergency Department

Harry Alberti, MD VP Operations Chief Physician Executive

Hanging out with my mannequin on CPR Day!

 I have loved participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters Beyond School Walls program this year. It has been great seeing the mentors <bigs> participating and having fun with their students <littles>. A great group of kids! We are looking forward to doing it again next year and expanding it with more of our great Lee Health Cape Coral Hospital employees!

Bill would help lower mothers dying from childbirth

Everyone is concerned about decreasing maternal mortality because even one death is one too many. Let's work together to make this a never event.

Mindful Diapering Tips to Enhance Baby's Development (Ask A Nurse)

Mindful Diapering!

A few months ago, AWHONN asked me to do a video on Mindful Diapering in conjunction with Huggies!   This is the video!   Feel free to share it with Mother Baby Nurses and New Parents so they can learn about Mindful Diapering Techniques!

My Advice to New Nurses!

My Advice to New Nurses!

I was recently asked to write a chapter for a book that will be for nursing students at a college near my home in Atlanta.  As part of this I was asked to share my nursing story and to give advice.  I decided to share my advice to nurses in a blog post!

My advice?

Share your story!   Someone someday is going to come up to you and ask you to share your story.  Don’t be afraid to do that.  Write an article.   Give an interview for the news media.  Showcase your work for your school, hospital or department newsletter.   Speak at a conference.   Present a poster.   Many nurses shy away from these opportunities but they are so very important for the nursing profession.  Yes, it can be scary to be filmed the first time, but do it!  It highlights the important things we do on a daily basis, every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all over the world.

Teamwork!  Pretty much everything you do in nursing you are doing as part of a team.  Respect everyone on your team.  Everyone has a role to play.  Sometimes you are the most important person on the team.  Sometimes, it is your colleague.  

Get Involved!  Join your professional organization.  For me, that is AWHONN (Association of Women's Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses)  I am sorry I waited so long to do so.   Once you join, be active.   Go to meetings.  Find out what is happening.  You will find friends you can call for advice and mentoring on almost any subject.  You can be a mentor! You can have a mentor! Network with others.  Don’t be afraid to walk up to your nursing idol and introduce yourself.  You may find yourself with a new friend and someone to work on a project with.

Never stop learning!  Things are changing in the nursing profession all the time.  Expect to always be challenged with change.  Read professional journals, take a class.  Ask questions!  Share what you learn with others.

Be active in your community!  Find some way to be a volunteer in your community or for another organization.   Vote. Make the world a better place for others.

Follow the Golden Rule.  Treat people (and families) the way you would like to be treated! Everybody has the right to be treated with dignity.   Everyone is not always at their best when they come for nursing care. This is difficult for us to deal with some times.   Before I go in, I take a deep breath, center myself and believe they are the most important at that minute. 

Don’t Burn Bridges!   Every step of your journey builds on the last part! You will need to reach back at some point.   It will become important for you to look into that history from time to time.  You will also be surprised that someone from your past can help you in your future!

Take time for you!  Nursing is a hard job.  Take time to stay healthy yourself.  Eat well.  Exercise. Meditate.  Breathe.  Laugh. Have fun!

Trying Out a New Role

I have been very busy over the last few months.... In September, I was asked to take on a role as the interim Vice President of Patient Care Services in the hospital that I have worked for the last 18 years.   I was not sure I would like this position.   After all, it was going to take me away from my work "home", away from my team and away from OB.    I did say yes, because I love my hospital, the people I work with, my community and I wanted to make a difference.

I jumped right in.   Going from expert to novice in one full jump!   Every day has been full of challenges and learning opportunities for me.  Sometimes doubting myself and sometimes having confidence.  Luckily in our facility they have instituted a dyad leadership model with a physician and a nurse leading each hospital and I have a great physician partner.   I am very comfortable with this model as we have been using it successfully for many years in Women's Services.  I knew it could work.   I have enjoyed working with my dyad partner on a day in and day out basis.   Thanks Harry!

There have been a lot of new meetings to attend, new terms to learn, people to meet, and for me, things outside the world of Women's Services.  I was able to promote one of my supervisors to the Manager of Women's Services after the first month in my new role and that has helped tremendously because I learned quickly I could not do both roles at the same time.   I am thankful for Liz for stepping up to the plate and out of her comfort zone too!

One thing we do is round on patients every Thursday with our Leadership team.  It is fun.  I get to work with a Lean coach who has been very helpful in my transition.  It was my Lean coach who came to me after one of the first leadership rounds and said, "When you go in to the patient room and introduce yourself, tell them you are the Vice President of Patient Care.  You don't have to say you are the Director of Women's Service.  Say it and believe it!"  So after that, I began to say it with confidence.  Thank you Thu!

I have learned to work with a great assistant who helps me stay on task and make it to all my meetings.   She has kept me in order and helped with my transition and I appreciate her more than she will ever know!   Thanks Jessica!

Most of all, I have been finding out that I like this new interim position, more than I ever dreamed I would.   I love learning new things and I love being able to make a difference.  Morale of the story, if you are asked, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone!   Learn something new every day!  It makes work fun!   BUT, take care of yourself and don't forget to BREATHE!!  After all, it is an Optimal Healing Environment that we work in!

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!