The last few months have been very busy and very exciting! People always ask me "why and HOW do you do all the things you do?"   I do what I do because I follow my passion and I try to make a difference in what I do.  So what have I been up to so far in 2017?

On a  local level, it is where I work, my departments and my health system.  We have formed a County Breastfeeding Coalition this year.  Working with our local Health Department with a team looking at the Infant Mortality in our area with various other community members.  We are very busy working on becoming 3 Baby Friendly hospitals!

On the state level, I have been busy with my regular AWHONN activities as a Chapter Leader, State Conference committee member, AIM State Nurse Leader. http://safehealthcareforeverywoman.org/aim-program/about-aim/   I have been busy with my activities with Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative (FPQC) as a Steering Committee member, Hypertension in Pregnancy workgroup member, Primary Cesarean Reduction Initiative workgroup member and Data Use workgroup member.  http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/chiles/fpqc  I also joined the board of the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition in January!  http://www.flbreastfeeding.org 

Oh and for fun.... I have worked with my Salty Dawgs.... working with our local University of Georgia Alumni on various activities in SW Florida!

I have been busy with my speaking activities!  In my last blog post I talked about speaking at the Eye Bank Technician conference about my cornea transplants.  I also spoke at the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition conference with my friend Carol Lawrence.  Our topic was "Shining Bright-Using the Golden Hour to Support Breastfeeding Friendly Birthing Facilities".   Just this week speaking to nursing director group at our Health System on "Employee Rounding".  Now I am getting ready to go speak at the AWHONN National Convention in New Orleans on "Nurses Implementing Change & Innovative Labor Support Practices" with my friends Paris Maloof-Bury and Catherine Ruhl.  Right now, I am busy working on a webinar that will be presented later this year for one of my organizations. 

I also like to refill my cup and learn new things.  This involves going to conferences and listening to webinars.   Some are even FREE to attend!  When you work on a committee or volunteer with some groups, they actually give you a discount to attend the conference.  This makes it more affordable and it allows you to travel to other places!  This year, I will have traveled near and far to St. Pete/Tampa area, to New Orleans, to Atlanta, to Washington DC!!   Always get as much as you can out of the conferences!  Be open to new ideas that you can bring back to your own place of employment.  Go to the poster sessions!  Meet other people and ask them what they do.  

I also know that I can not do everything I want to do and I definitely can't do anything without a terrific team!   When I have an idea for a project I pass that idea on to my team who can volunteer to work on the idea and make it happen.  It takes a village!   This year two of my staff nurses, Kathy Moses and Roseann Civil went to Washington DC and participated on a project with AWHONN!  Now Roseann is speaking at AWHONN National Convention in New Orleans!!  

So, the answer to how do you do it?  For me, it is follow your passion!  Volunteer.  Make a difference not only in your own small community, but in your state and on a national level!  For me, it is making a difference for a single woman and her baby and thus, many women and many babies.   Have fun.  Enjoy the ride!!  Don't GIVE UP!

Thankful for the Gift of Sight

A week or so ago, I was asked to come give a speech at the Lions Eye Institute for Transplant & Research to speak for the Eye Bank Association of America at their 2017 Technician Education Seminar. Technicians from around the US and Canada attended the 3.5 day course and learned various aspects of eye banking through presentations, personal stories of donation, breakout sessions, demonstrations and case study discussions.

In 2012, I had two corneal transplants due to my Fuchs Dystrophy.  Fuchs is a hereditary eye disease and it was slowly making me go blind.  I spoke about My journey from diagnosis to my transplant surgery and recovery to today.

It was an honor to meet a mom, Dawn who gave a speech right before me.  Dawn's 19 year old son was very seriously injured in a car accident and she donated many of his organs including his eyes.  I have never met my donor families, but I think about my donors every day.  Getting to hug Dawn was about as close as I will get to hugging one of my donor families and it meant the world to me.

If you are not an organ donor, please consider  becoming one.  Let your family know your wishes.  You never know who you might help with this Gift of Life.

Moving On

my High School Yearbook photo

I guess I am at that time of my life where a lot of people I know are retiring or "fixing to" retire.  Seems like every week at work someone else is having a retirement party.   This weekend my high school class is having a social media event where they asked everyone to change their profile picture to their high school yearbook photo.  Made me think, all these people are turning/or did turn 60 this year.  Many of them posted how many days they plan to work until retirement.  I changed my photo and then I started thinking about my friends from nursing school.  I graduated from a diploma nursing school in 1977.  Holy crap, I am going to celebrate my 40th nursing school reunion this year too!  How did this happen?

A few years ago at my hospital we went through the process and applied for the Governor's Sterling Award.  This is a rigorous process and in part of the project we had to examine if we had succession planning at our hospital.  Basically, we did not.   This started the process of developing a succession plan for us at our campus.  Leaders began to think about who would be able to step into our role if we left.  We started to develop the people we thought would be good at being our successors.

Our Hospital Team accepting the Florida Governor's Sterling Award

I have been at my present role for the last 16+ years.  One of my director friends, Joany Odorizzi,  and I had many discussions about providing the best patient and family centered care available over the years.  We talked about the Planetree model and had put many things into practice on our own units.  A new chief administrative officer introduced us to the Samueli Institute's Optimal Healing Environment framework.   This was something that we could really rally around.  Our hospital adopted this framework five years ago and we were on our way.  Joany left her nursing department and became the Optimal Healing Environment Business Partner. 

Joany Odorizzi

 http://www.samueliinstitute.org/research-areas/optimal-healing-environments/ohe-framework.html   

The Optimal Healing Environment became our rallying point!  We were off and running full speed ahead.  Not just the two of us but the whole hospital!  Many great things have happened over the last five years.  We have  much to show in our environment that demonstrates how we support the Optimal Healing Environment framework.   Things are going great!

But alas, even Optimal Healing Environment Business Partners have to have succession plans and Joany had decided that I would be capable to take on her role.  She began to share more with me over the last 18 months or so and tell me what she was doing and how she did her job duties.  Mentoring.   This mentoring has gotten more intense over the last six months. It is coming up this month that she will retire and I will take over some of her duties.  

"Wait a minute.... I am not ready for this...."
"Yes you are...You can and you will do it."

So, as you retire from your dream job Joany, I will strive to make you proud and so that we will be one of the first success stories in the succession planning process for our hospital.  I have big shoes to fill, but know I will do it because you have prepared me.  I will miss you and our talks so very much.  You are and will always be OHE to me!

Happy Birth Day

Thirty nine years ago today I entered the "Torture Chamber" as my sister and I called it years later, a hospital in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, because I was in labor.  The first nurse I encountered asked "Have you had any experience with enemas?" I explained to her I had experience giving them and not getting them.... and that was where it went down hill....My husband and I had taken the "mandatory" childbirth classes offered at this hospital so that he could stay with me and we wanted to have a natural childbirth.  So, after the also "mandatory" enema,  I was supposed to have the "mandatory" shave.   I told them no,  I was not going to have that.  Then I was placed into a labor room which by today's standards looked like an ICU room.  All glass windows, placed on a stretcher, looking out at the nurses station where they "watched" their laboring patients.  Many hours passed where they checked me, and when they  did, they kicked my husband out to the waiting room <after all, he had never seen that part of me before>.  They would then forget to tell him to come back in so I was left for long periods of time by myself laying on my back on my stretcher.  Nothing to eat or drink of course, not an ice chip, not a sip of water..... and after many hours in came one of the physician's wives.  How did I know this was a physician's wife?  She had a mink coat on. One of the hazards of delivering in the holiday times is the goodies that are brought in for the staff, especially when you have to watch through the window and do not get to eat.  This physician's wife brought them some homemade brownies..... and what I would have done for a taste of that brownie!!  Hours pass.... and it is time to push.   They take me to the Delivery Room <looks like an Operating Room> every one is gowned up and sterile with masks on including my husband.   They put a Saddle Block in Now and decide I am needing to deliver  quickly Now...so out come the forceps and a 4th degree episiotomy.... and out comes my daughter... Holly......"wait, I want to hold my baby!".... "No, she has to go over here to get cleaned up and then to the Nursery"....  "Come on Dad, you come with us....." "Is something wrong with her?"  "No she is fine,  Healthy and Fine!"   AND, I am alone again..... Wait!  What just happened???     Where is my baby?  When can I see her?  Tomorrow????  It is only 5:30 PM....   Can I walk to where she is???  NO.... Tomorrow.....  In that hospital at that time we were "allowed" to take exactly one photograph of our own baby for the entire three days we were in the hospital. Oh and I am in a semi-private room with no husband and no baby in the room either.

Some people ask why I do what I do, why do I want women to be given choices in their births.  I think it probably stems back to this experience in the Torture Chamber.....I had two more births after this and I got it right with my subsequent births.  So Happy Birthday Holly!   39 years was a long time ago and a lot of things are much improved now!   I will keep striving to make it better for all women.

It Takes a Village!

At times, running a unit like ours looks like we are on auto-pilot;  very little turnover, great customer satisfaction scores, pretty amazing breastfeeding rates, stuff just happens.  

It runs that way because we have a pretty amazing team. Around 17 years ago, I came on an interview and I knew at that time that this unit was something special and I wanted to be a part of it.  What makes it special are the people that are a part of it.  Of course we have Registered Nurses, Lactation Consultants, Surgical Technologists, Certified Nursing Assistants and Patient Care Liaisons/Birth Registrars, Obstetricians, Certified Nurse Midwives, Pediatricians, Neonatologists, we are a Birthing Suites after all! I have my secretary who does a really great job keeping me organized and making our special seasonal Wall of Babies every month!

We also have some pretty great people that back us up.  Volunteers doing what ever needs to be done to make it special, knitted hats, rice packs, Christmas stockings, blankets, quilts.   Housekeepers keep our unit looking terrific.  You can hear the housekeepers speaking to our patients on a daily basis.  Some of them help us translate for women who are arriving to the hospital for the first time and they are scared.  A smiling face that soothes them is there.   We have Respiratory Therapists who are there in a moment's notice to help us with deliveries.  We have wonderful Dietary people who are there to bring up a snack or the regular meal and are always there with coffee for us too!  Pharmacy Techs bring us medications, Pharmacists check medications for us.  Transport comes up and brings us MORE patients and takes them to places all over the hospital.  Plant Operations is there on a daily basis fixing the stuff we break, changing filters, painting a wall, you name it they do it.  Bio-Med making sure our equipment is safe.  Social Workers and Case Managers helping to solve issues.  Hearing Screeners & Healthy Start.  Laboratory to run our labs for us, Radiology to do our x-rays and ultrasounds when we need them, Cardiology to help with echo's.  Anesthesiology to come for epidurals when we need them...IV Therapy when we just can't seem to get the line in (and we are amazing at putting IVs in ourselves!).  A chaplain when we need to pray.  The Central Supply people who restock our supply room.  Sterile Processing to make sure we have the tools to do our job.  Financial Services there to make sure we pay our bills and get paid every two weeks.

Tonight it was Security who made me feel thankful.  They over heard a family who was distraught and wanted to speak to the person in charge.  So, in a flash they were there to support me and make sure I was safe.  I was, but I felt a whole lot better knowing they were there.  A little over a year ago, we started having Security on our unit to keep us safe and they have become a real important part of our day!  

So thank you.  Thank you to all of you that make our unit look like a well-oiled machine.  Thank you for our village who makes caring for women and neonates look easy.  You are all a blessing in my life.

Taking on a New Department, Taking Care of Self....

Sometimes at work, you are asked to take on new responsibilities or new duties.  This time for me it was a new department.  Well, not that new, I had this department many years ago, but new to me again.  

About six months ago, I was asked to take on this department and the start time was going to be October 1st.  I have had the pleasure over the years of starting departments/units from the ground up.  Heck, I have even had the experience of starting by finding land and building a building!    But, this time it was going to be different, it was taking over a department that was already functioning.  Over the next few months preliminary plans were developed and I was able to interview my new team and hire them/transfer them into their "new" "old" positions.

Oh, and when we started on October 1st we were over census for the amount of staff that were budgeted for the unit....so hence, we did not have enough staff to care for the patients.  There were lots of things the department had in place that were not in place in our hospital.  The team did not "know" me and I did not "know" them.  It was stressful for them and for me too.  

Stress can be good, termed eustress.   Positive stress or eustress (also called good stress) is when you perceive a stressful situation as an opportunity that will lead to a good outcome. 

Stress can also be bad called distress.  Negative stress or distress is when  you perceive a stressful situation as suffering.  The goal is to move your distress to eustress.

So, what do you do to take care of yourself while you are going through stressful situations?    What did I do?  Listened.  Tried to problem solve with the group.  Make one small positive move at a time.  One small win at a time.  Try not to do it all at one time, because guess what, you can't.  Stay positive for yourself, stay positive for your team.  Have a good friend to problem solve separate from the situation.  Learn to smile, learn to laugh at what you can.      Using humor helps!  I also find that eating good food (staying away from junk), exercising (even if it is going out for a walk around the hospital) helps!  Meditation helps me to regroup and to let go.  I do that during the day and in the evening to unwind.  I use an app called CALM to do guided meditations.

https://www.calm.com

We are now in the third month into the change and know what?  We got through a lot of challenges and things are going pretty smoothly now!  People  on the team pulled together and made it work.  We got to know each other.  We are a work in progress!  

I laugh because just as the new department is running some what smoothly,  I am getting ready to take over some job duties of a good friend at work who is retiring in January!  Here we go again!!!                                B-R-E-A-T-H-E!  JUST BREATHE!!  And don't forget to smile!

Treating Employees with Grace

A long time ago, when my oldest daughter was in kindergarten, she was in a play around Christmas time.  At that point I was working in a Newborn Nursery and I had asked my boss if it would be possible to go over to her school and watch her play and come back to work.  I was surprised with her  answer and it was NO.  I promised myself that day that if I was ever in a position to allow people to do important things with their families, I would do it.  A few years later, I was a Director myself and I have tried to stay true to this over the years.

I have been a nursing director at one facility or another for the last thirty years.  Although the locations change and faces of the employees that I have worked with change, the stories are the same.    I have found that everyone at some point in their life is going to need grace.  One thing I know is that you can think it is never going to be "your" family, it always rolls around and everyone gets a chance that they will need grace.  Stuff happens.  Your child may come home and tell you they volunteered you to make 25 cup cakes for their class and they need them in the morning, oh yeah, and you are working that evening at 7 PM.  It is never fun to get that phone call where your child who is in college in another city has been in a car accident, or your mother is very ill but life happens.  Treat your employees with grace.  Treat your co-workers with grace.   You never know when it is going to be your turn to need grace.