Qualities that make me unique
- People usually tell me I am very blunt and honest. I usually blame it on the fact that I was born and raised in New Jersey; we have a bad reputation.
- My filter is usually gone, but people seem to appreciate how truthful I am.
- I’m also a hard charger and will always take initiate.
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Why do I do what I do?
I absolutely love my job. I work at a Naval Hospital in Washington state and I love being a nurse on the Multi-Service Ward. I take such pleasure serving those who have
served our country. Their stories are
mind-blowing at times. Their dependents
are so grateful to be at our hospital.
My favorite is when I have a grumpy older person and I make them
smile. It’s an amazing feeling when you’re
able to set a positive milieu for the rest of your shift.
5 things I
really love doing:
- I love making people smile and laugh.
- I love inspiring healthy living
- I love doing anything outdoors with my family.
- I love good food and good wine.
- I love serving others and making them feel better.
Am I doing those 5 things I really love?
1. I am doing everything that I love. I make my son laugh and smile every day. Today he wanted to dress up like Woody, my husband was Buzz, and I dressed up like Jessie (from Toy Story) and we had a dance party! There was so much laughter to be spread. We dressed up like them for Halloween one year and it's become a family favorite to reenact it.
2. I try to inspire healthy living almost every day through Facebook. One of my latest posts was about one of my plant protein smoothies tasting just like Cherry Garcia! I was lucky enough to have my lunch taste like a dessert that I loved!
3. My family and I also spent our morning outside hiking through Banner Forest Heritage Park. It snowed and rained on us while we were playing hide n seek though the woods but we loved every minute of it!
4. My husband makes amazing healthy dinners every day for us (sorry I don't have a picture of those!) but they have been so delicious. When I started nursing school he was new to being a stay-at-home dad and would always ask me on Sundays, "What do you want for dinners this week?" and I just got so sick of it! Do any of you feel that way? So, we found this meal plan for a year; it was inexpensive, and they emailed recipes to you weekly with a shopping list and everything! The meals are under 30 minutes to cook, they're simple AND healthy! We love it!
5. Lastly, tomorrow I will be back at work serving those admitted to the hospital. It will be my pleasure taking care of them. I always look forward to when I have to go back to work because I enjoy it so much.
Am I living the life I imagined?
My life is like a dream. All of my husbands and my dreams are coming
true. Right now, we’re living in
Washington which was on our “dream list.” We bought a beautiful home, I have my dream
car (Mini Cooper!), and my dream dog (Goldendoodle!). My husband stays at home
with our beautiful son. He does all the cooking and cleaning which makes my
life much easier. We talk about our life often over a cup of coffee, bundled up
in blankets, outside on the deck. The
air is crisp, the birds are singing and the stream trickles. We are very lucky to live the life we lead
because it is everything we ever imagined and it’ll only get better.
How do Simon Sinek's ideas resonate with my professional philosophies or appreciation of effective leadership practices?
By knowing my why, I will be able to motivate others just
by leading my healthy and motivated lifestyle. People will want to emulate
me. My why is to be the very best I can
be, to gather others and take them with me.
I want to inspire others. I know that I already do that for many of the
enlisted personnel and the junior officers as well.
What did I learn
from the Steve Jobs webcast?
I learned that everything happens for a
reason. I’ve always said this.
Especially looking back at my career.
I never wanted to go into the healthcare profession but when I walked
into that recruiters’ office they said I could be a chef, a firefighter or a
corpsman. When I asked what a corpsman
does they said, “you wear scrubs like Greys Anatomy.” SOLD!
Don’t judge me. Everything
happens for a reason.
When I found out I
was pregnant I tried getting out of the Navy before my contract was up; I didn’t
want to move my family around every 3 years.
The Commanding Officer denied my early out request. Everything happens for a reason. Since then the Navy has paid for me to become
a nurse and I couldn’t be happier.
Steve
Jobs also talks about failure. If you
fail you need to get back up and keep going.
I walked into that Navy recruiter’s office I wanting to be a pilot. After doing the medical exams they said my
eyesight wasn’t good enough. I sulked
for a while but I had to get back up and figure out what to do with my life so
I kept my head up and took a leap of faith.
An example of my own personal experience of how 'knowing your way' has made a difference in how
I've sang my own song...
My whole life I have tried to be healthy. I’ve
realized that just because I’m skinny doesn’t mean I’m “healthy.” I still would binge drink every occasionally,
eat fast food, and I ate ice cream like my life depended on it. When I found
out I was pregnant I realized I was growing another little human inside of me, therefore
I became more conscious of being healthy.
I started juicing fruits and vegetables every single day so that my
unborn child got all the necessary nutrients he needed. Now my son is almost 5
years old and being healthy has become important for him as well. My
friend offered him iced tea last week and he asked me, “Mom, is this good for
me?” and he didn’t drink it.
3 ideas
that I appreciated from the Porter-O'Grady webcast:
1. Nursing is always changing. “Change cannot be avoided because it is everywhere, but we can influence its circumstances and consequences” (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2015, p.7). As nurses we need to be adaptable since this profession is a revolving door.
2. Porter-O'Grady said that "Evidence based practice (EBP) is the floor, innovation is the ceiling" and that "EBP strangles new ideas" (AONE Thought Leader: Tim Porter O'Grady). I completely understand what Porter-O'Grady is talking about because nursing is driven by EBP, and even though you may have a great idea it could be superfluous because if it hasn't been researched it hard to make a change.
3. The last idea I really appreciate is that he spoke about how we live in a policy and procedure world, and that making a change can take 6-18 months. He talked about how you should "never move decision out of the locus of control. If the nurse executive needs to sign off on something-bring her to your table, don’t bring it to her desk" (AONE Thought Leader: Tim Porter O'Grady). Being in the military we turnover leadership at least every 3 years. I've seen new leadership come in and policies finally get changed from years ago and they no longer agree with those changes. It can be very frustrating.
In the “What is
Leadership” video, he describes the importance of moving ownership of actions
to the people/areas of information and communicating intention of the ultimate
goal (vs. issuing permission/orders for how to get there). How does this
resonate with my assigned readings this week from the text? Is this typical
for the nursing profession? Why or why not?
In the video he speaks about intent and to give people the control and create leaders even though it may feel wrong. “The worker is increasingly in control. The knowledge necessary to get work done is now mostly in the hands of those who do the work” (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2015, p. 3). He says to create an environment for thinking so that people will think that they matter. Nurses are controlling people like Porter-O’Grady said in his webcast. This is very atypical for a nurse in a leadership position to give up their control and instill it on others.
In the video he speaks about intent and to give people the control and create leaders even though it may feel wrong. “The worker is increasingly in control. The knowledge necessary to get work done is now mostly in the hands of those who do the work” (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2015, p. 3). He says to create an environment for thinking so that people will think that they matter. Nurses are controlling people like Porter-O’Grady said in his webcast. This is very atypical for a nurse in a leadership position to give up their control and instill it on others.
After reviewing the ANA Scope/Standards of Practice (Nursing Administration), 2 areas that I feel like I need personal growth for me as a leader are:
- I think I need to become more savvy with seeing the bigger picture which includes, “planning, allocating, monitoring, analyzing, and contributing to the overall fiscal well-being of the healthcare enterprise” (2016, p. 14). I haven’t had to budget anything for the ward or the hospital yet. I feel like it’s different being at a military facility because we don’t scan any of the supplies we use for our patients. It’s like money is no option. When I was in nursing school going to practical’s in the civilian sector every little supply was scanned and charged to the room whether it was needed or not. It was sad. I missed my bubble of a perfect world where time was spent more on the patient rather than the cost.
- Another area needed for improvement is role qualifications. I didn’t realize there were so many professional certifications nurses can get. They “enable nurses to demonstrate their specialty expertise and validate their knowledge to colleagues, employers, healthcare consumers, and others” (2016, p.19). There is a long list of them in the Scope of Practice of Nursing Administration book and I will take some time to research them more in depth.
Porter-O'Grady, T. &
Malloch, K. (2015). Quantum leadership: Building better partnerships for
sustainable health (4th ed.).
Nursing
administration: scope and standards of practice. (2016). Silver Spring, MD:
American Nurses Association.
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