my film debut.

So I was chosen to be in a video at work. The purpose of the video is to highlight the gifts I, as a nurse, possess and share with patients, families, physicians and colleagues every day... and to bring to light what it means to be patient and family oriented for the organization that I work for.

I am terrified.

I know I should be flattered, and I am, for being the one person chosen to represent my unit (one nurse is chosen from every unit), but I am pretty scared. I do not want others to see me as the golden nurse and question why I was chosen or why they weren't chosen.  I almost wish no one would find out about this, but it is kind of difficult for them not to when there is a unit meeting being held at the same time this videotaping is being done and the taping is being done on the floor that I work so people will see me and wonder why I am there.  I also have no clue who chose me to be in the video.  Ah.  I wish I wasn't chosen.

The questions they are going to ask me are super loaded as well... I guess I will just use this post to practice my answers... and you can tell me if they are awful...

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  Describe what it means to you to be a [insert my organization's name here] nurse.
  • To me being a nurse means that I get to take my passion for helping others and make it my everyday profession. I get to selfishly fulfill my need for helping others, but at the same time filling a need within the community, because we all know nurses are very much needed.  It feels great to give my time and energy to something good, true, and real.
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  Describe what personal legacy you want to leave as a nurse.
  •  I want people to remember what I did for them and how I made them feel. I know most of my patients and their families most likely do not remember my name or even my face, but I want them to leave this hospital remembering that I made them more comfortable, more at home, more at peace.  Whatever the situation calls for, I hope that I made them feel better. I want them to remember how kind and caring I was towards them and their loved ones.  I hope that every person I run across feels that same exact way about their experience with me as their nurse and hopefully with all the nurses that care for them.
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  Briefly describe a time when you felt most inspired as a nurse? What made that moment in time inspirational for you?
  • I had a patient who was having a really rough night. She was admitted for a bowel obstruction, but was refusing the placement of a nasogastric tube.  All night long she was nauseous and vomiting. I sat down with her, face to face, and educated her on the benefits of the tube placement... "what can't go down, must come up".  By the time that I had left at the end of the shift she changed her mind from "absolutely no tube" to "I will think about it".  All I could do was provide her with education and hope she would make the best decision.  The next time I came back, she was my patient again and she told me, "I have been waiting for you."  She told me thank you for taking the time to sit with her and talk to her.  She said she eventually changed her mind, because of me.  She said she knew I cared about her and wanted what was best for her.  Apparently after I left that first day, she let the next nurse put the tube in.  This really inspired me, because I am a nurse... a source of comfort and education to all my patients.
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  What is your personal philosophy about the importance of building meaningful relationships with your peers, patients/families, and physicians? How do you ingrain your personal philosophy in your day to day work?
  • My philosophy is to treat every person as if they are someone's friend, family, loved one... because they are. It is really as simple as that.  People have bad days and we encounter a lot of people having bad days in the hospital, whether it be another nurse having a bad day, a patient having a bad day, a doctor having a bad day... we all have bad days, bad weeks, bad years.  We all need people to be compassionate, friendly, and empathetic towards us at some point in our lives.  So, I take that idea and try to keep it close, because I hope that when I am having a bad day, people will treat me the way I treat them.
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  What might our patients/families see & hear if everything we did as an organization was focused around their needs (not our needs but their needs)?
  • Our patients and their families would see and hear what they would want to hear.  They want to hear that people are caring for them, fighting for them, empathizing for them.  They want to hear that we are behind them and want the best for them.  They want to hear that we are making all our decisions on their behalf.
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  What three-four things can be do on your unit or within our organization to create WOW experiences for our employees, patients/families and physicians?
  • Increase communication between the staff
  • Use more positive reinforcement
  • Everyone just needs to smile a little bit more
  
  .... some of my answers are just so darn cheesy! Oh well. I hope to WOW the crowd.
  
  haha.