Nurse on the Move: JoAnne Phillips

“Nursing is the hardest job you will ever love.” JoAnne Phillips MSN, RN, CCRN, CCNS, CPPS knows that arduous work can bring rewarding results. As a high quality and patient safety manager at Penn Home Care & Hospice Services, a clinical informatics skilled development specialist on the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and a graduate student working on her DNP at Vanderbilt University, Phillips doesn’t take her role as a nurse calmly. She continually tries to enhance the standard of lifetime of those round her, which is why she is our next Nurse in Movement.

Phillips previously worked as a clinical nurse within the transitional, surgical intensive care and patient safety units on the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s degree in critical care nursing from Widener University and previously worked as a clinical instructor and staff nurse at Hahnemann University Hospital.

From our interview, I learned why Phillips decided to return to high school and why she believes nursing is the very best occupation that may change an individual’s life.

When I went to the hospital as a baby, I watched what the nurses did and thought that is what I desired to do. When I used to be older, I volunteered within the neonatal intensive care unit. Then I knew this was what I desired to do. I can not exactly say it was a calling, nevertheless it was pretty close.

I had the chance to work on the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where I actually learned concerning the influential role a primary care nurse can play in a patient’s final result. Patients might be incredibly sick, and I knew that the very best medical care combined with the very best nursing care could provide the very best outcomes for patients. As a lifelong learner, I actually have benefited from continuous learning opportunities in intensive care units.

I do not think patient safety is one issue, but a virtual kaleidoscope of issues. We need to raised understand how systems work together and what role the human factor plays (how we interact with processes and technology). Because people will all the time be a part of the equation, we want to know that mistakes will occur. Our role as safety leaders is to cut back the likelihood that individuals will make a mistake. Something I tell my colleagues: “If we make it easier for people to do the precise thing, they are going to do the precise thing. If we make it too complicated, they are going to suggest workarounds. We often see negative effects then.

I might encourage nurses to work on making the pc give you the results you want, somewhat than you working for the pc. We hear from employees that documenting on a pc is simply too difficult. My answer is that we didn’t design the system appropriately. One worker told me that it takes eight clicks to display a unclean diaper map – an excellent example of how we made it too difficult. The conclusion is that this [computers] they are going to stay here; [they are] unreliable source of data. Once we achieve higher interoperability (computer systems talking to one another), it is going to be great.

The more I find out about patient safety, the more I realize I want to work towards an answer. I had to know the systems even higher. My DNP program focuses on health systems management and I imagine that through it I’ll have the ability to take a leadership role in patient safety, mentor and develop many others to know how we will create a secure environment for our staff and patients .

I feel that to change into a nurse today, that you must be a lifelong learner. Not only in a tutorial environment, but through continuous personal and skilled development. Nurses have unlimited learning and development opportunities – conferences, membership in skilled organizations, online learning. If funds are a challenge, a lot of these options are free.

Nurses are the answer to the long run of healthcare. We spend 75% of health care dollars on chronic care. No one is healthier equipped to treat patients with chronic, complex health problems than a nurse. We must create an environment that draws and retains the very best people in nursing. Is there a greater job than knowing you modified someone’s life? Even if this difference helps them die peacefully. As many individuals have mentioned before, nursing is the toughest job you’ll ever love.

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