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Ordinary Heroes,

Ordinary Leaders

Barbara Van Slyke, RN, BSN, OCN, CRNIOctober, 2013

+What is happening?

Uncertain future of healthcare.

Roles of nurses are changing.

Is there or is there not a nursing shortage?

Are nursing schools teaching the right stuff?

Are “non-new” nurses not keeping up with the right stuff?

How best can you position yourself for the future?

+

Future roles for

nurses

Outside of the hospital’s walls

Chronic disease

Preventive care

Home Health

Teaching

Navigating

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+Objectives to Ponder

1. Our “ordinary” may be someone else’s act of

heroism.

2. Tell your stories.

3. Say “Yes” to the smallest opportunity.

4. Growing yourself also helps grow the profession.

+ “What is YOUR definition

of a hero?” --YahooSomeone who has helped you out through a hard

time.

Someone who saves your or someone else’s life.

Someone who jumps at the opportunity to help

another person.

Someone who is there for you.

A role model.

Anybody trying to help other people.

Someone who makes a difference in people’s lives.

+Ordinary Hero: PICC Nurse

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+Ordinary Hero: Emergency

Department Nurse

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Tell your storiesHeroes have stories that we

remember

� myths

� comic books

� films

Too shy? Change the “Hero” if

it helps. The point is that it is

a story about what a nurse

does.

+Memorable patients make

memorable stories

Think of a situation or a patient who left its mark in

your mind. Now take the memory and apply the

nursing slant to it.

The “little white-haired man.”

+Why are stories about what nurses

do important?

Because nurses are vitally important to Healthcare…but

no one seems to know that!

We just don’t talk about ourselves or what we do.

Do you tell your spouse/family what you do?

Does the media portray what you do correctly?

It is only once we start educating others as to what nurses

do that we will be asked to participate in healthcare

decisions for society.

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+Our seat at the Healthcare Table

isn’t just empty, it is slid back

against the wall at the side of the

room.

Who understands the

healthcare needs

more than nurses?

Who also know

society more than

nurses?

+You’re not a “handmaiden”, you

are a colleague, a consultant.

When you assess your 5

patients, how many

hundreds of data pieces

are you inputting?

+What do you say to your patients?

You find a decub on your patient. You assess it and

make all the calls necessary to get treatment started.

“Your doctor has

ordered a treatment for

your wound.”

“I wanted to make sure that

your wound is taken care of

so I called your doctor and

explained the need. He

agreed. A Wound Specialist

Nurse will be here shortly

to decide the best

treatment.”

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Patient’s in Outpatient

Infusion think that

what we do is

incredible. But is it

because they see that

it takes us 4 phone

calls to get that

needed prescription

for them?

In-patients never see

all that goes on at the

Nurse’s Station or all

that nurse’s do.

+A Hero is a role model, a leader.

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+

Leadership classes are part of the nursing curriculum.

The future roles for nurses will include many more

leadership skills.

Ask for and demand competencies

Look for on-line classes through nursing organizations

Not all leadership opportunities are necessarily

medical related.

No matter what the future holds, it

will need Ordinary Leaders

+Say “Yes” to the smallest

opportunity

Leadership skill building takes inner and

outer work. It takes both internal and

external sources of power.

You can start today working on your inner

skill building.

HIV/AIDS

Patient

Teaching

Presenting at the

Middle School.

County

HIV/AIDS

Advisory

Council

Governor

Appointed

Health Council

Board of

Directors of

Waterfall Clinic

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Met incredible people

Served on several different

Boards

Learned how to Fund-Raise

for Charities and Non-profits

Presentations

Involved in starting up

several programs

+Lessons Learned:

“ignored, silenced, and muzzled”

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“Professional associations such as the RNAO

encourage and support nurses to speak up

about their clinical expertise so health care

organizations and the public will understand

that this expertise goes far beyond nurturing.”

“During the SARS crisis, nurses discovered that

their clinical expertise did not guarantee that

they would be listened to or taken seriously.

Media savvy was required to communicate

with politicians and other decision makers.”

“At every opportunity, we must speak of the

clinical, organizational, and system knowledge

and skills we bring to our work, the difficult

activities we engage in, and the procedures we

perform. Collectively we can—and must—

create an authentic image of our extraordinary

profession.”

Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN,

PhD (cand), O.ONT

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“To transform our organizations,

our communities, or our lives

we must first transform

ourselves.”

Delorese Ambrose

Leadership: The Journey Inward

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Thank you to my Co-Heroes,

who continue to make wonderful

new nursing stories to tell.

+References:

Ambrose, Delores, Ed.D. Leadership: The Journey Inward (Fourth Edition),

Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2008.

Buresh, Bernice and Gordon, Suzanne, From Silence to Voice: What Nurses

Know and Must Communicate to the Public (Second Edition), ILR Press,

2006.

The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, released

October 5 2010 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Gordon, Suzanne, Editor, When Chicken Soup Isn’t Enough, ILR Press, 2010.

Oregon Health Professions: Occupational and County Profiles, released

February 2013 by the Office for Oregon Health Policy & Research.

Oregon Action Plan for Health

Rice, Chelsea, “Nurses Need a Long Drive to the Boardroom”,

HealthLeaders Media, April 15, 2013.