St. John's College at SBU Happenings

Camp Barnabas Update from Tina

creldridge — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:32:43 +0000

Thanks for forwarding the information about the need for volunteers at Camp Barnabas. They were able to fill their need of 23 volunteers within a 2-day period. What a blessing!!!!

I arrived home yesterday after a very spiritually fulfilling week. I took 6 amazing nursing students that worked non-stop the whole week. This term of campers was a difficult group to care for in the respect that all were physically and cognitively disabled. Most were non-verbal. We gave 30 tube feedings a day and many more continuous feedings through out the night time hours. In addition we gave hundreds of medications and treatments in between mealtimes. We even had a dehydrated camper who needed IV fluids and one of our students started on the first try (which is not easy on a dehydrated kid with CP). She had much encouragement from the other students and staff.

We even had a camper who has a trach with oxygen and has a continuous oxygen saturation monitor. He was very fragile with his respiratory needs and required 4 treatments a day, with each treatment lasting 2 hours. He also needed 24-hour nursing observation with suctioning of his trach. Our students took 4-hour shifts each night to sit with him and monitor his needs.

The students were AMAZING, and the doctors and nurses said over and over each week that this boy would not have been able to stay at camp if it weren’t for the nursing students. During the daytime hours we were able to take him to some of the indoor activities, and we even took him swimming in a water wheelchair on one of the cooler days. This endeavor required much assistance from the students. I introduced the mother of this child to the students when she arrived to pick him up. She cried when she heard about their hard work and dedication to her son’s care. She thanked them many times through her tears and compliments. As you can imagine, this time at camp for her son allowed her and her husband a much needed break.

In addition to their hard work the students were able to spend some time at the pool and even took a float trip on the Shoal creek. Not once did I hear a student complain or ask to be relieved from their duties. They worked as a team with the other Medical Staff, and I was asked to “PLEASE bring students to this term next year!” One of the ladies was a director of a home care agency in Moberly, Missouri, and offered each one of them a job at her institution if they ever found themselves in that part of the state.

In their spare time the students wrote a song that the Medical Team sang at our last lunch time together in the Mess Hall. We received a standing ovation from the campers, volunteers, and staff. The words of the song are as follows, to the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game:” (FYI–the Fish House is the name of the Health Center)

Take me up to the doctor,

Take me up to the nurse.

Band-aides for scrapes and insect bites,

Don’t forget Benadryl at night!

Oh, it’s root, root, root for the campers,

When they have fun it is great!

We give breakfast, lunch, and dinner meds

At the OLE FISH HOUSE!

The theme for this year was “DIRT.” We discussed about how many of us are like “fertile soil” and are ready to receive Christ in our lives, and yet there are many of us who are somewhat like “rocky soil,” or maybe even like “sandy soil” that needs more cultivation, fertilization, and tender care to be ready to accept Christ. I believe a door was opened this week for some of the students to explore what awesome things God has to offer.

I would like to thank you for supporting me in continuing this opportunity for the students and myself. It by far has to be the BEST week out of my whole year. It allows me to regroup and rejuvenate myself for the upcoming year, so that when things are tense and stressful I can recall the true reason why I am a nurse. I call it “Nursing in the Raw,” since we don’t have the wonderful technology or extra disciplines (pharmacy, OT, PT, Pastoral Care, and so on) that we have in the hospital setting. The Med Team does it all, and the students truly understand what nursing and team work is all about.

I could go on and on about this wonderful place and the true peace that is experienced at Camp Barnabas.

Tina Tarter-Hamlet, MSN, RN

Assistant Professor of Pediatric Nursing

St. John’s College of Nursing at SBU

Merciful Students in the Storm

creldridge — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:52:12 +0000

A bad storm blew through our area last week, with tornadoes and lots of damaging wind. Here’s a story from the morning of the storm, from the director of our ASN program, Becky Miller:

I am just now hearing about how the storm Friday morning affected Mercy Villa. The facility did not have damage, but the need to shelter all the residents really shook them all up and altered the schedule for the day, which added to the turmoil that morning. I was told that all the Mercy Villa staff were saying how thankful they were that the students were there to help. They said they couldn’t have done it without them. Kudos to Pat and her group that day for stepping up. Please thank the students for me and let them know how much they were appreciated.

Mercy Values

creldridge — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:12:57 +0000

From an email from an RN at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield:

"On April 22, 2009, we had second-semester students on our floor from 1400-1900. In my opinion these students performed above the call of duty and exhibited the highest Mercy values attainable. If this is an example of the future of nursing then we can all rest assured that we will be in good hands."

Thank you to this RN for taking the time to write about our wonderful students. The instructor with these students was Patty Brown-Hanson. She said that the hospital unit was having one of those days we are all familiar with: the kind where you just feel overwhelmed with no end in sight. The students, led by Patty, jumped right in to help, all working as a team. They helped start IVs, passed meds on more than just their assigned patients to help the team leaders, passed trays, and so on–you get the picture. Thank you, Patty, for facilitating a great learning experience for these students.

Health Sciences

creldridge — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:05:28 +0000

Our college is approved to offer a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences and an Associate of Science in Health Sciences. I am excited about these degrees, because they provide a way for people with certifications in health fields, such as paramedics and dental assistants, to round out their education with a college degree. And, for people who don’t have or want a special certification, the degrees provide a general all-around education in health sciences for those who want to work on the business side of health care (such as clinic management, health care administration, billing, or medical transcription).

Health care provides a nearly endless supply of interesting, stable, well-paid jobs, even in a poor economy. People with a college degree in health sciences will find many opportunities for career growth and satisfaction. If you want to know more, check out this website: Explore Health Careers. You can search for jobs within a certain salary range for people with 2-year and 4-year degrees.

For admissions and advising information about the health sciences degrees, contact Dana Hunt, dhunt@sbuniv.edu.

Check It Out

creldridge — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:54:42 +0000

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out the links in the right-hand menu bar on the home or main page. Some of the links lead to websites with terrific educational programs and interactive teaching tools; others lead to health care blogs and other random things that should interest nursing and health science faculty and students. Everything I have posted is free. Most of these links have been sent to me by faculty members who are using them or have found them useful in the past. Thanks to all who have contributed–please keep it up!

Aiding and Abetting

creldridge — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:08:30 +0000

There’s a lot of aiding and abetting going on at St. John’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Southwest Baptist University-Springfield. You might think I’m writing about something criminal, since we usually hear the phrase "aiding and abetting" in the context of someone helping a lawbreaker do something illegal. "Abetting" is actually a lovely word, meaning "to approve, encourage, and support (an action or a plan of action); to urge or help" (from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/abetting).

Some kudos from our faculty members about the people they work with:

"I needed a 4th instructor for a skills station during orientation, and Kim graciously agreed to come in ON HER DAY OFF to help us out. She did an outstanding job and the students loved her."–Kelly

"Thank you to Peggy, who helped Cindy and I make adjustments to our new wire simulation cart."–Kathy

"A BIG thank you to Barb for helping to cover the Learning Resource Center (LRC) so LRC faculty could attend restraint education."–Cindy, Sylvia, and Kathy

"I needed to attend an important week-long workshop, but it occurred during the busiest time of the semester. Even though my co-workers were insanely busy, they didn’t hesitate to jump right in and cover my classes and clinicals so I could be gone the whole week."

"I am so grateful to have such a wonderful job and co-workers. This is the best place to work because we all help each other out."

I don’t solicit these comments and emails–they just come to me, because people are truly thankful for the help they receive and they want to express their gratitude. That’s another great thing about aiding and abetting: by encouraging each other, we motivate more of the same. The virtuous cycle builds trust and confidence in the team. And, it sets a great example for the students we teach. Thanks!

Above and Beyond

creldridge — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:32:26 +0000

I love emails like this, from a faculty member who teaches pediatrics:

"I want to tell you about some students who went "above and beyond" in the clinical setting. First, two students actually volunteered for an EXTRA clinical day (extra work voluntarily!!) on the pediatric unit to gain experience with skills and working with children in the hospital setting. Then, on a day when the pediatric unit was short staffed and incredibly busy, with many patients with high acuity, all of our students who were doing their clinical hours on the unit jumped right in and helped care for the patients, doing more than was required or expected of them as students. The assistant nursing director on the unit commented that the students were instrumental in providing vital care to the patients that would have been very difficult to accomplish otherwise. She commented several times how the pediatric nurses couldn’t have managed things that day without the nursing students."

The really fun thing is that I get emails like this many times in a semester. We are blessed with faculty and students who see a need and jump in to meet it, instead of saying, "That’s not my job," or "I don’t have to do that." They say, "Let me help," or "I can do that." This marvelous attitude fills me with awe and gratitude.

I don’t know who said this, but I like it:

“Excellence can be obtained if you:
…care more than others think is wise;
…risk more than others think is safe;
…dream more than others think is practical;
…expect more than others think is possible.”

(From www.thinkexist.com)

I would add: Excellence can be obtained if you give more than others think you should.

To all the nurses, faculty, and students who care more, risk more, dream more, expect more, and give more–I salute you!

Speaking Out

creldridge — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:26:12 +0000

This might be the best story I’ve heard in the last few months about a student who demonstrated that "just a student" is a vital part of the health care team. It was sent to me by Leah, a clinical instructor in the college.

The student was accompanying her patient to a procedure, thinking they were headed to radiology for NG tube placement. Our student discovered that they were not going to radiology, but instead were on the way to radiation therapy for palliative radiation. The student remembered hearing in report that morning that the patient was not going to be receiving any more radiation treatments until she was seen by the radiology oncologist. Before the patient could receive the radiation treatment, our student spoke up and related what she had heard in report, which then led to the appropriate care of the patient. If she had not spoken up, the patient would have inadvertently received radiation prior to further discussion with the physician. I am so glad that our students are taking the initiative to speak up and become part of the team and not blowing things off because they are ‘just a student.’

Whoo-hoo!! Many veteran nurses remember being reprimanded in the "bad old days" for speaking out when they felt a patient’s care wasn’t being handled appropriately. Well, if those days aren’t completely gone, they should be, and we can help usher them out!

Lucian Leape, M.D., a driving force behind the Institute of Medicine’s report To Err is Human, believed that in the model health care system, physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals would work together in multi-disciplinary teams and assume personal responsibility for ensuring safe practice and identifying hazards. “Indeed, they would have almost an obsession about safety,” Leape said. “They would respond to mistakes in a non-punitive way. Instead of pointing a finger of blame, they would seek to determine what went wrong with the system and how to fix it.” Read a brief report here: Research in Profile

It’s difficult to speak up and speak out when no one else is standing with you. I’m so proud of our instructors and students and their efforts to encourage this kind of advocacy in everything we do.

Infection Control

creldridge — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:37:01 +0000

Jodi, a clinical instructor, emailed me that she wanted to share some good news, along with her fellow instructor, Susan. She wrote:

"Today the patient advocate on our hospital unit observed all of our students. He was looking specifically at how many were washing their hands. He made his observations without any of us knowing what he was doing. We were 10 for 10!!!! Yeah for our students!"

Such a simple thing, isn’t it, washing our hands? But we know from reading the research that this is the single most important thing we can do to prevent the spread of infection. This interesting website, Stop Hospital Infections, has collected over 1000 real-life stories about nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections and the damage they cause. Just a few minutes of reading is enough to send me to the basin for another round of hand disinfection!

So, hurray for our students, and hurray for the dedicated faculty who are teaching students every day how important it is to wash their hands.

The Spirit of Inquiry

creldridge — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:10:21 +0000

Paul, one of our clinical instructors, reported this story this week:

"I was approached by a team leader in the hospital last night who shared some compliments and observations. She expressed amazement at the positive atmosphere that the students and instructors in our college share. She reported that in the nursing program she attended, if a student asked a question or sought out advice it was an admission of being ill-prepared, so students did not ask questions. She said that several students over the last couple of weeks have asked her questions about care/procedures, to her delight. She was also surprised to see that the students would come to me, their instructor, with concerns or questions, or to brag on their successes. She was envious–but pleased!–that our students have the opportunity to stretch their brains without feeling intimidated or patronized. Later, two of my students were approached by this team leader, who asked if ALL the instructors at our college were so nice. She complimented Sharon (a fellow instructor) and myself for being so kind to her patients, visitors, and even more impressive, our students!"

I love this story, because I think it captures a bit of the spirit of inquiry and new learning that we want to encourage in all our students. Every nurse and scientist should always be curious, always be learning, and always gleaning what they can from every person they meet. Each of us have experiences, insights, and lessons learned that we can share with others, and they with us.

Albert Einstein said, "The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity."

Holy curiosity, Batman!! I love that. Curiosity is what opens our minds to thinking about better ways of doing something, to ponder the evidence base of what we do, to consider research that might help us figure out why some patients respond in certain ways to our interventions. I hope we all continue to question, to learn, to grow, and to encourage holy curiosity in our students.