OR Manager August 2022 - 8

Leadership Series
Continued from page 7
Awards
Nominations
Open Now!
Q: Whom do you admire most as
a perioperative leader?
I admire leaders who value outside
input and are not afraid to listen to others'
opinions on issues. I also admire
healthcare workers who are members
of their professional organizations along
with their state associations. After all, I
am a nurse first, so I belong to my state
nurses association; and I am a nurse in
specialty practice second, so I belong to
AORN. And I am very active in both.
Leaders need to know what is going
on in the nursing community within their
state and also within their specialty
areas. These memberships provide that
awareness and knowledge. These associations
are globally thinking of issues
that the nursing community should be
interested in when it comes to policy,
legislation, and other important areas
like diversity, equality, inclusion, etc.
So many nurses leave nursing school
and have no idea that there are even
specialty organizations out there. Organizations
and publications like OR Manager
and AORN do a lot to inform new
nurses of all these available resources.
That has formed my career. You just
don't do this a certain way because that
is the way you were taught; you do it this
way because research says you need to
do it this way.
Nominate a colleague
for one of five awards to
be presented at the OR
Manager Conference
this fall in Denver.
Nominations are accepted
through August 19th at
www.ormanagerconference.com/
or-manager-awards
Evidence-based practice is the foundation
of perioperative patient care. I
admire those nurses who are actively
involved and want to help make things
work better. They are leaders in healthcare.
I
always tell people who express to
me that they want to be president of a
specialty organization that they need
to be a member of their state nurses
association. AORN leaders need to be
actively involved in their state nurses
associations because they are going to
be representing me as a perioperative
nurse at those big meetings that the
American Nurses Association has.
8
OR Manager | August 2022
Q: Why should leaders seek to
mentor?
When I think of leaders, one other element
that is glaring-in a good way-is
the impact of mentoring. I was mentored
all through my career. When I
started mentoring, I found that the more
I mentored, the more I was exposed to
education. And I realized that I basically
secured my legacy in being a mentor.
Mentoring is so rewarding. Whether
it is through teaching my perioperative
nursing students who are seniors in the
nursing program at Otterbein University,
or taking a novice nurse at an AORN
convention under my wing and saying,
" This is what you need to do to achieve
excellence, " I am finding ways to share
my passion.
I get to teach, which I love, and I get
to practice leadership. Mentorship is a
major, major part of leadership. It is an
expectation.
Q: What are the signs of a good
mentor?
The appropriate, most effective mentors
are the ones who not only look at the
professionalism of the nurse, but also
at the personal aspects because they
go hand in hand. It is not just teaching
nurses a new trick for their trade and
putting another egg in their baskets.
Mentors need to show nurses how to
adapt and how to survive within the culture
in which they exist.
A true mentor is one who helps support
the nurses under his or her care
and helps make sure they are all right.
Nurses are so busy all the time. We
are advocating for our patients, learning
new clinical skills, time managing
our days and our ORs, and we forget
about ourselves. No matter how expert
you are in healthcare, you still need
to have a mentor. You need someone
who you can openly discuss things with;
someone from whom you are not afraid
to hear, " You're wrong, " sometimes;
someone whom you trust when they
say, " This is what you need to do. "
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OR Manager August 2022

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