Connections: May 2024 - 9

" It takes a
nursing village. "
A nurse resident shares his
experience learning from others
By Joshua King, nurse resident, Heart and Vascular Unit, DHMC
It takes a nursing village to care for patients competently and
efficiently. Of course, there is the inpatient bedside nurse who provides
direct care for patients while they are staying in the hospital, but there
are dozens of other types of nursing depending on the phase of care
a patient is in. A few examples are nurses that work in the OR, PACU,
interventional radiology and dialysis. These nurses care for patients
for moments of time when the patient leaves their room in the hospital
and goes to another part of the hospital for specified care. There are
other nurses, however, that are not the bedside nurse, but come to the
bedside to provide specific care to the patient. These nurses provide
services that both assist the bedside nurse and assure the patient that
the person providing care is specialized and competent in that area.
Examples of these nurses are ostomy care nurses, wound care nurses
and vascular access nurses.
As a part of the nurse residency program at Dartmouth Hitchcock
Medical Center, we have the opportunity to shadow different
specialties or services inside the hospital. I chose to shadow the
vascular access team, because it is a nursing specialty that is so
valuable to both the bedside nurse and the patient we are caring for.
I got the opportunity to shadow a nurse named Mary-Kate Lynch,
who is an RN, BSN, VA-BC. Like many nurses, Mary-Kate started out
as a Med-Surg nurse where she developed her nursing skills and
learned her strengths, weaknesses, preferences and frustrating parts
of the nursing profession. She mentioned that, at an early stage of
her nursing career, she developed a liking and skill for peripheral IVs.
Placing an IV doesn't just take mental competency, it is also a physical
skill. The hand-eye coordination, steadiness of hands and ability to
use ultrasound are all physical skills that are necessary. For Mary-Kate,
those skills were not only present, they were strengths that set her
apart, so much so that she knew she wanted to make vascular access
a career. She is still learning and has learned a lot; one of the most
important skills that the vascular access team provides is placing,
removing, assessing and advocating for PICC lines. Mary-Kate learned
those skills at an outside hospital, and we are blessed to have her and
her colleagues here for the patients at Dartmouth.
My biggest takeaway during my time shadowing and learning from
Mary-Kate is that it takes a true team to provide the quality of care that
Dartmouth Health is known for. Having nursing services provide care
in addition to the bedside nurse increases the level of competency-the
level of competency that is required to provide state-of-the-art care.
I asked Mary-Kate what she would tell a new nurse about care for IVs
and vascular access in general. She spoke strongly of the importance
of scrubbing the hub of the IV before giving anything, and to strive to
understand phlebitis and infiltration and how to assess IVs.
As nurses we are constantly striving to give the best care possible. I
would encourage all nurses to talk to and ask questions of the nursing
specialties. Ask the ostomy nurse to watch them change an ostomy
bag. Ask the vascular access team to explain infiltration and what to
look for, or ask wound care nurses what they recommend to protect
your patient's skin. We all bring something to the table. We are blessed
to have nurses like Mary-Kate as part of the vascular access team to
provide competent care and knowledge to our staff and patients at
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
Recognizing Our Incredible Nursing
Teams-National Nurses Week 2024
From May 6-12 we celebrated National Nurses Week, recognizing the thousands of nurses
across Dartmouth Health providing care in every clinical location. Our nurses' expertise and
compassion are evident every day, and we acknowledge the skill and dedication nurses bring
to their work in providing world-class care to our communities. Dartmouth Health CEO and
president Joanne Conroy, MD, shared her appreciation in a special video message to nurses:
Joanne Conroy, MD
Celebrating National Nurses Week-A Video Message
CEO and president, Dartmouth Health

https://channels.dartmouth-health.org/media/Celebrating+National+Nurses+Week+Description/1_5wosmelx

Connections: May 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Connections: May 2024