We came into Nurses Week 2019 with the idea that we would be shining a spotlight on a few “superhero” nurses and recognize their efforts to help and heal. We could not have anticipated the response, or the quality of responses, we received.
Take Liz Boes, who turned a childhood filled with frequent moves and being the “new kid” into knack for making connections quickly and turning strangers into friends. In a hospital, that kind of care and camaraderie can make a huge difference for patients and family members who may be going through some of the most stressful times of their lives. Or Michelle Lewis, who always strives to treat her patients and their families, and her own coworkers, with compassion and respect, despite juggling many hats and putting out figurative fires on the night shift.
Working in healthcare in any aspect can be tough, but nurses bear a huge part of the load. As Maite Browning pointed out, beyond technical abilities, nurses need to be able to face and overcome adverse situations while remaining optimistic. That kind of resilience and ability to remain focused is crucial to providing the kind of high-quality treatment we all want and need at hospitals and clinics.
We also heard about a lot of misconceptions to the nursing profession—how nurses fit into the healthcare ecosystem, their responsibilities, and how friendly they can be. One that Lynda VanVliet said she hears a lot is that emergency nurses are grumpy—a far cry from the friendly and sweet professionals she works with. And we loved hearing about how Leslie Callaway‘s experience as a parent of a pair of premature newborn twins gave her a close look at just how much nurses do, and how it inspired her to become one herself and help others in her position.
There were a lot of similar pain points we heard from all of our responding nurses: needing to be in more places at once, wishing they could see into the future to make even better decisions, being short-staffed, wanting more beds. While we can’t fix those things overnight, Qventus can mitigate these challenges by providing practical predictions through dashboards and nudges and giving teams actionable recommendations for avoiding issues before they occur. As Lucita Cruz told us, Qventus helps to prioritize actions to improve patient flow, and identify areas with high patient activity and send nurses that way to accommodate the demand.
“In this way, nurses in these areas feel supported and patients are able to receive care in a timely and efficient manner,” Lucita said. “Qventus also makes me aware of how many patients are currently waiting and need to be seen. With this information I am able to coordinate with the staff physician to determine if the physician on-call is required to come in to assist with patient flow.
Let’s give another round of applause for our six featured nurses—and all of the other nurses who help make healthcare great.
Thank you for all you do!
