Last Clinical Day

I completed my last 4 hours of clinicals today. I had the opportunity to attend two meetings. The first meeting was held in the CNO's office. The people who attended the meeting was the CNO, the ER director, and the ER assistant administrator. The meeting was about the throughput initiative in the ED to increase patient flow. Being familiar with a lot of the initiatives, I was able to give a lot of input in this meeting and everyone actually took my advise. They are even going to hire a disposition/discharge nurse after I informed them of how effective it was because I have personal experience with the effectiveness of having a dispo nurse. It felt really good knowing that they valued my opinion as a professional nurse as opposed to being a nursing student. I also attended a meeting that discussed the use of omnipaque versus gastrografin contrast for patients needing a cat scan of the abdomen. Apparently omnipaque is suppose to digest and work through the bowel alot quicker than gastrografin and more palatable to the patients. It was suggested by the manufacturer that it should shave off approximately 45 mins of the patient's ED visit time. Some of the members, particularly the ED doctor is reluctant about using the omnipaque for fear of rescanning the patient and putting them at risk for more radiation. They decided to give it a 30 day trial period and document well on patients who would have to be rescanned. I thanked my preceptor for taking the time out to educate and mentor me during this semester. I had a great experience and learned alot about effective leadership. This was a great semester and I am glad I was afforded the opportunity.