Meet Carrie. She is an experienced RN who was hired 5 months ago to work 7pm-7am on the busy post op floor where you are the nurse manager. Because her spouse is in the military they have move frequently. In the past 5 years they have lived in 3 different states, most recently moving to your state 6 months ago. Carrie never complains if she has to stay late. If you are short staffed she never turns down extra shifts, even if it means extra holidays or weekends with limited staff. She is willing to help others and is the first to offer to administer meds to her colleagues’ patients if they are busy. She never complains about being assigned to care for those patients who have pain that is difficult to manage. As a matter of fact she volunteers to take those assignments.
Everyone on the staff admires Carrie’s commitment and but it is starting to bug you that she seems to be the one who always comes back late from meal break and that she also seems to take a lot of restroom breaks resulting in other team members having to keep an eye on her patients. You noticed that when you work with Carrie she is all business. While you admire her focus it feels a little awkward working with her as she doesn’t share much about herself or join in those casual conversations colleagues usually have from time to time.
During Quality Improvement meeting this morning the ADON noted in your annual report that your unit had significantly more drug waste than in the previous 12 month and 5% more med errors. Your ADON asks for a gap analysis and corrective action plan to be submitted by next week. You begin to wonder…….
Identify 3 steps you will take in preparing your analysis and plan. Include your rationale for each.
