Hello everyone. My name is Melanie Smith. I have been an RN for twenty years with my associates degree. I have another year and a half before I can graduate with my BSN! My intention after I graduated with my ADN was to go on to get my BSN shortly afterwards, but I ended up getting married and starting a family. So now that my children are pretty much grown I feel like I can focus on my career a little more. I have about 5 years experience as a Med/Surg inpatient nurse, and a year of hospice care, and 14 years in the pre-op, PACU setting. I absolutely love working in the area that I currently work in.
In my unit we like to use ASPAN (American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses) for best practices. For example, when we expanded our unit, (doubling in size), we changed the way we cared for our patients based on ASPAN recommendations. We used to be total care by one RN, meaning that RN admitted, and recovered the same patient. The problem with this is that the RN could be in the middle of an admission, which should be one on one, but he or she may have two other patients that he or she admitted return from surgery at the same time. It was dangerous and difficult. Now our unit has separated pre-op and PACU based on the ASPAN guidelines and it is a much safer practice.
I look forward to working with you all and learning more about the importance of evidence based practice!
Welcome to the course, Melanie! I love that you mention using your specialty specific nursing organization to guide practice. This is also something I mentioned in my introduction video. Nurses can find both practice and peer support through involvement in their specialty specific nursing organization (even if that means just staying updated by being a member and reading the publications).
I’d like to thank you Melanie for giving me a real life example of how being a part of your specialty specific nursing organization is a benefit. I always figured there was some benefit, but for whatever reason it did not ever click for me. Your example of using ASPAN recommendations just made sense. And bless you for being able to take care of surgical patients. I know I’m a terrible patient and am not that wonderful coming out of anesthesia after surgery. Thankfully I’ve only had that experience twice. It can take a lot of patience and skill to ensure good outcomes after surgery. I am so glad your unit was able to not only recognize the problem, but provide an evidence based solution.
I look forward to learning from you throughout this class.
Hello Melanie! I to use ASPAN in my everyday work. It is like my “bible” sort of speak. I reference it often to ensure the correct practices are in place. Good luck this semester.