My name is Melanie Savage. I also go by Mel. Either one is fine. I live in Coffeyville, KS. It’s right on the Oklahoma border, about 60 miles from the Missouri state line. I became an LPN in 1997, and then an RN in 2009.

I’ve worked in a few different areas in nursing over the years: Elective surgery clinic nurse with front and back office duties, Family practice clinic nurse in Kansas City, and Pediatric home health relief nurse. My current and main nursing experience is in LTC. I currently work as the IP / Risk Management nurse for a 143-bed LTC SNF. I also work part-time as the wellness monitoring nurse for HCBS FE and PD waivere clients in all of the counties in the southeast section of the state, from Wichita area as the western border to the southern and eastern state lines. I really enjoy working with geriatric population.

Research is a major component to my daily work. As the IP nurse, I’m responsible for employee and patient health and vaccination programs, I help write policy and procedure that must be evidence-based practice focused. These need regular review and revision to remain current with what the research recommends. I assist with employee orientation, as well as staff education for both the NH and the At-Home employees. I’m the leader in our antibiotic stewardship program, I track and report to the NHSN as well as to KU for the sepsis reduction initiative in which our facility is participating with them. I’m on our QAPI committee, our Falls reduction committee, and I work on the PIP (Process Improvement Program) committee for one of our largest communities at the NH. Root cause analysis and improving patient outcomes part of my daily work. I also do surveillance, staff observation and feedback, and do tracking and trending analysis for multiple quality measure areas.

All of my work flows back to “What does the research say?” and “How is what we’re doing affecting patient outcomes? What do we need to do to improve this?”