Hi everyone,
My name is Sarah and I have been an emergency department nurse for the last four years. Attending the Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety is important to me because it is going to help to give me resources and education to help further my career and overall make me a better nurse and leader. In the time since I have graduated, started my career, and gotten to where I am today, I have advanced into various leadership roles, many of which help improve patient safety. I feel like I have not had a lot of formal training to link leadership and patient safety. I am aware that patient safety is part of my everyday practice; however, I feel like I will be able to benefit from the tools and education presented in this academy. It is also important to me to help further my career. I want to advance further into leadership and education positions, with getting degrees specifically in those areas, and having more knowledge behind me going forward will only benefit me.
Outside of it helping me advance my career and give me a better background, it will also help me better support my patients and coworkers. By taking this academy, I will have additional resource and knowledge that many others in my emergency department may not have or have other tools that they would find useful. Nursing is never ending learning and knowledge sharing. I will be able to be a stronger resource to others in the emergency department with what I learn. Also, my patients will have a nurse with more knowledge caring for them and helping them. I may only be one person, but I will learn different skills while working with other disciplines and learning different topics that I can then implement in everyday practice.
Overall, I can help be an advocate for changes to improve patient safety. I can take some of what I learn back to other leaders, committees, and staff to help make our work environment safer for patients and help improve the quality of care. Patient safety should be at the top of every healthcare worker’s priority when caring for patients. However, it is important for me to be attending this academy to help further be a positive role model and change agent in my practice and workplace. I want to be the one to help make a difference for staff, patients, and the hospital, and in order to do that, I need to work and collaborate with others, while learning everything I can.
Thank you and excited to work with all of you!
Sarah Romecki