Work History/Experience

WORK EXPERIENCE

Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, Spokane, WA June 2007- current http://moss.spokane.med.va.gov/pccs/default.aspx
Registered Nurse, RN-C, MA, BSN
Serve as the charge RN on an inpatient locked psychiatric unit, duties are to: provide holistic patient care and milieu management, delegate staff responsibilities, coordinate, initiate, and lead therapeutic groups, petition for and make changes in policies to improve the safety of the unit, create continuing education classes related to psychiatric care, collaborate in the suicide risk reduction program to enhance unit and patient safety, precept/orient new staff, and lead interdisciplinary rounds in daily treatment planning.
Additional responsibilities:
• Scheduling for 24hr med/surg and psych unit
• Utilization Management tracking psychiatric inpatient stays to meet admission and extended stay criteria, collaborating with the interdisciplinary team to document appropriate levels of care, and to facilitate appropriate length of stay
• Leading a Recovery implementation plan on our inpatient unit by creating educational tools for staff and being the inpatient point of contact for the Recovery process
• Representing the union as a member of the VISN education committee
• Leading the 2011 3S Goal Sharing project resulting in an improvement and smoothing of the psych inpatient discharge process to have patients discharged from our unit within 1 hour of the scheduled discharge time. We improved from a cumulative 54%-81%.
• Mental Health First Aid Coordinator/Instructor – teach, schedule, and compile, analyze and write up data reports. MHFA was approved as best practice at our facility with 96% staff recommending this course to others. Accomplishments:
• Defined the need for additional training and created a proposal for implementation of Mental Health First Aid. As a result, Spokane VAMC was awarded VISN funding to offset the proposed cost ($80,000) to get PCS staff trained in this program. I have coordinated the program and 100+ staff have been certified in MHFA. Outcomes of this course show a 15% increase in general knowledge of mental disorders and treatment, a 96% success rate with recommendation for other staff to take the course and improved confidence in ability to intervene in a mental health crisis.
• Leader of the 3 South goal sharing project to improve unit discharges to occur within 1 hour of scheduled appointment time. After analysis of current practice and streamlining the process, we changed to a patient led discharge. As a result of changes made, unit performance went from 32% to 94% (QTR1 2010 - QTR4 2011), with a cumulative increase of 54% to 81% (which also has improved facility performance success at meeting the discharge measure). An additional result of moving to a veteran led discharge process was an increase in patient satisfaction scores regarding discharge information from 77% (FY09) to 95% (FY11). Other outcomes include improved bed flow and decreased psychiatric bed diversion hours at a facility savings of $20k-$32k per month (cost of 4 admissions averted from the community).

Eastern State Hospital, Medical Lake, WA August 2005 - June 2007 http://www.dshs.wa.gov/mentalhealth/esh.shtml
Psychiatric Security Nurse (PSN)
Medication nurse on a locked, maximum security, forensic admission psychiatric unit, duties included: participation in pt evaluation and treatment to determine and regain competency for incompetent adults in the judiciary system, maintenance of a therapeutic environment to assist with mental health recovery, helping provide the least restrictive alternative of care for aggressive/assaultive patients, active part of the interdisciplinary team, leading group activities, charting on patient conditions, monitoring 1:1 patients to provide for safety, medication nurse, milieu management. Additional duties included: medication nurse on a locked psychiatric/medical geriatric unit, providing full care for geriatric patients with minor medical problems and mental health problems, assessing patient health, assisting with activities of daily living, and providing therapeutic activities for patients to participate in.

S & S Health Care, Spokane, WA 2001 - August 2005
LPN Traveling home care nurse for patients age infancy to geriatric, duties included: caring for ventilator dependent patients in need of some form of skilled nursing in the home, medication nurse, evaluate, assess, and track health and wellness, arrange doctor visits and follow-up care, coordinate different levels and disciplines of care, assist with activities of daily living, provide therapeutic interactions, and provide patient and family teaching on disease management, interventions, and care.