Leading the Way, Unifying
One of the reasons I fell in love with UCSD was the teamwork and mutual respect between all members of the patient care teams. It has been a longstanding part of my personal philosophy that no one member of the team is any better, more valuable, than any other team member. All members of the team share the goal of positive patient outcomes. Team members who provide direct patient care are just as important as ancillary members of the team. We are all accountable for our own choices, and we are all responsible for maximizing our roles for optimizing patient and staff experiences. Some of the best leaders recognize and utilize the value and talents in all team members.
I was welcomed into the care team for a patient on 7W PCU in Hillcrest at UCSD during my externship rotation. My patient presented with altered level of consciousness and a rapid response was initiated. I was able to give a great communication, demonstrating an understanding of my patient’s baseline and events leading to the change in status. Throughout the remainder of the shift, the physician, respiratory therapy, and other team members checked on the patient; the team members approached me and asked for my input, even after learning that I was a student. Being included as part of the team gave me a sense of importance, and I was no longer “just” a student. I was made to feel that my input was valuable, and my recommendation for the patient (change in level of care) was ultimately implemented.
As an EMT, I helped to foster positive working relationships with my partners. When working on an ambulance, we are ultimately a team of two. As a team, we are both responsible for the treatment/care decisions we make during each call. In a very short amount of time, we have to complete all assessments, come to a consensus on all decisions, and be able to verbalize the rationales for those decisions. That’s a lot of stress to put on a partnership; through the experiences together we gain trust in one another and have to communicate thoroughly and therapeutically with one another, our patients, onlookers, any additional EMS who might be on scene, and the MICN who is receiving radio report at the hospital. Failing to therapeutically communicate with any of the involved parties can strain a relationship between EMS partners and negatively impact patient outcomes. The EMS partnership truly must act as a single unit.
I was partnered with an EMT who was new to the profession. This EMT took a little longer to acclimate to the job duties, and struggled with applying concepts from one situation to the next. I initially needed to improve my partner’s performance for my own wellbeing at work. However, once I started working with my partner to improve critical thinking and psychomotor skills, I became emotionally invested in building them up, and took pride in all of their growth and accomplishments. This partner later opened up to me and explained that they felt comfortable taking chances, asking questions, and trying new things while on shift with me because I treated them with dignity and respect. As it turns out, they were not treated well by previous partners; rather than receiving guidance, they were hushed and simply told what to do. Additionally, I allowed my partner to maintain dignity and preserve the patient’s trust in the way that I communicated with her on scene. For example I would ask, “do you want to put the nasal cannula on while I grab a glucose?” In doing this, I wasn’t pointing out to onlookers and patients that my partner lacked confidence in the situation. We engaged in the normal partner activities: reviewing protocol, discussing prior calls and situations, collaborating on documentation, and debriefing after every call. By the end of our work relationship, we had experienced stressful calls, and supported each other during every win and every failure. We supported each other through all of it!
Once in nursing school, these newly discovered leadership and advocacy traits blended with my experiences in education to create a leader who was able to negotiate and problem-solve. I was elected president of the cohort and spent much of my time guiding others in the process of self-advocacy, and communicated with both faculty and students to maximize distance learning opportunities. Nursing school presents its own challenges, and those were heightened with the perceived isolation during the pandemic. We worked together to bring long-overdue changes to the department and advocated for issues that improved the learning environment for students and the work environment for faculty.
In each of these roles, I demonstrated the ability to form meaningful partnership and gained more appreciation for the importance of supporting each other in the workplace. It’s amazing what we can do when we come together and work as a team. Whether it be changing the color of the uniform, ironing out details about the learning environment, or helping students advocate for themselves to protest a dismissal from the program, we need each other to make the changes and make them meaningful.
If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.
-Henry Ford
Author: Brittney Ahern
Brittney graduates from Southwestern college in May 2022, and anticipates earning a BSN from Grand Canyon University in August 2022. She is excited to bring her experience in EMS, heart for people, and love of learning to her first RN role.
