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Teamwork, Teaching at the Heart
of Bedside Care for Transplant Nurse“There are so many different things you can do with the nursing license — marketing, research, management, teaching — but I’ve always enjoyed being a bedside nurse,” Diana Steinbring, BSN, RN said. Steinbring is a staff nurse working the night shift on the transplant/nephrology floor at Froedtert.
A nurse for 30 years, she’s seen hospital stays get shorter and transplants become more successful. “The survival is better, outcomes are better, the medications are better. It’s just a different time,” she said. Transplant patients, Steinbring said, require a great deal of education, because they must take multiple drugs, some for the rest of their lives. “Teaching starts way before the surgery. Our patients come to education classes months before surgery, because we want our outcomes and survival rates to be better, and we want our patients to have better and longer lives.” On the floor, she said, patient education and teamwork are key to the transplant patient’s care.
“Our patients are expected to be back out in the community, sometimes within a three- to four-day window, competent with their medications and knowledgeable of their disease. The teamwork is there, because caregivers on all shifts need to be part of the process to get our patients out knowing what they need to know. We expect our patients to go back to work, be productive, have families and go to school — all of the things we would want if we were transplant patients.”
Steinbring came to Froedtert with her unit in 1981 when Doyne Hospital closed. She stayed because the environment and the 7/70 schedule (seven 10-hour days working followed by seven days off) allowed her to provide the best care possible and the flexibility to raise her children. She also likes what happens on the transplant floor. “Organ failure doesn’t pick and choose,” Steinbring said. “We deal with people from all walks of life. Because we do so much follow-up care, we know a lot of our patients for 20 or 30 years.”
With all the advances in nursing, Steinbring appreciates that Froedtert advocates continuing education. “Management not only promotes our learning and supports our advancement, it’s expected and rewarded.”
Steinbring also appreciates her coworkers. “I’m very blessed. I work with an amazing group of people who support each other professionally and advocate optimal outcomes for our patients. We see a little bit of everything in the world on our floor.”
Source: Froedtert Today Date: September 2006 |