13 1/2 years.....What??!!!

That is the he total amount of time that I worked at my ONLY job since college.

I can’t even believe it was that long ago that I showed up for a mock interview not knowing I was really interviewing for the position. All of the other interviews I had been going on, there were no leads at all for me and I was getting pretty bummed. Then I get a call asking me to come in for a 2nd interview from the MOCK interview. I thought UGH, I don’t even want that stupid job…wait…the 1st one was a REAL interview??!!! I showed up in jeans, sneakers, a sweater, no make up and hair all disheveled. Oh goodness….so 2nd interview here I come! Of course this time I made myself way more presentable and was actually nervous since it was a “real” one this time hahaha.

I went back and met with the 2 women again and this time…..OH YA!!! They showed me a database that I would be working on and totally GEEK MODE came out! I wanted to have my hands all over their data to run all sorts of information from it.

After that interview, the rest is history.

I had the pleasure of working with so many wonderful people. Each and every one of them taught me something different from their line of work that I could use in order to better my skills for work and for life itself.

I only left a job, not the people who helped make it what it was.

Here I am 13 short years later, one brain full of all sorts of wonderful information related to:

• Patient Safety

• Teamwork

• Hospital ins and outs

• Medical terminology

• Data visualization

• Process flows

• Communication

• Joint Commission

• National Patient Safety Goals

The list goes on and on…….

But back to the people I got to spend each and every day with or pretty close to every day.

Sometimes there are certain things that you can’t learn from a book or the lovely ole internet, you just have to experience them 1st hand, IN PERSON.

Teamwork

It makes the dream work! Well at least it makes things you are doing easier right??!!

Working with people is NOT always easy. Everyone has their own opinions, their own personalities, the way they do things, sometimes we clash and it isn’t pretty.

This is where you have to learn to put some of the differences aside, have SME’s (subject matter experts) involved, LISTEN to everyone and hear what they have to say before making judgments (this is really hard for a lot of people)

Learn how people work:

• Do they like to lead or follow?

• Are they shy/quiet and won’t speak up unless asked directly for their input?

• Do they work well under pressure?

• Do they listen and then contribute information or speak before hearing?

• Can they see the big picture or they more interested in the fine details?

You are going to encounter having to work in teams no matter what you do in life, so being able to work with different people’s personalities and styles is extremely important. I don’t always get along with everyone I have to work with, but I try to make the best of it in order to get the work done. Many hands make light the work! (in most cases anyway)

Inexperience

It is actually ok to be inexperienced in some things that you do. Sometimes you have to be the person to ask the obvious questions or ones that you think might be “stupid or silly”. Trust me, someone is also thinking they want to ask the question but they are too “afraid” to.

• Why do you do things this way?

• What does that word/process/procedure/etc mean?

• Can you explain what that does?

• What exactly is that?

People would rather have you ask if you don’t understand then just assume you know. Sometimes having that inexperience is wonderful for a team who is always so close to something they can’t see outside of it to rethink of new things. So being able to ask WHY (like a 2 year old sometimes) is really beneficial.

Remember though, there are NO stupid questions!! NEVER EVER EVER!

Trial and Error

It is OK to fail! Wait a minute!? Failure isn’t good, why would I say that it is OK to fail? Well how else are you going to find out if something works or not. There are many failures to one success. If you fail, that just means that one thing didn’t work, so look at what you did, tweak it and try again.

Think of it, did you give up after trying one time to ride your bike, swim, drive a car or learn to read? Most likely you didn’t and that is why you are able to do any one of those things now. Of course in the working world failure isn’t always “OK” but hopefully you learn something from it.

• Creating a report for a specific audience

• What story do you want it to tell?

• Did they like it?

• Did it work for them? If not, what can you do to change it?

• Presentations

• Was your message clear that you were trying to get across

• Did people interact with you or ask questions to spur more discussions about topics

• Process to get a job done

• Are there too many steps that make it cumbersome

• Are you able to reduce some of that waste

• Is the time to complete a process or parts of a process too long?

• Training

• Did the people you were training interact with your method of teaching

• Did they find the information helpful

• Could the recreate something from it

All of these kinds of questions, allow us to change the way we do things in order to accommodate people or the way of work. Just because it works for one person doesn’t mean it works for everyone. So keep trying new things until you find what seems to work the best.

Patience

Oh boy….this topic is huge!

When I 1st started my patience was unfortunately extremely limited. I had no tolerance for a lot of things, and that didn’t get me too far. I got frustrated really easily and it made my job harder than it should have been.

Always take a step back from what you are doing to reevaluate the situation. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes to see why they are asking what they are, what do they need and so forth. If they do not understand something you are trying to explain to them, use different words, not everyone is always on the same page. Since I have done this, people are always telling me how patient I am. I kind of chuckle and say, it hasn’t always been this way. But now that I can see things from different view points it makes the things I do and the people I work with much more enjoyable.

Last but not least…..Sponges are good

What in the heck, what does this have to do with work you might ask?

Well that is what I consider myself….in a manner of speaking…a sponge!

I take everything/everyone that I encounter and soak it right up. I am not one that reads and retains information, I am more of a show/teach me, tell me why, let me try.

That is what you need to do, LEARN something from every interaction. You never know what you will take away from a meeting or a random encounter with someone. This should be something you do on a daily basis.

Thank you to each and every person I have worked with over the years at NSMC, you will always be considered family to me.