Interview #2

Amita Raj

Abney

6^th Period

October 20^th, 2010

Interview #2: Leesa Sims (ICU Nurse)

Type of Interview: In person

Name: Leesa Sims

Occupation: Nurse

Job Title: Charge Nurse/Registered Nurse of Intensive Care Unit

Place of Business: St. David’s South Austin Medical Center

Mailing Address: 901 W. Ben White Blvd. Austin, TX 78704

Phone Number: (512) 447-2211 (Hospital Number)

E-mail Address: leesa123@austin.rr.com

Q.     What universities did you attend and what activities were you involved in?  What was your major?

A.      I got my basics at Texas State. Then, I went to a three-year nursing program in San Antonio in Baptist Memorial School of Nursing. I was mainly in sports-related activities in college. I started out in other majors but I ended up with Nursing. I temporarily held a job in the hospital and worked as a phlebotomist for extra money. That helped me after I got out of school because I already knew how to draw blood and start IVs.

Q.     While you were studying, did anyone motivate you to take the path you chose as a nurse?

A.      My grandmother was an LVN (Licensed Vocational Nurse) and I used to go up and watch her, she worked in a nursing home, and visit with her and I knew then that I probably wanted to end up doing that.

Q.     After you graduated from medical school, what was your first job?

A.      Nursing shortages seem to come around every 7 years. When I graduated in 1980, it was the peak of the nursing shortage then. I moved to Dallas and was hired immediately in a Neo-Natal ICU. I would never recommend that to any baby-nurse that’s fresh out of college because in Neo-Natal ICU you have absolutely no room for air. Those are tiny little things that you have the ability to hurt if you don’t know what you’re doing. But, I stayed the year and as soon as I left that I moved back to Austin. I was immediately offered a job here at St. David’s. This hospital hadn’t even opened yet but it was in the process of opening.

Q.     How long have you worked in this hospital?

A.      I have been with this particular hospital since the day it opened in 1982, so we’re going to 29 years. I feel like this is the place God wants me to be, so here I am.

Q.     How has nursing for you changed at the hospital since you first began working here?

A.      I believe it has become more computerized and things are done a lot faster now than they used to be done. People are in and out of the hospital generally faster. The nurses in general, I believe, don’t have to know as much as they did before. Procedures, for example, if your patient comes in with a heart attack, they don’t wait as long anymore to get that fixed. They go straight to the CATH Lab; we’re not required to stabilize as much anymore, they get fixed quicker. So I think nurses have a little bit of an easier time than they did 20 years ago.

Q.     What exactly does your job entail in the ICU?

A.      I am the Charge Nurse. So, I am over a 20 bed unit and I have to make sure that I know the knowledge base of each of my nurses so I can give them the appropriate patient load. Then, even though the nurse is ultimately responsible for his or her own patient, I am responsible for all of them in a sense that I am the one who makes the assignments. On a day-to-day basis, I may or may not have patients of my own. I make sure the upcoming shifts have enough nurses, so I am also involved in the scheduling.

Q.     Have you always worked in the ICU?

A.      Yes.

Q.     What characteristics do you think would make a person successful in your field?

A.      Critical thinking skills. They would need to have a lot of common sense and a lot of quick-thinking. Like, something happens and you have to think “what can I do right now?”If you’re the type of person who needs to ponder it over or think about it, this is not the place for you. The ability to handle stress. Your sciences are important, you need to be able to pull from what you learned in school. You need to pull all those things together more here than you would on any other floor. ICU is a very broad field. Nurses need to know a broad range of things. It’s very rewarding.

Q.     What do you most look forward to every day?

A.      Making a difference. I don’t like to come to work and just get myself and my patients through the day. I like to know that at the end of the day that I left them a little bit better than I found them. That’s always my goal when I come to work: being on top of my game and that my patients have somehow benefitted from me.

Q.     What do you least look forward to every day?

A.      Mayhem. Because I’m in charge, if I remain calm then most of my staff remain calm. But if we have difficult family members and my staff starts getting upset then it kind of snow-balls. Or if there is more than one test happening at a time then it snow-balls and things don’t work cohesively. So, you hope when you come in that everybody works cohesively and not too many things happen at one time and your staff can step up to the plate.

Q.     Do you want to expand or develop your career?

A.      This is a comfortable fit for me. This is where I believe God wants me to be. When I can no longer physically take the challenge, then I will go to the sedentary pencil-pushing job but hopefully that won’t be for a long time. I enjoy what I do.

Q.     What do you look for in a resume?

A.      I look for if job stability if they have been a nurse before. I am not impressed with a job-hopper. I am not impressed with somebody who just goes from place to place to see if the grass is greener on the other side. When I hire somebody I fully expect that they are at least going to give it a solid year because it takes 3 months to get them up and running. We like to think that they have the common decency to stick with it. I look for that in a person, if they are flighty enough to jump ship if things get a little hard. I do not pay much heed to grades because not everybody is a good test taker. So, whether you have a 2.8 or a 4.0, it’s not that big of a deal with me. The fact that you are sincere and don’t try to build yourself up too much, you tell me the truth and you tell me what you’re looking for, what you hope to get out of it. I am more impressed with your abilities to tell me your weaknesses than your abilities to tell me your strengths and then I know that you know that you got something to work on.

Q.     What advice would you give to students who want to get into your field?

A.      I would tell them that they need to self-evaluate. Ask themselves questions like: Can they handle blood and death? Can they handle trauma? Can they handle someone yelling and screaming at them? You don’t think that family members would do that, but when they get upset they are going to yell and scream. Doctors are going to yell and scream. Nobody ever really means to, but you have to be thick-skinned. If all that stuff bother you, this isn’t the place that you need to be. There are so many other things to do and you need to sit down and decide what you want to do. The ICU is very fast-paced and you have the ability to kill somebody unintentionally by omitting something, by not paying attention, by not being on top of things. If you cannot live with that kind of stress, then you need to work somewhere that is not as autonomous. In the ICU you are the person who is taking care of patients .You call the doctor when you need something. But otherwise, it is your eyes, your years and your intuition. You need to be ready if this is the place you want to be.

I happened to stumble upon this Charge Nurse by chance. I was initially looking for one of the ICU nurses I have known since I first began volunteering at the hospital. However, he was absent during his usual shift. After talking to a couple of nurses, they led me to Mrs. Sims and told me she could give me a great deal of information. She was more than happy to be interviewed. The nurse was very confident about what she was saying and I feel like her responses were true to her character. She was honest and straightforward. I admired that she practiced what she preached, requiring her nurses to have had stable backgrounds and being committed and loyal to her jobs as well. I have seen the ICU in chaos-mode so it was easy for me to understand some of the hardships that she had described.