Bree and Lisa Miller!

When I was a baby nurse at the beginning of my career, we ran high dose oxytocin at my institution. On occasion a patient would not reach an adequate contraction pattern despite the high titration of the medication. Nurses would say, the patient’s oxytocin receptors were saturated, turn the medication off, and let them rest.

Since arriving at Convention, the steady stream of information has completely saturated my brain.

This morning, as Convention winds down, I sip my coffee and reflect on the last couple of days. I love to-do lists so to organize my over saturated mind I made a list of thoughts.

1. Evidence. Read it, challenge the way we’ve always done it, and evolve practice to reflect the evidence.
2. I would venture to say if there was a Lisa Miller fan club, I would be in it. As I waited for a session to begin yesterday, Lisa Miller took the seat in front of me. I looked around amazed that I was afforded the opportunity to visit with her again. I basically confessed my love for her and asked for a selfie. She laughed and was so genuinely kind.
3. I will aspire to get published. Although I probably will not be submitting a manuscript this summer, within the next two years is a reasonable goal.
4. I want to submit an abstract for a poster next year. Walking through and examining all of the posters reassured me of the many initiatives we have embraced, and gave me some great ideas on new initiatives to implement at Shawnee Mission back in Kansas City. Perhaps next year I may be able to share my own ideas with others!
5. I need to go back to school. All week the thought just has not left my mind. Education is a vehicle to transform your own development.  I have SO much more to learn and I am excited to start that journey, I am just not sure where to begin. I have wrestled with whether I should get my Masters in Education or if I should work toward my CNS. Maybe I should go to midwifery school to learn as much about obstetrics as possible?

Leaving the hotel last night to meet a colleague for dinner, I noticed Kathleen Rice Simpson waiting in the lobby.  I walked over and thanked her for a really amazing session on Safe Cesarean Birth. As I began to converse with the goddess of obstetrics about the day and different opportunities for my own unit, she offered some insight, offering a tour of her unit if we wanted to gain some ideas from their triage model.  While we visited, I told Mrs. Simpson I aspire to go back to school. I don’t want to return to school just to earn new letters behind my name, I want to truly learn and grow. Kathleen Rice Simpson then gave me her email and told me to get in touch with her if I wanted to further discuss going back to school, what would be right for me. It was as if the clouds parted and the sky opened up and cherubs began to sing.

I can’t make this stuff up, are you kidding? How amazing. What a day!

Bree Fallon is a Clinical Educator for Perinatal Services at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, the busiest delivering hospital in Kansas City. She graduated from nursing school in 2004 and started her career in a tertiary care facility, providing high risk intrapartum and antepartum care. In 2010, she moved to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City who was looking for experienced L&D nurses to help open the their new Fetal Health Center.

Stay connected during Convention by following AWHONN on Twitter.

Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN

by, Bree Fallon, BSN, RNC-OB, C-EFM,

Perhaps I can attribute it to the time change, but I was awake before 6:00 am this morning once again.

The day is here, get up and get excited!

I wasn’t sure what to expect from “Transforming Healthcare Quality and Safety with Evidence-Based Practice and ARCC,” at the General Session, but a peer back in Kansas City told me Bernadette Melnyk was a “not to miss” speaker so I make sure to sit up front.

Dodi Gauthier came onto the stage first recounting a beautiful personal story of a woman she cared for and whose life she made a difference in, with a call to contribute to AWHONN. It was easy recall many of the women I felt truly blessed to have cared for over the years. By continuing to support AWHONN I know that I too am truly promoting the health of mothers and newborns.

As Bernadette began to speak, her passion for evidence based practice unfolded rapidly. My heart broke as she recounted the loss of her mother and the near loss of her daughter. It absolutely drove the message home to advocate for evidence based practice care in our own facilities and units. To translate evidence based practice to our bedsides, we need to make it part of the culture in our hospitals. When I return to Kansas City, I want to ensure that we reiterate the importance and value our organization places on evidence based practice into our Nurse Residency Program and general nursing orientation. We have to all work together to make change happen, let’s go do it!

Throughout the day, I just kept shaking my head in disbelief. I have not been here for even 48 hours and have been captivated by a dozen of the most impressive and credible nurses in the field of obstetrics.

In the back of my mind, as I listened and took it in, I thought to myself, what can I, myself, do to capture these nurses’ message and impart it on to my own colleagues back home?

Lisa Miller’s talk on “Cases for Concern: Liability in the Intrapartum Setting” was brilliant and she was so sincere and approachable when we spoke after the session. She offered such thoughtful and gentle insight, all the while being extremely entertaining and engaging. I offered to be a groupie. 

I have to admit as I walked into “Obstetric Triage: State of Science”, I was star struck as I realized Cathy Ruhl, aka know as Gayle from the Intermediate AWHONN Communication DVD, would be speaking!

Cathy and Elizabeth Howard addressed the issue many of L&D units had around the country with collaborating to develop an OB triage tool. I know my manager and I are so excited for the triage tool to be released this fall!

I spent the afternoon with a most impressive panel of editors in “Write it Right: Editors Share the Insider’s Track to Getting Published”. Five years ago, I was reviewing the clinical ladder criteria at my facility for the different rungs of clinical advancement. I noticed I could consider submitting a piece of work to a professional journal to obtain a higher clinical status. At the time, I rolled my eyes, discredited myself of the possibility of completing such a task, and stuck with my current incentive. After listening to each woman on the panel’s words of wisdom and encouragement, I know and truly believe that submitting work for publication is completely possible!

Monday always ends with the President’s Party. It was a hoot! I met even more friends from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York and even our neighbors in St Louis.

I have so enjoyed meeting everyone from everywhere. It is like a fraternity where everyone shares the same passion and strange sense of nurse humor. After lots of great conversations and laughs and one spectacular rendition of “Going to Kansas City” with my Kansas City crew, we called it a night.

How can it possibly be this magic begun just yesterday? Along with setting several lofty but attainable goals, I feel as though I have learned and gained so incredibly much.
What will tomorrow bring!?

Bree Fallon is a Clinical Educator for Perinatal Services at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, the busiest delivering hospital in Kansas City. She graduated from nursing school in 2004 and started her career in a tertiary care facility, providing high risk intrapartum and antepartum care. In 2010, she moved to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City who was looking for experienced L&D nurses to help open the their new Fetal Health Center.