Reflections on Nursing

This week we mostly talked about motivation.  Our lecture this week was on finding ways to motivate staff members. Something I hadn't really considered before is that money is not the best motivator.  While it might be great for a short period of time, it's not very effective long term.  I mean, it makes sense when I think about it.  When you get a raise, it's great!  But pretty soon, you get used to your new paycheck.  Suddenly, you're back to where you were before.  The novelty of an extra $1 an hour has worn off.  You don't have "extra" money anymore.  One thing that the lecture for this week mentioned is the idea of writing personalized thank you notes when staff members go above an beyond.  But the catch is that you write the thank you note to a family member of the staff.  Maybe the staff member's spouse, or one of their children.  The idea is that it really shows the staff member, and their family, that you care abou...

This week we talked a lot about conflict resolution.   One of our assignments was to watch the 2006 movie The Guardian , starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher.  Honestly?  I didn't know I would ever have so many feelings about the U.S. Coast Guard.  This movie was very powerful, and I'm glad we were required to watch it this week.  I had honestly never heard of it, and I knew nothing about it. There were several different types of conflict in this film, and it was good to be able to look at all the different types, as well as how the characters attempted to resolve them. One of the most ineffective types of conflict resolution that we were able to observe was the conflict shown between the Coast Guard and the Navy.  In the film, two of the characters go to a predominantly "Navy" bar.  One of the characters, Billy, gets drunk and starts boasting about how great the Coast Guard is and how much the Navy needs them.  Now obviously, the Na...

This week we focused on strategic planning.  For our team activity this week we had to compete against another team, which, for me, added a new element to the activity.  I feel like in a way it motivated me more because I wanted my designs to be better than the other teams'.  This was the assignment we were given: Welcome to the Mega Block Region.  At the heart of this region are two communities (Bionicle Town and Legoville) which share a common border.  The population of each of these two (2) communities is approximately 110,000.  A 50,000 student university (which is not included in the population numbers) is in Bionicle Town.  The regional airport is in Legoville.  Both communities are rapidly growing. Each community has its own healthcare system and a hospital.  The Regional Trauma Center has 250 beds and is in Bionicle Town.  A 100 bed Community Hospital is located in Legoville. Both healthcare systems (Bionicle and Lego) hav...