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Rebecca Hacker, R.N., preps a patient for surgery in the O.R.
Photo by Dana Johnson
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As the countdown to the Magnet Recognition site visit approaches, the Reporter's Kathy Rivers is asking Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurses to answer key questions in their own words.
Question: Why do you think the nursing leadership at VUMC is so special?
Answer: It's special because of the longevity each member of the leadership team has with Vanderbilt. For example, our Chief Nursing Officer, Marilyn Dubree, has been here since 1976 when she was a clinical nurse specialist, and worked her way up to where she is today.
I think that is great, because she has been able to see Vanderbilt as it was back then, and help to contribute to the successful Magnet-bound hospital that we are today.
People love it here, so they stay and are able to contribute more to the growth and success of the Medical Center.
I have worked for four other hospitals, and nowhere else do nurses have the input and power that they do here.
It is a collaborative process across the board, and that certainly makes us as nurses feel like we have a say in how things are done.
— Rebecca Hacker, R.N., B.S.N., has been with Vanderbilt for more than three years and works in the main operating room in Orthopaedic Surgery.