Rebecca Hacker, R.N., preps a patient for surgery in the O.R.
Photo by Dana Johnson
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.