Happy New Year!

My first month as NOVA President has already been quite the adventure. For my first message, I want to share an experience from this adventure.

Remember your first day showing up for nursing school clinicals, where you were excited and terrified at the same time? I had the pleasure of experiencing that all over again. With the Omicron surge, many of us have had to make adjustments in our work. This round of surge is different and impacting staff on a new level. Labor pools are activating to make sure there are enough staff to take care of our Veterans.

Nearly 2 years ago, when COVID-19 joined us, I bought new scrubs in case I was pulled to help. I received the call last week that those scrubs would need to be deployed. I was being sent to work on a med-surg unit. Terror set in. I haven’t worked on med-surg since nursing school and even then, I had a preceptor telling me what to do. Before the ink was dry on my nursing license I began working as an RN on the inpatient mental health unit at my local VA. From mental health I went to Quality where I have been for 10 years. What are they going to do with someone like me with nearly zero med-surg experience? The last thing I wanted to do was be in the way of staff who actually know what they are doing. My second greatest fear was having to file a joint patient safety report (JPSR) on myself. (Those are patient incident reports for those not in the know.) The upside is that all JPSRs come through my team, so I am confident in my reporting skills.

I was assigned to night shift, which I was grateful for—fewer people meant being in the way less.  First, I needed to participate in skills training. These are skills I never really had since fate had not placed me on a medical unit as a new nurse. I learned (relearned?) a myriad of basic skills. My confidence was raised slightly. Nursing leadership did a fantastic job of giving labor pool assignees details about where to check in, where to leave our lunch—it’s still “lunch” no matter what time of day or night it is— and who we could reach out to with questions.

I put on those scrubs that had been staring at me from hangers for so long. I was so nervous I showed 30 minutes early to check in. I went to the unit and received a lot of encouragement. I was assigned as a therapeutic companion/sitter. This was definitely in my skill set. The Veteran I sat with chatted with me non-stop until he fell asleep. I was happy to be able to sit with him so that nursing staff on the unit could tend to the needs of other Veterans without worry.

This experience really showed me that no matter our roles at our VA facilities, each of us plays a vital role and brings a unique skill set to what we do to make sure our Veterans receive the best care anywhere. The greatest thing about nursing is that there are so many different paths we can take throughout our careers. I am a proud VA nurse and I am happy to be sharing this crazy time with all of you.

With appreciation,

Taryn-Janae Wilcox-Olson, MHS, RN