In the Spotlight
Dawn Affleck
Program Team Manager at St. Boniface Hospital
Tell us about your new role
I started a new role as perioperative Program Team Manager at St. Boniface Hospital this past November. It's a dynamic, multifaceted role of managing human resources to care for perioperative patients. (The perioperative period is the time the patient is in pre-op preparing for surgery until they enter into the post-anesthesia care unit.) In essence, I'm responsible for guiding our Operating Room team, engaging staff and ensuring our patients flow safely through our system.
What attracted you to the role?
I have a deep love and respect for the operating room and the interdisciplinary teams that work within them. And, of course, I also hold close the most important person in the OR: the perioperative patient. I spent 11 years of my career as a frontline, perioperative nurse, and another 11 years as a nurse educator and instructor for a perioperative nursing program, so this was the next, most logical next step for me.
What keeps you motivated and coming back?
Unequivocally, it's my team that keeps me coming back and keeps me motivated. Knowing the challenges we all face, I want to be there every morning for them. It is very similar to the responsibility you feel as nurse with respect to your patients or the "calling" of our profession. This feeling or calling we have as nurses is what I use as a manager to keep myself and other team members motivated and focused.
Why are you so passionate about nursing?
I think it's a real privilege to be able to care for people in their most vulnerable moments. I'm not only proud to be a Registered Nurse, I'm even more proud to lead a team of RNs and support staff within our perioperative team. I know that their actions can make an immense difference for our patients. That - in and of itself - is very powerful.
You are a big proponent of attaining Canadian Nurses Association certifications. Why?
To be honest, I was a little misinformed about CNA certification when I became an OR nurse. I had taken a post-grad certification program in perioperative nursing, which was brand new to our health centre at the time (23 years ago). So my understanding was that was all I needed to obtain and that once I got that, I was set. But as I practiced for a number of years and I became a preceptor for new nurses coming into the OR, I started to reevaluate CNA certification and what it meant to me as a perioperative nurse. Through certification, I started to become more aware of our standards and guidelines. I started to network with others and really became connected with our perioperative nursing community. And I regret wholeheartedly that I didn't obtain my certification sooner. There's a lot of nursing research out there right now that shows that obtaining your perioperative nursing certification enhances your practice in terms of knowledge and respect among your colleagues. It also results in increased confidence and pride. Ultimately, that equates with better patient care. So I strongly advocate for CNA certification.
You get to a level where you ask what more you can do to better yourself. And that's the beauty of our profession - that there are all of these opportunities that lie ahead of us. We just have to grab those opportunities. CNA certification, which is currently available for 22 nursing specialties, is definitely a great asset to anyone's career.
Does certification require a huge commitment?
It doesn't take that long. It's about a six month study period followed by an exam. Every five years you have to recertify to confirm that you've maintained your competence, and you have to produce a record of continuing perioperative education hours and practice, as well as employer verification. So it really keeps you moving in the right direction. It encourages accountability and responsibility, and you can see the pride a professional carries with their certification.
So what's your advice for nurses exploring CNA certification?
Like the Nike commercial says, "Just do it. Your profession and area of specialty need you to get involved. Nurses hold a wealth of knowledge and experience that needs to be shared on a larger level. Patients need us to be involved, and I can honestly say that you'll never regret getting involved with your profession. You'll learn so much and become connected in a way that you haven't before. So I strongly encourage my colleagues to become connected.
Are you involved with other professional nursing associations?
As I became more connected by way of CNA certification, I in turn became connected with the Manitoba Operating Room Nurses Association (MORNA). I am currently serving as president-elect until May of 2019, when I will assume the role of president. I'm excited about this opportunity and completely honoured to be representing our Manitoba group at a national level. Manitoba operating room nurses should be very proud of their organization.
Being connected with other perioperative nurses who enjoy the same victories and face many of the same challenges is really comforting. Personally, I know that it helps keep me on the path toward working for the greater good of our patients and our teams.
As a Program Team Manager, how are you helping colleagues deal with change?
I try to acknowledge that this has been very challenging time for the team, for the organization, and for health care. But I also, in the same breath, encourage them to do the best they can with what they have to keep the patients at the forefront of all that we do. No matter what the challenge, our patients come first. I often times lean on the five leadership practices outlined in The Leadership Challenge, a book written by James Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. Those practices are: to model the way; inspire a shared vision; challenge the process; enable others to act; and to encourage the heart. The last one is probably the one that comes easiest for me, because I do have a heart when it comes to our team.
In the world we live in, change is inevitable. You can dig in your heels in and throw your hands up, but it doesn't usually work and it isn't productive. I know that perioperative nurses are very innovative in their thinking, and I think that innovation is how we move through change in an effective and positive way. It's not to dismiss the challenge of it, or to dismiss how change affects all of us, but I think that in order to move forward and to get to where we need to be, we need to embrace change and find ways to be innovative.