Shared Governance

A weekend at a cabin in the Smokies is not what I would typically think of when I think of a business meeting. But, in fact, that is what I did this weekend when my manager took all of the Team Leaders on a retreat. We stayed at the cabin of one of the Vascular Surgeons that we work with. He is a great support to nurses and has a vested interest in helping nursing grow as a profession. I think someone should have done a documentary on what transpired during our time at the cabin this weekend. It was collaborative time of sharing ideas and thoughts on how to improve our processes and introducing new standards for our unit. For those of you who don't know, I work on the Vascular Surgery and Transplant Unit (VSTU) at UT Hospital. We are adopting a Shared Governance model of nursing, so more of the decision-making responsibility goes to the nurses instead of the board or administration. I get to implement some research studies on our unit and use it to bring about change. What a beautiful thing...

I absolutely love working with these crazy peeps! We had a great time.

Joe cooked for us ALL weekend. For his next career, he should definitely be a chef! We had some amazing eats, like, corn pudding, chicken caserole, dressing, lima bean casserole, blueberry bread cake, mississippi mud pie, sausage cheese grits, and Mimosas for breakfast!
I think we all gained 20 lbs over the last few days :)

Yes, that is a Christmas tree in the picture. It was a strange thing...the whole cabin was still decorated for Christmas! They obviously hadn't had time to use it since then!