ICU Case Study

The Intensive Care Unit, or ICU, is an extremely busy place filled with high-intensity nursing staff and patients in critical condition. Brian Marvell, RN is the director for the St. Vincent Cardiovascular ICU, or CVICU, and the Surgical/Trauma ICU, or STICU. Brian’s role is to function as a team leader for the nursing staff on each of these units and to ensure patient safety and daily rounding is accounted for. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experiences covered over the 34 hours spent shadowing Brian, as well as relate the experiences noted to course content and QSEN principles. The leadership style that Brian radiates is one of teamwork and collaboration as well as authoritative, when needed. Over the 34 hours spent shadowing

Vincent is considered a not-for-profit organization. The George Washington School of Business describes not-for-profit hospitals as entities which, “don’t pay federal income or state and local property taxes” (The George Washington School of Business, 2018). The article also reports these hospitals, “are often affiliated with a particular religious denomination” (The George Washington School of Business, 2018). Hospitals similar to St. Vincent Evansville are known to provide care based upon their mission. The mission of St. Vincent is as follows: “rooted in the loving ministry of Jesus as Healer, we commit ourselves to serving all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable” (St. Vincent, 2018). This segment of the mission statement describes the mission behind not-for-profit organizations, which is to provide care to all with the ability of the hospital to give back to those who cannot afford the care. Brian was able to pull a spreadsheet for the intensive care units alone, which showed the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are collected from Medicare and Medicaid. St. Vincent practices as a not-for-profit organization and this money collected by the hospital is in turn, given back to the community in various way, such as paying for the care of the

The conflict that stands out most is the near miss incident that occurred. As Brian pulled aside the night shift nurse who was reported for not scanning the insulin, he was made aware that the nurse did scan the dose before giving it, however the scan did not save in the EMR. The only thing I potentially would have changed would be pulling in the night shift and day shift nurse to talk through the incident with them, to avoid any rumors from beginning. After completing this rotation, I feel that a leader/manager is a vital part of the nursing team. They are responsible for ensuring patient safety and quality care, as well as advocating for their nursing staff. It is evident that Brian’s role as director is nothing short of extensive and