Welcome to the first of our new quarterly updates for all the nurses at the health Department! You will find the names, phone numbers and emails of your elected WSNA officers in the page header above. Please feel free to reach out to any of them if you have any questions or concerns.

NURSES WEEK CELEBRATION

It sure was great to see everyone who was able to attend the breakfast sponsored by your WSNA officers. The turnout was great, the food was fantastic and the company even better! It is so challenging to maintain close friendships and work relationships when we all work remotely and have our own schedule. We are hoping to add some local unit meetings to our plans for the rest of the year. So, look at your email box for notices and updates. In the meantime, enjoy these candid shots of the celebration! We would love to see you at future events as well.

Nurse Conference Committee
AKA … NCC

What is Nurse Conference Committee? This is a contractual item whereby either leadership or your WSNA Officers can request a meeting. We sit down with leadership and discuss concerns that have come up from all of you. While this is an advisory committee, many advances have been accomplished at this venue. This meeting permits very frank and open dialogue with the purpose of reaching mutually agreeable decisions. The topics are wide and can really be anything about your work. As part of the commitment that we have to all of you, the minutes for these meetings will be posted on the WSNA website under your specific page. To the left you will find the link to the page as well as a QR code you can scan with your phone to access quickly. You will see a copy of your current contract as well as any other updates coming from WSNA. You will also find copies of these updates that will hopefully be coming to your inbox at least quarterly.

This last meeting with leadership we did discuss the issues of retention and recruitment. It is not a secret that nurse recruitment is tough in any part of the globe really at this time. Your leadership was very happy to announce they have actually hired three nurses which will help considerably!

In addition, we had discussion about the work areas for the various departments that have workstations in the office. The good news is that there will be some shuffling to workspaces which will open some office space for the nurses.

There was some concern about other personnel who must travel through an area where the nurses are working and overhearing what would be considered private conversations or discussions that may contain HIPPA restricted information. We have proposed that all employees be provided the HIPPA training and assume responsibility for the potential private information they may overhear. Leadership is looking into making this feasible.

Meet your Nurse Representative

I am so happy to be assigned to such a fantastic group of nurses!

Quickly about me: I have been a practicing nurse since 1985 and have travelled all across the USA and Canada working in this capacity. I am the token “alien” as I am not a US Citizen but hail from Canada north of the border in Vancouver. My background in nursing includes everything from Level 1 Trauma and Flight nursing, Hyperbaric medicine, Infection Disease research, ICU / CCU / Burn ICU and Neuro ICU, IV therapy, Home Health and Home Hospice, Home Infusion, and other experience as well.

I have served as an elected officer and co-chair, as well as staffing committee co-chair when I was still working bedside nursing. Then, about 5 years ago, I decided to trade my patients for nurses and consider all the nurses I work to serve as my “patient”. I strive to always have all of the nurses’ best interests at heart in every interaction I have.

Community nursing is near and dear to my heart. My daughter was born in Bellingham and had home services for her Bili draws and UV lights (she’s 29 so that was a while ago). I also volunteer with the Snohomish and Skagit county health departments – COVID testing and vaccinations were literally the only time I was out of the house during e height of the pandemic!

I have a very open-door policy. I am here for all of you! Please feel free to call, text or email me at any time. My contact information is below. I’m excited to work with each of you and hope to put faces to names soon.

In the meantime, please email me with any thoughts you may have on what you would like to see as a venue and time of day for a local unit meeting.