Registered Nurse
Vancouver General Hospital

How long have you worked at VGH?

Since the fall of 2007, so six and half years already.

What do you do and what do you like most about your job?

I have two jobs. Half my time I work at the bedside in the Emergency Department (ED) at VGH as a registered nurse, and the other half I spend working out of an office in the ED doing project work. My title while working in the office is the Lean Project Coordinator – I work to help improve processes in the department with a focus on making the work our staff does easier so they can free up more time to spend with patients. My favourite part of my job is that I get to have two jobs.

I love that I still get to work and interact with patients and their families as a part of our amazing team in the ED, and that I also have been given the opportunity to put my passion for organization and standardization to work to better my department.

What is the most interesting thing you have been paid to do?

This is a brave question to ask an emergency nurse, as the list of wild and wonderful things I have done and seen while at work would more than interest the average person (you can see me in action dealing with some of the wild and wonderful in our Knowledge Network documentary). Yet, I think the most interesting things that I get paid to do are the things that I get to spend time on during my project days. I’m paid to step away from the bedside and use my clinical knowledge of the needs and flow of our department as a lens to dissect the work we do and see where I can squeak out a second or two that we can give back to that patient, or the others who seem to flow through the doors of our department in a never-ending stream.

Sometimes the solutions can be as easy as some extra labeling or reorganization of supplies that decrease searching or walking time for staff, to as large as complete changes in the way we triage and flow patients through our department.

Tell us one thing (professionally or personally) that we might be surprised to find out about you?

My family spent a year living in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean when I was a kid, and it still remains my favourite place to return to on vacation. It feels like a second, much sunnier, home.

Name three things you always have in your fridge.

Smart Water (I’m a bottled water snob…I blame it on my years living without the ability to drink tap water), Trader Joe’s Cilantro Salad Dressing, and a cold bottle (or two) of white wine.

How do you like to spend your days off?

I’m on my second apartment ‘flip’ so I spend much of my time away from work working on my renovations, although I like to spend my time away from work skiing in the winter and enjoying some sunshine at a lake in the summer time.

Which character from any movie best represents you?

Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner, I’m just as enthusiastic in planning and paying attention to the small details as she is.

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