Page 10 - SRNS Today November 2021
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10 | SRNS TODAY | NOVEMBER 2021
10 | SRNS T ODA Y | NOVEMBER 2021
Brilliant IDEAS
The SRNS Individuals Developing Effective Alternative
Solutions (IDEAS) Program held its annual Risk
Reduction/Productivity Contest through May and June of
2021. This contest recognizes SRNS employees for their
suggestions regarding productivity, safety, security and
green improvements.
Each suggestion was graded on a specific criterion
to meet contest rules. Three winners were selected University of South Carolina Aiken Nursing Program student Daija Gary receives training
by a judging committee composed of the SRNS FIT from SRNS Registered Nurse Misty McCully.
Continuous Improvement Team and the Interface
Management Office. The top three winners each received
cash prizes with first place receiving $1,000, second Student nurses gain experience
place receiving $750 and third place receiving $500.
SRNS Principal Continuous Improvement Specialist in Occupational Health
Blake Leaphart leads the SRNS IDEAS program. “SRNS Nursing degree students are participating in a job shadowing program within
employees are full of innovative solutions and ideas SRNS Medical Department at SRS, to sharpen their skills and gain experience
that benefit our vital missions and day-to-day tasks working with nurses and physicians practicing health care in an industrial setting.
that take place on-site,” said Leaphart. “We receive an
average of 40 ideas each month. To encourage others “Clinical rotations are an important means for our students to develop a basic
to submit their input, we host the annual Risk Reduction/ understanding of what is required within the different types of nursing disciplines
Productivity Contest to help SRNS continue to improve found in the greater Aiken-Augusta area,” said Robyn Havens, Professor,
and streamline processes. Registered Nurse (R.N.), Ph.D., University of South Carolina Aiken (UofSC Aiken)
Nursing Program. “It’s the student’s opportunity to shadow a nurse and learn
“We are so pleased with the innovations and ideas our
workforce submitted for this contest. We are so thankful through observation. In time, they will perform fundamental nursing procedures as
for all the individuals who submitted their ideas, and well under the supervision of an experienced health care practitioner.”
we are looking forward to the next Risk Reduction/ “The students get firsthand experience at taking care of employees. And that’s
Productivity Contest.” what Occupational Health is all about,” added Havens.
Ideally, students studying nursing will be exposed to a wide variety of clinical
THE FIRST-PLACE ENTRY, submitted by Savannah rotations to include: Community Health (Occupational Health care falls within this
River Tritium Enterprise’s Rebecca Suits, was a tritium field), Critical Care, Emergency, Geriatrics, Labor and Delivery, Medical-Surgical,
containment vessel life extension project. Once Pediatrics, Perioperative and Psychiatric health care.
implemented, this initiative would result in a cost savings
of over $2.8 million. Over the years, Misty McCully, an R.N. at SRNS, has mentored students as they
worked through their clinicals, originally in a hospital emergency department
THE SECOND-PLACE ENTRY, submitted by and now within SRNS’ medical team. “They are eager to learn, helpful and hard
SRNS’ Angela Pizzino and Steve Jahn, found a new workers. We take this responsibility seriously and do our best to ensure their
way of recycling depinned compressed gas cylinders. experience here has been of significant value. And who knows, one day we may
The current process requires them to be cut in half be co-workers.”
before being recycled through the current scrap metal
vendor. Pizzino and Jahn offered a solution that identified According to Havens, putting classroom theory into practice -- in a variety of
numerous vendors who accept these cylinders without nursing environments -- helps each student grow and excel in their ability to
being cut in half that could be contracted for quicker choose a field in nursing they will find rewarding. At SRS, the students assist with
recycling to streamline the current process. multiple tasks, such as vision exams, hearing tests and blood pressure checks.
THE THIRD-PLACE ENTRY, submitted by SRNS Daija Gary, a senior in the nursing program at UofSC Aiken, stated that this clinical
Site Training’s Joanna McKinney, proposed a solution at SRS was her first opportunity to work outside of a hospital, having already
that would allow employees to self-schedule an experienced emergency medicine and pediatric care at Doctors Hospital. “I love
appointment for a mask fitting. This idea would benefit working with children, but having now experienced life at an occupational nursing
the productivity of trainers doing the mask fitting by facility, I could see myself potentially working in this area, in time, after having
having confirmed appointments each day; it would keep gained some general experience elsewhere.”
people from congregating outside the mask fitting room Havens explained that during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic last summer,
waiting on service; and would allow an opportunity for many of the medical institutions throughout the region refused to accept UofSC
additional reminders for individuals coming in for mask Aiken nursing students for clinical rotations. “Only the hospitals and SRS would
fitting of what they should and should not do before allow them to visit their facilities. And for that, I’m deeply grateful,” she said.
their appointments.