Professional Meeting Reflection

For my professional nursing experience, I attended a Professional Practice Council

meeting at St. Mary’s Hospital. The overall purpose of this council is to review, revise, and
approve policies of patient care within Bon Secours Hospitals. Some of the issues addressed in
the meeting were structural empowerment throughout the interdisciplinary team, quality and
patient safety, and relationship-based theory application at the bedside. It certainly wasn’t a
Kanye West concert, but it was relatively interesting and provided some insightful information.
Some of the nurses were dressed in their scrubs, while others were in business casual attire. I was
just a silent observer throughout the length of the meeting, so I didn’t really give any verbal
contributions. It was a little intimidating being the only student in a sea of professionals.
A key highlight at this meeting was the importance of the nurse’s role as a patient
teacher. It reminded me a lot of another meeting I had attended on my Immersion unit. The
immersion meeting was shorter and a lot more casual. An education council member came to our
unit for about an hour to discuss the implementation of ERAS protocols for urology patients.
Most of the nurses on the unit were very well versed in ERAS protocols for ostomy and
gastrectomy patients, so the information was similar but applied to urology. During this meeting,
I was a lot more alert and focused to what the council member was teaching us. I’m planning on
working on my immersion unit as a new graduate nurse, so I my attention was more invested in
this meeting. It also could have been easier to concentrate due to the fact that the setting was a lot
smaller and casual. Of the two meetings, I think I would prefer to work within the education
council. I know that these meetings are a little shorter and require the representative to move to
multiple units within the hospital. I think that I would be a better council member on a committee
that allows for a change of pace within the hospital. As of now, I really can’t see myself on a
committee that holds meetings lasting longer than two hours.
Having an education council within the hospital is crucial for continuing education to
take place. ERAS has been shown as an effective alternative to previous surgical protocols.
According to research, the biggest barrier to effective implementation of this protocol has been
lack of education throughout the interdisciplinary team and patient noncompliance(Brady,
Keller, & Delaney, 2015). ERAS is a system that requires each member of the healthcare team to
have a cohesive understanding of the entire surgical process, regardless of whether they provide
care at the pre-operative or post-operative level. Education councils are imperative to making
sure that new protocols are understood so that they may be carried out. This experience has given
me the opportunity to attend different types of organizational meetings and understand the value
of them. Having knowledge of the upcoming protocols has made me feel a little more at ease
about starting my new job and gave me the opportunity to learn about my unit ahead of time.

BSMCON NUR4143
 Resource

Brady, K. M., Keller, D. S., & Delaney, C. P. (2015). Successful implementation of an enhanced

recovery pathway: The nurse’s role. ​Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses,

102​(5), 469-481. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2015.08.015

BSMCON NUR4143