Florida Hospital Story

Every week, the President and CEO of Florida Hospital emails employees a story from a fellow co-worker. Please read yesterday’s note. (All names have been changed for privacy).

Pets have certainly enriched our family over the years. In fact when we travel, one of the first things my wife, Susan and I consider is where our dogs will stay. Sometimes we’ll even choose to drive to our destination rather than fly, so we can bring Jesse and Daisy, they are just part of the family. So you can imagine how, when I read this letter from Madalyn, one of our nurses on the Orlando campus, it warmed my dog-loving heart.

 As I sat beside his bed giving him his medications, I asked about his family. He told me that his son and daughter lived out of the country and his wife passed away many years ago. The only thing that really worried him was Abby, his 170-pound dog.

When the doctor told our patient he had to have surgery, his coworkers took his beloved dog Abby to the vet to be boarded. This was days ago and he was worried the vet would not continue caring for Abby without being paid or at least getting a deposit.

He was so lonely and worried about his Abby. He called his vet every day and sometimes I would find him crying… he was so afraid Abby would forget him … or she would think he abandoned her. My heart broke for this gentleman. Abby was his best friend and they were apart.

Our unit is full of animal lovers so I posted a sign in the department asking for contributions to Abby’s “Boarding Fund,” which was costing twenty-five dollars a day. In a few days, my generous coworkers collected more than a hundred dollars. I took this money to the vet and was able to meet Abby; she was huge but so very gentle. It was obvious why our patient missed her so much.

The next day I was talking to Thomas, one of our night-shift nurses, he suggested we bring Abby in for a visit. The doctors agreed it was a good idea and a few days later, Thomas picked up Abby for a visit. Our patient was so excited as Thomas and Abby walked into his room. Abby was licking his face while he cried tears of happiness… it wasn’t just him, we all had tears in our eyes as we watched the touching reunion of a man and his dog.

Our patient was discharged from the hospital. I took the last of the donations for Abby’s boarding expenses to the vet. It was unbelievable; the team collected $1380.00, enough money for fifty-six days of boarding fees.

There are no rules or guidelines to dictate how we extend the healing ministry of Christ – just His example of how He treated every person and creature with the utmost compassion. And what does that look like in action? I have no doubt that this patient would be able to tell you in great detail.

Each day I am blessed, honored and energized to work with the caring and compassionate caregivers of Florida Hospital… even if you happen to love cats.

These emails remind us of our dedication to our patients and each other. If you are interested in working in an environment of caring, please visit: http://www.floridahospitalcareers.com/.

Transplant RN Opportunities

Last week, one of our nurse recruiters attended the International Transplant Nurses Society’s 19th Annual Symposium and General Assembly in Minneapolis, MN. There, he had the opportunity to meet over 300 nurses from around the world and share our Transplant RN opportunities.

The Florida Hospital Transplant Program is among the oldest and busiest transplant centers in the nation and has handled more than 3,000 transplants since 1973. The program offers kidney, liver kidney/pancreas, and just recently heart transplantation services. We will soon be providing lung transplantation services as well. The Center has a dedicated medical team who are committed to helping patients achieve successful transplants, which is why our outcomes for kidney and liver exceed national averages.

For the past two years Florida Hospital has hosted transplant patients, organ donors and doctors for a family-fun reunion event. This annual experience allows our patients and organ donors to socialize with each other and the Transplant team and share about their organ donation.

Most recently, Dr. Angelis completed his 500th Transplant Surgery, a milestone in the field of transplant. When Dr. Angelis arrived at Florida Hospital in 2003, the transplant center had one surgeon, was certified to transplant one organ (kidney), and did about 100 cases per year. In 2010, the transplant team has 5 surgeons, is certified to transplant 4 organs (kidney, liver, pancreas, heart), and does about 250 cases per year.

If you are interested in learning more about Transplant RN career opportunities, please visit Florida Hospital Careers or visit our Facebook page.

The Florida Hospital Transplant Center is located at our Orlando campus.

Nursing Practice Council

Did you know? Florida Hospital has a unique department called the Center for Nursing Research & Innovation. Their vision is to be a global pacesetter in transforming the practice environment for nurses and patients by generating and using new knowledge. They are dedicated to working in partnership to inspire and cultivate the spirit of inquiry by promoting innovativeness in nursing practice and empowering nurses to make improvements in patient care as part of their professional responsibilities.

Lead Research Scientist, M. Lindell Joseph, PhD, RN shared the Center for Nursing Research and Innovation’s Journey on our Florida Hospital Nursing Website: 

Our clinical research comprises pain management and assisting frontline nurses in their nursing improvement studies. We are also working to further our understanding of whole person care-a concept rooted in Florida Hospital's Seventh-day Adventist heritage- and a collaborative patient centered care nursing model that we developed.

Nursing research provides opportunity for contributing to safe, high-quality patient care by ensuring that inferences drawn from hospital generated reporting systems are based on valid and reliable nursing-sensitive data. Our contributions in this area stem from our membership in the American Nurses Association National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) and participation in nursing data management initiatives across the Adventist Health System.

Our research has garnered grants from state- and national-level funders. Most recently, we received funding from the Florida Center for Nursing (FCN) for our motivational language project, Managers' Strategic Communication and Nurse Retention. We are also the recipients of a grant from the Florida Organization of Nurse Executives (FONE) to continue lines of research related to our collaborative patient centered care nursing model. In addition, Dr. Joseph has been appointed to a team at the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) that is working to design the patient care delivery system of the future.

All Florida Hospital nurses are welcome to join the Nursing Practice Council. Nurses from the CVICU at Orlando recently celebrated their 2010 research projects and threw a party to spread the awareness about how their involvement is making a difference at Florida Hospital. To view photos of the party, visit our

Facebook page.

Florida Hospital RN Job Fair September 16!

Florida Hospital is hosting an RN Job Fair Sept. 16 in Orlando, FL!

Join us on Thursday, September 16 from 9am - 2pm for our Experienced Registered Nurse Job Fair at the following hospital locations: Altamonte, Celebration, East, Orlando, and Winter Park.

• Nurse Managers will be on-site to conduct interviews and make job offers to selected candidates!
• Remember to bring copies of your resume.
• You can attend one or multiple events at our five facilities. Please register for each facility you would like to attend.

• All RN jobs require 1 + years of hospital RN experience.
• At this time, we do not have any New Graduate Nurse positions available.

To pre-register and find more information, including directions, visit: http://www.nursingcareerfair.net./

Florida Hospital Updates

Some great things have happened at Florida Hospital since my last blog post.

1. We kicked off our employee engagement survey and already have over 62% participation in a short week and a half. Campuses have kicked off employee events with the theme, “I Make a Difference”.

2. Florida Hospital was ranked number 12 in the Orlando Sentinel's Top 100 Companies for Working Families!

3. Florida Hospital employees donated over 2,500 backpacks for underprivileged children in the annual BackPacks for Kids campaign.

4. Kevin Metzing, RN, BS, CNOR was announced as a Nursing Excellence winner from Nurse.com in the category “Advancing and Leading the Profession”. Metzing is the OR Supervisor at the Orlando campus. His write-up from Nurse.com is below.

Metzing was working in the for-profit business world when he realized he wanted more out of his professional life. He chose to become a nurse, and, in the last 18 years, has been an award-winning nurse leader at Florida Hospital. He is committed to strengthening the perioperative nursing specialty. As a member of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, Metzing has held 21 national AORN volunteer positions. He has held many posts with the Florida Council of periOperative Registered Nurses, including vice chairman and his current position as treasurer. He has volunteered as a delegate to the Florida State Convention and was a three-year member of the Florida Nurses Association Bylaws Committee. A key issue he spearheaded was to convince legislators to pass a law ensuring that a one-to-one, nurse-to-surgical patient ratio was a state standard of care. Metzing also finds time to volunteer on medical mission trips to Mexico.

To sign-up for our quarterly nursing newsletter, The Pulse, which gives potential nursing candidates updates on Florida Hospital, please email FHRecruitment@flhosp.org or follow us on Facebook.

Florida Hospital Celebrates

The last few weeks have been very exciting at Florida Hospital! In addition to recently celebrating USA's birthday during the 4th of July weekend, Florida Hospital has celebrated on our own by winning awards and breaking new records.

Transplant Update
During the June 25th weekend, four surgeons from the Florida Hospital Transplant Center performed five kidney transplants, three liver transplants, and four organ recoveries! This marked a new local record for number of surgeons and surgeries performed in 37 hours. The transplant ‘marathon’ utilized two operating rooms to accommodate the influx of organs and recipients.

Since the program began 35 years ago, more than 2000 patients have received organ transplants at Florida Hospital. The surgeons cite the dedicated staff for being able to accomplish the life-saving surgeries. They also, of course, credit the organ donors who gave the gift of life.

Emergency Medicine Update
Florida Hospital’s Emergency Medicine recently ranked among the Top 5% in the nation! This is quite an accomplishment, especially considering Florida Hospital sees more than 380,000 emergency cases each year! This information was based upon a risk-adjustment methodology applied to patients admitted to the hospital through the emergency department for 11 diagnoses. Of the 4,907 short-term, acute-care hospitals Florida Hospital was ranked in the top 5% and awarded the HealthGrades Emergency Medicine Excellence Award.

Congratulations to the ED team and all departments that work with them.

Florida Hospital is an exciting place to work - if you are interested in learning about employment opportunities, please email FHRecruitment@flhosp.org.

Employees Have a Chance to win a Vacation!

Florida Hospital understands the importance of working with friends and family who share values and work ethic. That is why Florida Hospital has created an Employee Referral program designed to reward employees who refer friends and family to work for Florida Hospital! I was actually referred to work at Florida Hospital by my husband.

I wanted to give a quick overview of the program:

-A specific website was created to submit referrals for all departments/specialties.

-Points are awarded for each referral, and employees can earn even more points if the referral is hired!

-As the points accrue, employees can shop over 1,300 name brand items without having to worry about taxes or shipping fees.

-The shopping atmosphere is similar to Amazon.com.

“The reason we switched from a monetary to points-based rewards system was value. Cash has no lasting effects. If you were to receive a flat-screen TV for your referrals, every time you look at it, you will remember that Florida Hospital values your friends and family,” says Elizabeth Philcox, Referral Program representative.

This summer, Florida Hospital has a neat challenge for employees: The individual who refers the most RNs who are hired between now and September receive an all-expenses paid vacation of their choice!