A nurse and a financial officer walk a mile in each other's shoes (and scrubs)

“I think I was technically dressed as a surgeon,” said Sid. “And there was a point at which a whole bunch of surgeons were walking by in their scrubs and I felt like the fish that had left the school or something. They're looking at me like, “Who are you and why are you impersonating us?’”

I was wondering the same thing, so I asked Sid and McCall Shugars, the assistant nurse manager who accompanied him, what was going on.

It all started with McCall. With help from Intermountain Health’s tuition reimbursement program, she’s pursuing her Master of Science in Nursing at Weber State University, and she’s been shadowing Sid to earn some of her administrative practicum hours. Experiencing the administrative side of Primary Children’s has widened McCall’s perspective, like getting “a bird’s eye view.”

Sid asked McCall to return the favor and let him shadow her for a day.

“I got to see the people that are the faces of the stuff we talk about all the time in admin meetings and in finance meetings and in planning and forecasting,” said Sid. “The coolest thing was I saw people use the Zero Harm techniques that I talk about every time I get to do the New Employee Orientation.”

What did our chief financial officer take away from his day as a clinical caregiver? (Or at least, looking like one?)

“The reason we're doing all those things is for the people I met, and it actually makes a difference to them. That's why we do the things we do: to plan, to manage expenses, to look at our revenues, to try to forecast accurately what our staffing and hiring needs are going to be. It's so we all work as seamlessly as possible for those who are here so their kids will get better and they can go home.”

How about McCall? How has spending some time on the administrative side changed her as a nurse?

“I think this changes my practice in that my admin aren't as far away as I think they are. My resources aren't as far away as I think they are. It just gives me a renewed sense of wow. I'm here for the child first and always and so is everyone that I work with and that might look different in how they're carrying that out. We're all working towards that same mission.”

Just before we ended our visit, Sid shared a secret.

“This is something that nobody else knows except my wife right now,” he told me. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a textbook titled, Clinical Medical Assisting. “I'm halfway through my CMA course, using the PEAK program. When I saw that was offered and they'll pay for it, I thought, ‘Why shouldn't I do this?’ I want to understand more about the actual patient care, the clinical side.”

The PEAK Education Program offers Intermountain caregivers up to $5,250 in tuition each year for online educational programs.

 “When I do actually finish this, I think I'm going to have to get actual hours,” added Sid. “So I may be talking to McCall some more.”

 “Absolutely. Come find me,” said McCall. “We'll get you some gray scrubs though, I think, for that.”