Stacie Brandl

I think my success comes from not giving up and that I kept going. I always thought, too, like, oh, bedside, you know, charge nurse was the top. I didn't ever think of becoming a nurse shift manager, and there's just been so many endless possibilities and things that I never thought I would get, you know, never knew about or thought I would be a part of. I've opened and helped open, like, an iron infusion clinic at my hospital. I've assisted with the move. Like, I never imagined being part of those bigger things, I guess. And there were really rough days where I'm like, I don't know if I can continue to do this. And you just keep on pushing, and I think not giving up and just continuing to go and looking at the bigger picture is what has made the difference for me.

The best career advice I've ever received is that not everyone is going to like you, or like the way maybe you manage a unit, but that's not what you're there for. You're there to make the patients safe and to make the place better.

If you are wanting to help people, getting into the nursing field can be a very rewarding work for you to do, and there's so many opportunities and options. Like, if something isn't your niche, there's so many different fields, and sometimes people think that nursing is all about the bedside, and it's not. Like, if that's not your thing, there's so many other options and ways to help people in that field, so I think you know, don't give up, keep going, and there's so many possibilities. And you could work anywhere. I've watched a lot of people come through, and they just were like, I thought this was my thing, and it's not, and I'm like, that's okay. There's so many options. Many people think sometimes nursing and helping people is bedside, but it's not always that. There's just so many different options for individuals, and so I think seeing the broader picture, and knowing that, you know, there's gonna be good days and there's gonna be bad days, but that, I mean, that's in any type of career, right?

I would say the biggest challenge is cultural change. I feel like you have a lot of nurses in a unit that sometimes you have older nurses that are mixed in with newer nurses, and trying to change the culture of old habits with new and upcoming education and best practices is always a difficult challenge on the unit. It's trying to get everyone on board and see, like, there is a new way of doing things, which can be scary for nurses who have been in the field for a long time. And so, I would say that's a difficult challenge. Change is hard, and I think it's something that is difficult on our floor currently.

I would say human kindness. Human kindness can go a long ways in treating everyone equally. There's a lot of different individuals that come through the hospital and that I work with, and human kindness, something so simple, can just go a really long way. And so that's of big importance to me in treating everyone equal, whether it's a person that comes in that is wealthy, or a homeless individual off the street, everyone should be treated equally with the same type of care.