Week One: Understanding My Why

  As I worked through this week’s material, I found myself asking: what does it take to build a healthy organization, one where staff feel supported and patients feel truly cared for? Culture isn’t accidental—it’s built day by day, in the way we show up as leaders, teammates, and caregivers (Albert & Pappas, 2025). Setting the Standard in Positivity Ryan Leak’s reminder: “I don’t match the energy, I set the standard,” struck a chord with me (Leak, 2023). Negativity can be contagious within an organization. I’ve had coworkers try to pull me into complaining; it’s tempting when you’re running on fumes. Instead of giving in, I refused to participate. At first it was awkward, but over time they realized I wouldn’t engage. That taught me something important: one of the few things we truly control is consistency in our attitude, and it can change the whole tone of a shift. Setting the standard shows up in small, everyday choices. It’s redirecting gossip instead of feeding i...

  Reflection: Mistakes as Teachers As a new nurse, I was helping care for a patient recovering from a motorcycle crash when I misapplied a wound dressing. At the time, I believed I had done everything right: I followed the physician’s orders and even asked another nurse for guidance. The next day, however, my nurse manager told me the medical staff had noticed it wasn’t applied correctly. That was difficult to hear, but it also revealed something bigger—neither I nor the other nurse truly knew the proper technique. Instead of seeing it only as my failure, I now recognize it as a reminder of how essential training and mentorship are. With stronger education on wound care, that situation could have been transformed from discouragement into a powerful teaching moment. Another mistake happened when I crushed and administered a medication through an NG tube without realizing it wasn’t safe to crush. Neither error was intentional, but both moments stayed with me. While they initiall...