ARN Southeast Texas Chapter
Contact Us:
Member Spotlight
Julius H. Penning, BSN, RN, CRRN
| Current Employment: | Michael E. DeBakey VAMC |
| Position: | Staff Nurse, Night Charge Nurse |
| Responsibilities include: | Julius provides rehabilitative care to spinal cord injury (SCI) patients on a 20 bed nursing care unit. Responsibilities and duties include: directing staff in providing care for SCI Veterans, treating complex and simple dressing changes, maintaining intravenous fluid access…. “you know, all the normal stuff we do as nurses in the profession and countless other tasks that are often overlooked and not documented by nursing. I truly enjoy my profession and the help I am in a position to give patients and colleagues.” |
| ARN Member Since: | November, 2003 |
| SETX Chapter ARN Member Since: | November, 2004 |
| Why did you decide to join SETX ARN? | |
| “I joined the SETX Chapter because I recognized the importance of keeping abreast in best practices in providing care in the rehabilitation setting and for networking with other rehabilitation professionals. I have recognized the importance of collaboration with other disciplines of rehabilitation, not just Spinal Cord Injury, in connecting the whole concept of treating patients we provide care for. | |
| Awards Received: | -Florence Nightingale Nursing Research
Award Michael E. DeBakey VAMC – 2005 -Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma
Theta Tau International -Special Contribution Award, Recreation Therapy Program |
| Exceptional Accomplishment: | |
| “I completed my BSN Degree
in June, 2005 from the University of Phoenix, and also earned
membership in the Honor Society of Nursing.” Poster presentation at the American Association of spinal Cord Injury Nurses (AASCIN) conference in 2005 and at the ARN Conference in 2005. Poster presentation at the upcoming AASCIN Conference 2006. |
|
| Hobbies, Special Interests: | |
| Gardening, Cooking, Bicycling, Travel, Scuba, Reading | |
| Previous Experience: | |
|
“I received my nursing education at the Albuquerque Technical Vocation Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1992. After graduation I began working in Spinal Cord Injury at the VAMC. I knew that rehabilitation nursing was what I wanted to do and develop my expertise in. I have no desires to “float” to other areas/specialties in nursing because everything in nursing and providing care to our patients will come to rehabilitation.” |
|
| What does Rehabilitation Nursing means to me: | |
| “To me, rehabilitation
nursing is the “what nurses do” while providing care in the health
care setting, whether in a facility or clinic, or in the community.
We educate patients and their families or significant others on how
to recover and function again after an altering life crisis. We see
the patient as a whole and not just a bodily part that needs to be
treated or healed. We achiever our goals by collaborating with other disciplines that provide services to facilitate the healing process in the physical, mental and spiritual realms. Nursing provided care in these areas twenty-four hours a day which puts each of us in a unique position and ideal setting in providing rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is not just a “9 to5” job. It entwines patients, families, and/or significant others with nursing staff to obtain knowledge in “what to do” or “how to do” in the twilight hours, late night hours and wee morning hours when help may not be readily available. Education does not start at eight o’clock in the morning and end at five o’clock in the evening. Education is one of our biggest tools to help people heal and move on. Not only patients and families learn. Nurses often learn new techniques and remedies for situations that patients and family members have discovered. I think one thing that always needs to be in the back of my mind is: I do not have all the answers. I need to keep my mind open to new things and make myself available to listen to families, patients, significant others and colleagues. We learn from each other in many situations. Sometimes the practical solutions are not written in a book. Knowledge, skill, and ability enable a nurse in providing care to the patient in rehabilitation nursing. We provide treatments and care that will benefit the whole patient within the environment he or she is facing in life. We achieve these goals through the utilization of Best Care Practices, nursing research, and nursing guidelines to help us deliver and direct the care we provide.” |
|
| On a Final Note: | |
| “I transferred to the Michael E. DeBakey VAMC in Houston in 1996. Who knows which VAMC I will retire from? This is one thing that attracted me to the VA Medical System: travel within the system throughout the United States and abroad.” | |
Copyright © 2003 ARNSOUTHEASTTX.ORG All rights reserved