Nightingales

Calling All Retired Nurses!

The Nightingale Volunteer Program at Baylor Plano Seeks Retired RNs to Join Program 

(PLANO, TEXAS September 23, 2010) – The Nightingale Volunteer Program at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano is seeking retired or inactive RNs to join this rewarding program that allows former nurses to use their professional expertise by providing compassionate care to patients and their families. The program creates an environment for retired or inactive RNs to share and learn from Baylor Plano employees. 

Requirements to participate in the Nightingale Volunteer Program include:

• RN licensure: active, inactive or retired.
• Five years of hospital, health clinic or medical office experience.
• Ability to interact professionally in an effective and efficient manner with patients, families and staff
• Ability to obtain vital signs, effectively and safely ambulate patients, and meet personal needs of patients.
• Minimum four-hour shift once a week, times are flexible.  

The goals of the Nightingale program are:

• To assist the Baylor Plano staff in providing support to patient care, therefore enhancing the level of excellence in care. 
• To utilize the volunteer RNs professional knowledge and skills by providing and assisting designated needs to patients and families.
• To establish an interactive communication between the patients, families, staff, and the Nightingale Volunteer; therefore, maintaining both continuity and standard of care.
• To enhance an interpersonal relationship between staff and the Nightingale Volunteer; therefore, both the staff and the Nightingale Volunteer continue to enrich their own individualized personal life satisfaction. 

Nightingales assist in the following ways: 

• Assist with daily hygiene measures and personal care needs of the patient.
• Assist with daily activities including ambulation, providing patient snacks, providing patient meal trays, and picking up finished patient meal trays.
• Assist with completing menus and feeding patients.
• Under direction of staff RN, assist with patient understanding of care.
• Under the direction of the staff RN, assist with appropriate patient care tasks and assist with maintaining a clean and neat patient room environment.
• Make “rounds” on patients evaluating needs, aiding with comfort measures, and being the liaison between the patient and staff.
• Communicate with other health care team members therefore ensuring optimal timely care for the patient and needs of the family.
• Make follow-up phone calls to discharged patients.
• Assist with the daily needs of the work area including answering call lights, running errands, copying charts/NH transfers, making coffee, and assisting with the transport of patients.
• Participate in orientation process of new employees. 

Nightingale volunteers do not perform any tasks that require RN licensure.

Nightingales are needed in inpatient and outpatient areas of Baylor Plano 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  

To learn more about participating in the Nightingale Volunteer Program, please call 469.814.4419 or visit www.BaylorHealth.com/PlanoVolunteer. 

Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano is a 112-bed acute care hospital committed to serving North Texas residents with personalized care and advanced technology on a beautiful campus with hotel-like amenities and all private rooms. Services at the not-for-profit, fully-accredited facility include treatment for advanced spine deformities at the Baylor Scoliosis Center, neurosciences, orthopaedics, medical and radiation oncology, surgical weight loss, women’s services, gynecology, urology, gastroenterology, pulmonary medicine, sleep disorders, pain management, diabetes management and more. Patients have access to digital imaging onsite at Baylor Plano and at the Baylor Diagnostic Imaging Center at Craig Ranch, an outpatient department of Baylor Plano. The hospital is the first in North Dallas and Collin County to offer minimally invasive robotic surgery for gynecology and prostate procedures through the FDA-approved da Vinci® S Surgical System.  The hospital has won several quality awards including the Texas Health Care Quality Improvement Award of Excellence and is designated a Pathway to Excellence™ hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.  Jerri Garison is president of Baylor Plano. For fiscal year 2009, Baylor recorded $3.9 billion in total assets and $452.4 million community benefit. For more information, visit www.BaylorHealth.com/Plano 

For a physician referral, call toll free 1-800-4-BAYLOR or log onto www.BaylorHealth.com/Plano. 

*Represents preliminary information that will be reported to the Texas Department of State Health Services. 

Physicians are members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Health Care System¹s subsidiary, community or affiliated medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano or Baylor Health Care System.