Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

How Safe Are Your Patients? - June 2016 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 6 T hey say nurses eat their young, but then you see a retiring director of nursing walking her replacement around the trade show floor, a mama tiger showing her cub the ropes, and your faith in the profession is restored. Connie Sinnk, RN, is retiring next month, a few weeks shy of her 65 th birthday, from the Main Line Spine Surgery Center, the 6,000 patient-a-year suburban Philadelphia facility she helped launch 10 years ago, her "baby." The physician-owners let her hand-pick her suc- cessor as director of nursing, and she headed straight for Beth Pickford, RN, BSN, a longtime part-time staff nurse who remembers the offer going something like this: "When Connie approached me and asked me if I wanted it, she said, 'That's my baby. And don't say no.'" But she did say no. With 3 active kids, including a gymnast, the timing wasn't right for Ms. Pickford to jump into a full-time role. But she reconsidered once things quieted down at home. There was something else, too. She didn't like the idea of an outsider taking over. "I wasn't really sure I wanted to be in a director's role, but I was worried that someone new would change the culture," she says. "So I thought, Why not give it a try?" Why not, indeed. So at age 49, Ms. Pickford is about to step into a director's role that both scares and excites her. "There's so many things to learn that I haven't been exposed to, so many unknowns," Changing of the Guard When it's time to retire, will you train your replacement the right way? Editor's Page Dan O'Connor • STAND BY ME Beth Pickford, RN, BSN, and Connie Sinnk, RN, walked the ASCA exhibit hall together.

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