Chief nursing officer is optimistic about future
Staff reporter
"We're looking for good things to happen," said Jan Moffitt, newly appointed chief nursing officer at St. Luke Hospital.
Quality care and customer service to all are Moffitt's top priorities. She also promotes education among her employees.
Moffitt said it seemed a natural fit to accept the position.
"I've been with St. Luke hospital for more than 20 years," Moffitt said. "I know the layout and the people." She is learning the paper work, doing report, and supervisory duties.
Moffitt says her job also is to "keep up the moral of the nurses before, during, and after the management transition."
St. Luke Hospital will lose its management support from BannerHealth Systems in 2004. A consulting firm has been hired to assist with the transition with the board of directors of Marion County Hospital District #1 managing the hospital.
"There will be no change in the care that will be provided," Moffitt said, "just a change in the paperwork."
Moffitt, formerly Marion County Public Health Administrator, said she wants to continue her contact with the community and health department with outreach programs.
"I'm still involved with the HealthyFit program," Moffitt said. She is the director of the grant-funded program.
Moffitt does not foresee any major changes in the nursing department. She would like to promote more educational opportunities including trauma nurse training.
"Some of the nurses have had the training," Moffitt explained. Three nurses will be sent this summer for the training.
Five nurses will attend "managing risk in emergency medicine" this summer in Greeley, Colo., Moffitt said. Two nurses attended the class in April in Phoenix.
Nurses are required to be ACLS, advanced cardiac life support, certified which enables the nursing staff to be able to appropriately treat cardiac emergencies. The certifications have to be renewed on a regular basis which includes training and class.
All staff nurses at the hospital are registered nurses except for one who is a licensed practical nurse.
Moffitt is continuing to work on a bio-terrorism plan for the hospital which will coincide with Marion County's plan.
Twenty-six employees comprise the nursing staff, including ward clerks. A low turnover rate enables the staff to provide continuous quality care. There are eight nurses who have been with the hospital for less than five years, seven, with the hospital between seven and 19 years, and six have been with the hospital for more than 20 years.
There are four ward clerks, two recently hired. One ward clerk has been with the hospital for 10 years and one for 37 years.
Moffitt and her family moved to Tampa from Kansas City in 1980 so the family could care for her mother-in-law. She took classes first to become a certified nurses' assistant, then a certified medical aide, and medical records.
In 1985, she earned an associate of arts degree from Butler County Community College, followed by a bachelor of science degree in nursing in 1996 from Newman University.
Moffitt is a certified child birth educator and certified as an inpatient obstetrics nurse.
Moffitt is married to Frank and they have three children, Jon of Houston, Texas, Sara of Nashville, Tenn., and Melissa, a nursing student at University of Kansas School of Nursing.
Service and care are important to Moffitt and her staff.
"We will continue to provide the same quality of customer service," Moffitt concluded.
"I am proud of the nursing staff and pleased to be a part of it," Moffitt concluded.
