On Wednesday, February 3, 2021, ONE Club held a virtual meeting via Zoom starting at 6 p.m.

Joy welcomed us to the 2021 regional one club’s first meeting. New members and reactivated members were welcomed. -Joy turned the meeting over to events chair Amanda Damron. Amanda explained the difficulties of events during Covid but expressed how grateful the staff has been at the attempted events. Amanda let us know the best way to help at this stage is feeding the staff and trying to arrange events that were able to be dropped off. The event committee has a goal during the first quarter of doing some type of baskets for the staff. The Easter/spring baskets would contain candy, snacks and some small decorations to brighten the work areas of the staff. Mary Catherine has been very helpful with attaching branding to all items that have been given by One Club. The events committee will continue to search for opportunities to express appreciation to the staff.

-Joy said there are two leadership opportunities in regional one club currently. Membership chair and secretary. Please contact Joy or Mary Catherine with interest or suggestions.

-Joy introduced our speaker Linda Hughlett, chief nursing officer for regional one health.

Linda gave us a little background on her qualifications and road to regional one. Linda remarked on the community environment that regional one has and how grateful she is to be a part of it. The challenges regional one has faced during the Covid crisis have been an issue especially for her area. Staffing for nurses is a problem nationwide and Covid only made that problem worse. The hospital must compete with other areas that are paying much higher rates for traveling nurses. Historically, nurse turn over at regional one has been less than 2% but the additional need for nurses and added pressures with Covid have been very challenging.

Linda has witnessed her nurses become very tired physically and mentally with the added pressures of Covid. In an attempt to boost morale a meet and greet has started. This allows the nurses to vent and unwind during their very stressful days. A candy cart has also been introduced to help pump up the staff. The emergency department has experience very high volume and this is presenting a problem citywide when the ED is on hold. The uninsured have historically been brought to regional one And this has added to the congestion in the ED and frequent holds. The community of hospitals have worked together to try and disperse some of this population to allow regional one to focus on trauma and not experience so many ED holds. Covid reimbursement for uninsured has helped with this problem in addition to the CARES act.

Linda reviewed the TEAM based approach using graduate external to help nurses complete duties this is a win-win situation because the student nurse extern‘s are looking for experience and have the experience nurses as mentors.

12 Telesitters have been introduced in the emergency department. This allows interaction with the patient but not placing staff in harms way. This allows communication not only for the clinical staff but also the patient’s families. This has been well received by the clinical staff and patients. Linda has also started “wine down” for the nurses. This is a time to have a glass of wine or other beverage and communicate about issues the nurses may be having on the floor. A safe time to vent any frustrations. Linda also let us know that the leadership of regional one has allocated  $1 million to use as appreciation

Jevonte gave an update on what the We Are One Campaign is about.  It is an annual campaign that the foundation has.

Joy stated the next meeting will be a day meeting and then a night meeting to follow.

Questions- have those hospital administrators and staff vaccine numbers increased?

Mary Catherine answered- yes, they have.  We have done a lot of education so our staff feels comfortable and some have waited to see how others do with the vaccine and then gotten it.

Since we now have the vaccine, can we come on campus to volunteer.

Mary Catherine answered- that has not been allowed yet but as soon as it is, I will let yall know.

Meeting adjorned