Meet the LVN: Sally K. Pope

Sally K. Pope, LVN, 50, is director of nursing at the Hotze Health and Wellness Center in Katy, Texas. Here, she discusses the nursing profession, nursing school, LVN jobs, and more.

A. I have been involved in the fitness industry for 30 years. I am still a certified personal trainer and aerobics instructor. I have taught everything from dance aerobics, bench, slide to spinning and Pilates/yoga! I am also a registered massage therapist certified in medical massage and a licensed cosmetologist. I went to nursing school at Memorial Hermann Memorial City School of Vocational Nursing in Houston to become an LVN and "round out" taking care of the entire person.

My goal in going into nursing was to tie it in with my fitness background. During my clinical hours, I quickly realized by the time patients are in the hospital setting, there was not much I could do, other than hand out their numerous medications and make them comfortable. But we can actually impact and change the disease process here. Also, being an LVN today is very different from what it was years ago. It's certainly not the old "doctor's assistant" that it used to be. LVNs and LPNs are given a lot more responsibilities. A licensed vocational nurse is held to the same standards as the provider--nurses are no longer protected under the doctor's umbrella.

A. I was actually considering coming into Hotze Health & Wellness Center as a patient and then saw a job there as a nurse advertised in the newspaper. The customer service difference was what initially intrigued me. I started at Hotze Health and Wellness Center in 2003 as a floor nurse and I am now the director of nursing. I have been in the nursing field for nine years.

A. I start my day at 7 a.m. Our professional team consists of 21 nurses (11 RNs and 5 LVNs) and four providers (two doctors and two nurse practitioners). I manage the 21 nurses. If in the morning, I see that any nurses are out or changes in the schedule need to be made, I address it at that time. We "huddle" at exactly 7:30 a.m. and review the good news, the roadblocks, and our critical numbers. I then do a departmental walk-through--checking on each person on my team. I have regularly scheduled mentor meetings and leadership responsibilities as well.

Throughout the day, I troubleshoot any issues that arise as well as handle any quality assurance issues. This typically involves calling the patient and resolving their issues to their satisfaction. I am in charge of any guests (patients) who are not happy with a certain provider--resolving this as well. My responsibilities also include promotion of our ancillary services: breast thermography, heart scans and bone densities, scheduling of educational "Lunch and Learns" for the team, as well as attending the providers lunch when needed to address changes to procedures, policies, etc.

A. Hearing the success stories from our guests and learning about natural medicine. I also enjoy continuing educational training with the nursing team and doctors and watching our newest LVNs and RNs learn about alternative/natural treatments.

A. The challenging parts are of course managing a team and making it work when we don't have the needed staff!

A: A positive mental attitude, deep breathing, taking one thing at a time. The LVNs and RNs at the Hotze Health and Wellness Center are the best nurses that I could choose to work with. They have an amazing "can-do" spirit and keep each other uplifted and motivated.

A. Absolutely! One thing that never changes is the need for good LVNs and licensed practical nurses! And there are many LVN jobs and LPN jobs for people who earn their appropriate credentials.

A. The focus of an LVN program is "hands-on" direct patient care. After the first six weeks of theory/classroom, we began clinical rotations three days a week (the other two days were theory/classroom). These classes included, but weren't limited to: fundamentals of nursing, pharmacology, disease control/prevention, anatomy/physiology, and math for nursing.

We were also required to do presentations on different diseases/disease processes to our class. Once clinical rotations began, we were assigned our patients the evening before and were required to research their disease process, all medications and design our care plan. The clinical rotations included all areas of the hospital from the emergency room to orthopedics.