For this assignment, I chose to interview a family friend who is a clinical director at a hospital in Oklahoma.
Name: Brittany Wolf
Job Title: Clinical Director
Where: Integris Baptist Medical Center
Education / certification: Bachelors in Nursing, Certified Medical-Surgical Registered Nurse
Q: What inspired you to get into the field?
A: I was first inspired to become a nurse because of my love to help others. I was inspired to get into the management side of nursing because I enjoy helping people with success planning and figuring out the business side of things.
Q: What was your path to your current job?
A: I first started as a nurse extern or a nurse assistant. I then graduated from college and became a registered nurse. After a couple of years as a RN, I became a charge nurse. I then became a clinical nurse manager and then a clinical director which is my current job.
Q: What are your basic roles and responsibilities?
A: I am incharge of operation. I oversee the budget for the floor and department and I am incharge of staffing and scheduling. Besides the management side, I help nurses with clinical things like starting IVs and I do patient rounds as well.
Q: What is your favorite or most rewarding aspect of your job?
A: As a nurse I enjoy interacting with patients and hearing how the patients had a good experience on my unit. As a leader and director, I enjoy seeing the teamwork amongst the nurses within the unit, seeing the good positive culture on the floor, and witnessing career growth in the staff.
Q: What is the most surprising aspect of your career?
A: The most surprising thing about my career so far would be how quickly I moved up. I am only thirty-two, and I am incharge of seventy nurses. Although I love my job, it comes with a lot of stress and challenges that I was not prepared for that quickly.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your career?
A: I would say the most challenging part of being a nurse is work and life balance. The healthcare profession is challenging in general. It is a very demanding job that is challenging and intense. My job has become a lot more challenging since the pandemic hit. It is challenging because there are a lot of unknowns, but most of the time people are very understanding and helpful. That being said, I would say the hardest part would be making sure you set aside time to live and get away from work.
Q: What advice would you give for someone getting into the health field?
A: My biggest piece of advice would be to keep an open mind. I would recommend not being set on a certain kind of nurse. This will allow you to experience different things and it will bring opportunities you never knew about. Be able to speak up, if you are not happy where you are, ask to change, there are so many different fields and jobs. Finally, I would say keep going. Being a nurse is so rewarding and you will definitely not regret it.