District’s VP and Chief Financial Officer walks a mile with Lakeside Medical Center’s Assistant Nurse Manager of Surgical Services

Brandy Seider, RN, BSN, CNOR
Assistant Nurse Manager, Surgical Services, Lakeside Medical Center

By Dawn L. Richards, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

She welcomed me to Lakeside Medical Center at 9:00 a.m., dressed in her surgical garb, then whisked me down the hall to the morning huddle. I barely had time to hand her the box of doughnuts I had brought before the meeting kicked o? and the hospital managers began discussing key information for the day. Right from the start, Brandy Seider, who is Assistant Nurse Manager of Surgical Services, seamlessly integrated both management responsibilities and clinical nursing duties: coordinating care, evaluating patient ?ow, considering succession planning, and recruiting new employees (she’ll seize the opportunity to recruit anyone qualifed who is in her path). She wears many hats and explains her work with great detail and passion.

Brandy joined the Health Care District of Palm Beach County in 2001 as a telemetry nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at Glades General Hospital. She had tendered her resignation to accept a position at another hospital when she learned about an opening for an Operating Room nurse at Glades General. She decided to accept the job and stay. Brandy was soon promoted to OR Charge Nurse and in 2009 transitioned to Lakeside Medical Center, the new 70-bed, all-private room acute care hospital, when Glades General closed its doors. Brandy was promoted to Assistant Nurse Manager in 2016.

Her Heart’s in the Glades

Brandy looks back fondly at her decision to remain working in the Glades. After earning a Bachelor of Nursing from Florida Atlantic University and a Bachelor of Public Health at the University of Florida, Brandy thought she’d be a travel nurse. But her heart kept her in Belle Glade. Brandy’s husband, a Belle Glade native, also works in town and her 10-year old daughter attends school here.

“We’re rooted in this community,” Brandy said.For someone so firmly rooted, it’s amazing that her shoes have any tread left on them. She’s constantly on the go, both mentally and physically. O? we raced from the morning huddle to meet with the surgical team upstairs to review the day’s many scheduled cases. Among them: a hiatal hernia repair, two colonoscopies, and a gallstone operation plus word of a new patient that was added at the last minute.

Daniel B. Kairys, MD, General Surgeon who serves as the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer, Chief of Sta? Elect and Chief of Surgery, led the discussion with a dose of humor, relating that his eight-year-old son forgot to wear his shoes to school and when o?ered, turned down the option to borrow his father’s shoes. Brandy, still carrying the box of doughnuts, and her colleagues, including Glennon A. Brown, MD, Chief of Sta? and Anesthesia Service Chief and several medical students, quickly shifted gears to focus on the patients scheduled for surgery. Ever mindful of efficient inventory management and utilizing instock surgical supplies before they expire, Brandy reminds Dr. Kairys of the ligasure sizes on hand. I was impressed. Before I knew it, I was changing into surgical scrubs and Brandy was helping me tie my mask prior to entering the Operating Room.

At Home in the OR

Out of sight, the team had meticulously prepared the patient and the Operating Room for the frst surgery. Dr. Kairys was focused, precise and in control…even in his selection of the background music.

Brandy explained the roles and responsibilities of each team member. Dr. Brown spent time educating myself and the medical students about the administration of anesthesia. Brandy nodded knowingly as she understands the intricacies of the various technical systems used in the OR, including the systems’ strengths and limitations.

This is a highly skilled team and they work together without skipping a beat, synchronized as if they are performing a classical dance. The fact that they are close-knit is clear.

“We solve all of life’s problems when we’re in here,” Brandy said. “We have the best conversations when we’re in the OR.”

Brandy does whatever needs to be done and conscientiously keeps everything orderly and sterile while ensuring steady patient ?ow. Her long list of responsibilities is impressive:

• Assuring all patients are billed appropriately for surgery
• Handling all issues related to the hospital’s PIMS system and new upgrades
• OR billing
• Ordering and Supply Management for
• Surgical Services
• Surgical Data Extrapolation
• Budgeting
• Staffing for OR, PACU, Ambulatory Surgery, Outpatient infusion services, Cardiac Stress Lab, Interventional Radiology nursing, Endoscopy, Vascular Access Team
• Sterile Processing, which includes keeping the hospital up to date with The Joint Commission, AAMI, AORN, CDC and CMS requirements and standards
• Policy and procedures for all departments listed above
• Capital Management for Surgical Services
• Vascular Access Team member (1 of 2 members)
• Meeting with the hospital’s numerous vendors

 
“I also am still clinical as a Circulator, PACU nurse, Outpatient Nurse, Radiology Nurse, Cardiac Stress Nurse and Scrub Nurse,” Brandy adds.

Whew! Add to that list the high number of hospital committees on which she serves and it’s no wonder you’ll rarely find her at her desk:

• Continuous Quality and Patient Safety
• Improvement Committee
• Sepsis Committee
• Infection Control Committee
• EOC
• Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee
• Surgical Services Line Committee
• Critical Care Committee
• Clinical Informatics Committee
• Nursing Leadership Committee

A Positive, High-Energy Person

Brandy has a positive, high energy level from the moment she enters the workplace, and her long hours and overnight shifts don’t seem to wear her down. Brandy is also a mentor for all of the OR nurses. She garners a great deal of respect and is someone people admire.

“Everybody here (at Lakeside Medical Center) is like family,” Brandy said. “I love my job and I love what I do.”

Walking a mile in Brandy’s shoes was meaningful to me personally because after high school, it was my desire to become an OR nurse. To quote the Canadian rapper Drake, “Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.”

Brandy’s destination is a moving line. It was an amazing day literally walking a mile in her shoes as we did not sit once. She is talented, bright, personable, cheerful, and incredibly dedicated. I enjoyed that she kept me on my toes to learn about her critical role as a nurse and team leader whose life revolves around the mission of ensuring patients receive the quality care they need in the most efficient manner possible.