Kerri Craft, RN, MSN, believes doors open for a reason when you are least expecting it, and that was her experience when applying for a job with the VA in Nashville, Tenn.
“I have been a VA nurse for 24 years, and I stumbled upon the VA by complete accident,” she said. “Nursing is my second career. I was a stay-at-home mom of three children, and for anyone who’s been a stay-at-home mom, that is probably the most taxing job ever, and to be a better mother. I was going into Nashville to go to Vanderbilt University to apply for a job. I walked in, I applied for a job, I was hired on the spot and they said, “Welcome to the VA.”
Craft worked her way up the VA ladder where she is now Associate Director of Patient Care Services in the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center.
“I’m a firm believer that doors open for a reason and I was meant to be here in my role as the Associate Director of Patient Care Services,” she said. “It has been a leadership progression throughout my nursing career. I started as a bedside nurse. I’ve worked inpatient, I’ve worked outpatient, I’ve worked as a house supervisor, Nursing Officer of the Day (NOD), and I’ve worked as a nurse manager.”
In her role as Associate Director Patient Care Services, Craft is a member of the Oklahoma City VA executive leadership team.
“One would think that my job is to sit there, make our budget, do all the strategic planning, do all these great things,” she said. “I see my role as more helping my people remove the barriers for them to be able to care for our veterans, which is what I do every day.”
Craft continues to look for ways to improve services for her nursing staff and veterans.
May is National Nurses Month.
“I always think we can do things better, and so I get to help lead change,” she said. “When I’m tired of sitting in an office, I can go out and talk to the nursing staff or I can go talk to patients and the people. I love the people. I love the veteran community. I can tell stories about veterans from every facility I have worked at. I just love caring for veterans. The appreciation as a nurse that you get from a veteran when you’re caring for them is just amazing. It makes you want to come to work every day.”
Heather Smith, Nurse Manager of Operations, and interim Nurse Manager of the Intensive Care Unit at the VA Medical Center concurred.
“I’ve worked in the private sector, but what I like working with the VA here is helping veterans and working with veterans all day,” Smith said. “My family, my husband are veterans. I hold that close to my heart, and I really like to see the good things that we’re doing both on the inpatient side and the outpatient side to help that community. It really does feel like a community working here, the employees and the patients that we serve.”
David Ezersky, Nurse Manager over Five North, an inpatient medical surgical unit at the OKC VA Medical Center, said the VA provides opportunities to advance in the career.
“I feel like the VA, if you’re willing to take challenges and accept challenges, the VA will support you in development, educational opportunities, leadership opportunities,” he said. “If you’re willing to pursue those, I feel like they’ll support you. They’ll teach you. There’s lots of mentorship programs, both formal and informal. I’ve had a number of mentors here who have grown me and given me lots of opportunities.”
Craft said nurses are at the forefront of patient care.
“A nurse is someone who that patient sees during their hospital stay or their visit. The nurse is the one who’s responsible for coordinating your care,” she said. “They’ll often explain things to you in a way you can understand and sit down with you, so you do understand it. A nurse looks at you as a whole person. They don’t just take your disease process and say, Hey, you’re here for congestive heart failure. A nurse looks at you as a whole, so they’ll take what’s important to you, how can we achieve your health goals by what’s important to you and what matters to you. It’s the nursing profession that brings all that together, that helps that patient on their health journey.”
Craft said the Oklahoma City VA keeps its nurse-to-patient ratios low.
“You hear a lot about nurse-to-patient ratios,” she said. “Our nurse-to-patient ratios are one-to-four, one-to five is a bad day for us in staffing, and we help each other. Even in my role as executive leadership team, I’ll go out and if someone’s short staffed, I’ll go take vital signs or give baths or change bed linens because that’s what we do. We help each other, we support each other and do what we need to take care of veterans.”
Dustin Thomasson, Nurse Manager for Community Living Center, said the Oklahoma City VA has worked to fill vacancies.
“I would say one of the things that we’re most proud of down there was we had a large gap in our staffing that we’ve closed,” he said. “We’ve had zero turnover in the last year with our staffing. Our last two annual surveys have been amazing.”
Craft said strategic planning retreats are held to help the Oklahoma City VA Healthcare System move in the same direction as a service.
“As of March 2024, we have 954 nursing staff, and that’s APRs, RNs, LPNs, and Nursing Assistants,” she said. “And that doesn’t include the other administration staff or sterile processing staff that are underneath nursing services as well. The retreats guide us in how we can improve our care, and if we’re all going in the same direction, that makes things a lot easier. We’re looking at things like shared decision making, how do we improve our shared decision making?”
Craft said the retreats are also about building relationships.
“We all have things going on in our life,” she said. “I think it’s important to learn those personal things about people because it does tell you who you’re working with and how we can work together. The VA is about camaraderie. It is about teamwork. It is about family. It’s about the whole person. It’s providing care to the whole person, not just the piece of the person, and I think that’s what sets us apart from others (in the private sector).”
For more information about the Oklahoma City VA
Healthcare System visit
https://www.oklahoma.va.gov.
