Mastering Six Skill Sets In Health Care Will Help Sacramento Nurses

Kathryn Bucher, RN is the associate director for patient services and chief nursing executive for VA Northern California Health Care System. She was inspired to have chosen this field by having worked alongside her mother Josephine, after it had become apparent that the job forecasts in environmental toxicology were going to be as bountiful as those in nursing, and she did not want to work in a lab.

"I was a ward clerk throughout high school and college and worked alongside my mother who was a nurse manager of a patient care unit. I watched my mother as a nurse and she was and still is the finest nurse that I've ever seen."

After having earned her Bachelor's of Science in Nursing from the University of California San Francisco, she set out to complete her Master's of Nursing at San Diego State. "At this point I had already been in school for four years and decided I needed to find something stable that would help me to provide for myself – so I changed my focus to nursing. I was comfortable with nursing, my mother was a nurse and so was my grandmother. I was around the profession all my life so it was a practical decision for me."

Bucher did not stop there however, "To be successful one needs to be a life-long learner. Now I have just six months to complete my Ph.D. at University of New Mexico. My education has played an imperative role in having allowed me to take on increasing leadership roles and truly provide excellent patient care."

Bucher also feels that the key values of nursing are integrity, stewardship of care, and advocacy for patients. She feels that "Today's health care is an interprofessional world. One needs to be a master of six skill sets: patient-centered care, patient safety, quality improvement, team work, collaboration, and informatics. Every health care professional needs to have skills in these six subjects as well as their own specific discipline. If people work towards those pillars of excellence, they will be successful in the world of health care."

Karen Hansen M.S. Earth Sciences, has been an educator and consultant who is currently an analyst regarding land and other public information records. She lives and works in Sacramento, CA. She has been writing about earth and the environmental sciences for Examiner.com since May of 2010. Find her work in several sections of the publication. You can find her work at SF Solar Energy Examiner, SF Environmental News Examiner and Environmental News Examiner