HARRIET SARKODIE, MSN, RN
Clinical Educator
East Orange General Hospital
East Orange, New Jersey
Harriet Sarkodie functions primarily as a full-time Clinical Educator on the night shift, a rarity in most healthcare facilities these days. Prior to this position, she role modeled a commitment to professional growth and continued learning in her pursuit of an advanced degree while meeting staff and charge nurse role responsibilities on a telemetry unit and mothering three growing children. Ms. Sarkodie is an effective educator, developing program objectives and outcomes, selecting appropriate teaching methodologies and audiovisuals and designing evaluation tools to measure expected outcomes. She has a collegial working relationship with managers and staff, and has been complemented by them for her flexibility and adaptability. She shadows and coaches, develops scenarios and vignettes to stimulate critical thinking and problem solving and prepares self learning packets when appropriate to learning needs of the staff. In addition to the above staff learning responsibilities, Harriet coordinates, implements and evaluates orientation experiences while mentoring new nurses in their responsibilities to patients in the agency. She also serves as the Continuous Readiness Coordinator for the night shift to ensure ongoing compliance with nursing practice standards and regulatory requirements.
Ms. Sarkodie has also been the Champion for the Rapid Response Team on the night shift, mentoring and coaching team members. This team, which has been in existence for over a year, has had outstanding outcomes, preventing about 50% of unplanned transfers to critical care because of early interventions for patients with changes in their conditions. As an advocate for Performance Improvement Ms. Sarkodie has been chosen as the primary data collector and analyst for the Rapid Response Team and CPR statistics. She has also created a database that facilitates the review and analysis of outcome measures related to these areas. Ms. Sarkodie has been chosen as Nurse Champion for the CHF project and will serve as mentor to staff members in implementing evidence-based practice in the area of Congestive Heart Failure. Ms. Sarkodie also serves as an adjunct clinical faculty for Trinitas School of Nursing.
Ms. Sarkodie is committed to quality patient care and advocates for both patient care and staff needs. She has served on various agency task forces and committees and is an active member of professional organizations. She has been recognized for her commitment to advancing the profession and received the United States Army Award for Perseverance, the Kean University Transcultural Nursing Award and was nominated for Excellence in Clinical Practice as a staff nurse for serving as a mentor to her colleagues and as a charge nurse.