Rachel Hodo

NTS Partner

Springfield, Illinois

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Rachel has been in the emergency department since 2016, starting as a tech, undecided on what she wanted to do as a final career. After one year of working in emergency medicine, she decided to pursue a career in nursing and began her journey as a registered nurse in the emergency department in 2019.

Rachel got to experience firsthand the lasting impact of having a supportive and structured new grad orientation. During her time in emergency medicine, she has found a passion for mentoring new nurses and being able to talk to them and discover the barriers to them having a successful nursing career. Rachel has also seen a passion for helping some of the most vulnerable populations, including abused children & women, human trafficking victims, and sexual assault patients. She obtained her AA SANE through the state of Illinois in 2021 and has supported several others to get theirs.

Education

Associates Degree in Nursing, Lincoln Land Community College

2017-2018
Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

2019-2020

Areas of Expertise

Rachel has been a nurse in the emergency department for four years. She has fulfilled the role of preceptor, orientation nurse, triage nurse, bedside nurse, and charge nurse.

Preceptor Development
Care of the sexual assault patient
Simulation Operations
Caring for Vulnerable Populations Teaching

Projects

Simulation as an adjunct in an Orientation Process

A traditional preceptorship orientation model often doesn't allow the new emergency nurse to experience all patient situations or types. Caring for complicated patients in the care environment creates stress and chaos for the new nurse in the emergency department. By developing a well-thought-out and evidence-based simulation curriculum, the new emergency nurse experiences different patient situations in a safe learning environment.

Benchmarking Performance

Develop deeper insights into learner progress and the overall orientation process by comparing a learner to like kind learners when they were at the same point in their orientation.

Preceptor Training

A well trained preceptor will be prepared to guide the new nurse, handle challenging conversations, and help the nurse be prepared for independent practice.

Clinical Judgement v Checklists

A traditional checklist and prescribed number of weeks of orientations may not adequately prepare a learner’s clinical judgement skills for successful independent practice. Measuring progress helps identify each learner’s strengths and weaknesses in their journey to develop Clinical Judgement skills.