I also plan to stay at the rural hospital I have been employed at for the past 16 years. My coworkers are like family to me and so are many of our patients. Working in a small facility is so personal, and teamwork is essential. We put our hearts into our work and constantly strive to make improvements. The article in our required reading talked about how rural areas tend to have less health resources and less staff. Therefore, when nurses leave, they are not easy to replace (Edmonson et al., 2017).

I have seen many innovations at this facility in the past 16 years. I would like to continue to be a part of its growth. I am currently on the Nursing Informatics Committee. Electronic health records, order entry, and documentation systems have grown by leaps and bounds since I began nursing 20 years ago. There is always room for improvement to make it more efficient or to flow better. It is important to get input from the ones who use the systems the most (nurses, MDs, techs, surgeons) to make those continued improvements. In my experience with certain systems, it seemed like they were not designed by nurses or staff that even used them.