blue water woman--winter 2015-12-18-2015

professions
christie sansom, port huron
impacting patient care
by Patti Samar
The first time Christie Sansom stepped into a patient room as a student
nurse, “I knew it was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”
And Sansom, of Port Huron, has taken her nursing career in a direction
that allows her to make an impact on the delivery of patient care in ways
she could not have imagined when she was still in school.
As the director of critical care and emergency nursing at McLaren Port
Huron, she regularly oversees more than 100 nursing personnel and she
is heading up a team of nurses who are very involved in the design of a
new four-or-five story patient tower that will include a new emergency
department and a new intensive care unit. This patient tower is part of a
broad hospital-wide development strategy that also includes construction
of a Karmanos Cancer Institute.
“Our role is to build the space while anticipating what the future
needs of the space are going to be,” said Sansom. “There’s a strategic
nature to designing the space that will enable us to deliver high quality
compassionate care.
“Our staff members are the experts in how to best deliver that care
and their input in how to deliver that care is crucial. We know the most
important thing is our relationship with the patients and working with a
team to meet patient needs when they need it the most.”
In order to make sure staff is satisfied with the design of the space prior
to actual construction of patient care areas and nursing stations, mock
work areas have been laid out in an empty floor of the existing hospital so
that staff can evaluate the right work flow options.
4 winter 2015 BlueWaterWoman.com
Working on the design of the new space is an opportunity that Sansom
welcomed into her already busy work and home life. A mother of four
children under the age of 10, she and her husband share equally in
parenting and home life chores in order to create balance.
“I have an incredible husband who does everything that I do,” she said.
“You just make priorities in your life. My family is always going to be the
most important thing in my life, but my work feels like the right way to
spend my time when I’m not with my family.”
She is able to make the time needed for them by carefully managing her
time and effort at work.
“I surround myself with really good people,” she said of her colleagues.
“My passion is developing leaders who want to provide really great
nursing care. And work is a constant re-prioritization. Health care is
changing so quickly. I’ve learned, along the way, what kinds of things
work and what doesn’t.
“The incredible thing about the new tower is that we already have
such high quality of staff in place. The new environment is just going to
enhance the care we already provide.”
When Sansom is not at the hospital or spending time with her family,
she enjoys making use of her creativity by shooting photographs. Her
hobby has turned into a part-time business called Captured by Christie.
Nursing and caring for people, however, remain her primary career
focus. “I feel so very fortunate to have found a career that is so fulfilling on
so many levels with incredible leaders and incredible staff taking care of
patients with such compassion.”