A University of Houston-Victoria nursing student will present a new way to use a database to determine how well a medical facility is working at a national nursing convention today and Friday.

 

Patti Goehring

Patti Goehring, who takes classes in Victoria, will present the modifications with a colleague at the American Nursing Association National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators conference today and Friday in Orlando, Fla., attended by more than 900 nursing professionals.

 

“You can proactively deal with problems before they become big problems,” said Goehring, who works as the director of quality management at the Devereux Texas Treatment Network in Victoria.

 

Goehring and a colleague developed a way to modify an existing database system to better track how well a medical unit is functioning from a clinical, financial and safety perspective. Most methods presently in use tend to focus on the financial side of operations, she said. The system has shown promising results at Devereux, she said.

 

“Patti and her colleagues represent the positive and innovative side of nursing,” said Denise Neill, co-director of the School of Nursing. “Not only have they found a creative way to solve practical dilemmas, but they are accepting their professional responsibility by sharing that knowledge with others to improve the status and quality of health care in our community and nation.”

 

Goehring is a senior in the UHV nursing program. The registered nurse always wanted to get her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing.

 

“It was the UHV program that finally allowed me to do it,” she said. The only options available to her before were far-away online programs that wouldn’t allow her the interaction with fellow students that she thought vital to her education.

 

“I think it’s going to make me better at what I do,” she said of her pending degrees. And that means better outcomes for patients across the area.