1. What type of organization do you work in? (How do you classify the organizations in which you work for?

) an insurance company that insures employers for accidents that occur with their employees. 2. What is your role in the organizations? I manage the east coast managed care division. It is a group of nurses that do care management for the insured from Oklahoma and Texas eastward. 3. What are the objectives of your work? To assist an injured worker with receipt of optimal medical care for the specific injury; to promote the highest and best outcome for medical treatment and return to work. 4. How does what you do differ from the typical way we view nurses? I think we all think of nurses fulfilling roles in hospitals and doctors offices. All of these roles are aimed at expediting the physician defined treatment plan. Our nurses create a team approach by collaboration with the injured worker, physician, claims examiner, therapist, employer, and any other involved party (i.e. attorneys) to assist in development of the optimal treatment plan and works to effect that plan for a win-win situation for all. In this role, the nurse utilizes a more holistic medical knowledge base as well as medical/legal knowledge. 5. You lead a team of nurses, what specific characteristics make your team successful? A strong foundational knowledge of medical, psychological, socioeconomic, legal that is functional and applicable. Another thing is, that they each have a strong sense of professionalism coupled with a tremendous sense of humor. Another foundational strength is, their ability to focus on the patients needs and meet them to enhance the patients life quality. And what do they do on a daily basis? They manage the medical/return to work processes for approximately 65 cases. This involves much phone communication, collaboration with all members of care team, negotiate optimal care, document all activity, review medical records, transition patients between levels of care and communicate via written correspondence when needed. Do you and your employees have a lingo that you use on a daily basis? Yes, as nurses we have lots of abbreviations for various health care procedures, activities, laboratory results. Additionally, we have lingo for various communications we make from one to another. For example, doc in a box= urgent care. 6. How does your team work together? As supervisor I provide a work place setting that is professional, knowledgeable, and is accompanied by the expectation of hard work, life/work balance, and fun. Creativity is encouraged amongst the team. As a team we stop and group to put all heads together to strategize a challenging presenting medical issue or behavioral issue of a patient. Team work is promoted and expected at all times. 7. How do you and your team interface with difficult patients? This is a tough question because we see most of our patients at the most challenging time of their lives and that of their families. For example, if we have a severely head injured patient, a patient that slips and falls and gets a screwdriver in their eye or a severe electrocution injury, the patient and their families are dealing with permanently life changing events and

emotions. The emotional impact to these folks is catastrophic. Sometimes the emotional impact can be equivalent to or greater than the medical injury. This requires great skill in communicating, developing trust through a telephonic communication and tremendous assessment skills and abilities. The team is always professional and understanding of the emotional/behavioral ramifications with patients in our work. 8. How many patients do you work with per week? Each member handles a case load of 65 injured workers. In addition, as manager I am triaging new cases constantly and assigning new cases to each nurse. Additionally we field questions from the claims teams in 5 offices nationwide on any patient they have a question about. 9. What are some of the most difficult aspects of your work? 1 having to understand the nursing practice act and the legal requirements to function in each state that we serve. Every state has varying laws that the nurse has to know and understand. 2 behavior of people can often be challenging as the work involves pain and stressors and financial gain issues. 10. How do you and your team relieve stress when working with people with serious medical trauma and catastrophic life events? We always take time to laugh. Whether the antics of one of our children, current events, clean jokes, and healthy banter about ourselves or one another. We maintain a healthy work/life balance, that is so important. I manage with the expectation that every team member place their family first and then the rest will fall in place.