Extra Credit
One of the things I love most about working at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is that there are always opportunities to try new things. I’m not limited by my title or job description.
Since coming here in 2015, I’ve grown so much, personally and professionally. Just about a year into being here, I joined one of the hospital-wide council—Recruitment and Retention—and now I’m the council co-chair. One of our biggest responsibilities is to plan Nurses Week, an annual week-long celebration to honor and appreciate all of CHLA’s nurses. Every day we do something special for them like providing their meals and giving thank you gifts and my council handles all of that. In 2018 we added a care partner appreciation breakfast to the mix. We want to recognize care partners as well as nurses because—to be completely honest—we couldn’t do our jobs without them! Being involved in planning Nurses Week has enabled me to attend the [American Nurses Credentialing Center] National Magnet Conference and get a bigger picture of what the organization is all about. It has also been great to meet the CHLA executive leadership team and get to know lots of our directors and managers. The amazing thing is that I am allotted paid time for my work on this council."
I have other extracurricular activities around here, too. I’ve become a clinical instructor for an accelerated bachelor’s degree program through Concordia University, my alma mater. Students get great experience with patients and families alike. It’s all very hands-on. I do that in addition to my regular responsibilities. I’m an introvert by nature, so having this responsibility as well as my council co-chair position helps me face my fears a little better."
That reminds me of another outside organization I work with: The Pablove Foundation. I became involved because the founder’s son was treated on the unit where I work. The group has a camp every summer and I volunteer there as a nurse. I also work with a branch of the organization called Pablove Shutterbugs, which teaches photography to kids with cancer. The kids take classes and then they go out and shoot photos and put their photos in galleries for sale, with 100% of the profits going to fund childhood cancer research and clinical trials. CHLA patients benefit from that, and being a part of it makes me happy. Getting to see patients in this different light, outside of the hospital, is nothing short of amazing. It fuels me. It keeps me going."
— Christine Wu Uddin, RNII, Hematology/Oncology Unit
