Peter Hranek
January 2023
Peter
Hranek
,
BSN, RN, BMTCN
Marrow Transplant Unit
VA Puget Sound Health Care System
Seattle
,
WA
United States
Peter is a fantastic nurse, and he makes his patients laugh even when they are the sickest they have ever felt in their life.
When I first started in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (BMTU) in 2021, I had mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety. I had a nursing background in oncology, but I had no idea what to expect, and I definitely had no idea what a “bone marrow transplant” was. During my interview, words like “autologous” “allogeneic” and “TBI” were thrown around, adding to my unease. I thought I had not landed the job after all. However, 2 weeks later I received an email and phone call that they wanted me to move from Tucson, AZ to Seattle, WA, and work on this highly specialized unit. My dream came true!
My preceptor was Peter Hranek, a very experienced BMTU nurse, and he was able to pick up on some of my anxiety. He explained that “TBI doesn’t mean what you think it means around here” and was able to sit down with me and explain very basic BMTU concepts that were so foreign to me at the beginning. He was so patient with explaining the bone marrow transplant process, not only as a list of steps to follow, but how it may affect the patient physiologically and emotionally, and how to respond to each unique patient situation.
He said “at some point, everyone will mess up, and it’s always okay to ask someone for help if you’re ever unsure about something. We are all here to help.” Peter is a fantastic nurse, and he makes his patients laugh even when they are the sickest they have ever felt in their life. He is also very calm and collected even in times of urgency; he delegates tasks and reports to the right people so that the patient can have the best outcome. I cannot say that even most nurses possess this skill.
Another thing I admire about Peter is that he strives for Excellence, the “E” in “ICARE.” He has challenged many Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that were just “the way that things are done” for many years. When Peter first started on the unit, he noticed that the evening shift expected the day shift to change TPN tubing, even though the whole TPN system was supposed to be changed at 1800. In other words, new tubing was being spiked into contaminated TPN bags in the morning, and actually increased the risk of infection to patients, because in the evening the same tubing would be spiked into a new TPN bag. He refused to do it and spoke with management. Eventually, he wrote an SOP about when the whole TPN tubing system must be changed, which is used hospital-wide.
Peter is also currently working on other SOPs including a Glidepath Removal Protocol and a Stem Cell Infusion Protocol (potentially using a syringe pump in the future). These are both works in progress. Whenever there is downtime at work, I always see Peter researching better ways to do something, or fixing processes that are not working well. I look up to Peter as a strong nurse, and one day I strive to be as knowledgeable and confident in my skills as him. I know that it will come with time, but working with Peter has definitely helped me fine-tune my own nursing skills in a field that I knew little about when I first started. I look forward to working with Peter for many more years to come.
My preceptor was Peter Hranek, a very experienced BMTU nurse, and he was able to pick up on some of my anxiety. He explained that “TBI doesn’t mean what you think it means around here” and was able to sit down with me and explain very basic BMTU concepts that were so foreign to me at the beginning. He was so patient with explaining the bone marrow transplant process, not only as a list of steps to follow, but how it may affect the patient physiologically and emotionally, and how to respond to each unique patient situation.
He said “at some point, everyone will mess up, and it’s always okay to ask someone for help if you’re ever unsure about something. We are all here to help.” Peter is a fantastic nurse, and he makes his patients laugh even when they are the sickest they have ever felt in their life. He is also very calm and collected even in times of urgency; he delegates tasks and reports to the right people so that the patient can have the best outcome. I cannot say that even most nurses possess this skill.
Another thing I admire about Peter is that he strives for Excellence, the “E” in “ICARE.” He has challenged many Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that were just “the way that things are done” for many years. When Peter first started on the unit, he noticed that the evening shift expected the day shift to change TPN tubing, even though the whole TPN system was supposed to be changed at 1800. In other words, new tubing was being spiked into contaminated TPN bags in the morning, and actually increased the risk of infection to patients, because in the evening the same tubing would be spiked into a new TPN bag. He refused to do it and spoke with management. Eventually, he wrote an SOP about when the whole TPN tubing system must be changed, which is used hospital-wide.
Peter is also currently working on other SOPs including a Glidepath Removal Protocol and a Stem Cell Infusion Protocol (potentially using a syringe pump in the future). These are both works in progress. Whenever there is downtime at work, I always see Peter researching better ways to do something, or fixing processes that are not working well. I look up to Peter as a strong nurse, and one day I strive to be as knowledgeable and confident in my skills as him. I know that it will come with time, but working with Peter has definitely helped me fine-tune my own nursing skills in a field that I knew little about when I first started. I look forward to working with Peter for many more years to come.