Bryan Buckley ‘19 decided to further his education and enrolled in the Master of Healthcare Administration program through Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University last year. He graduated in December with a 4.0 GPA while also working as a full-time nurse.
Buckley has been a registered nurse for 12 years with a clinical background in Critical Care and Emergency. He has worked at St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson, MS for nine years, and in 2018, he became Nurse Manager for the nursing float pool, where he manages around 100 team members.
At the beginning of March, St. Dominic’s Hospital decided to quarantine all patients who were positive or under investigation of COVID-19 in one specific area of the hospital, rather than admitting patients to negative pressure rooms throughout the entire hospital.
Buckley was assigned manager and overseer of the quarantined area. He said that it was a task that took much time and effort in planning from all departments within the organization. “I cannot say enough positives of everyone involved with the implementation of these processes to the COVID unit,” he stated.
He said that there was much learning to do as the implementation process evolved. “Currently, we can take care of 51 COVID positive or under investigation medical-surgical patients. We are ready to increase that capacity if we are hit with a surge in COVID-19 patients. We have had a countless number of RN’s come to the unit and take care of infected patients just as they would anywhere in the hospital, despite the increased duties that have been put onto these nurses,” he explained.
Buckley expressed how he is thankful for the Master of Health Administration program at FranU and that it helped him with the decision-making processes through the pandemic. “The key things that I learned from FranU are being a servant leader, communication skills, leading change management, implementation of policies and procedures, and controlling financial responsibilities.”
The alum also serves as manager of the rapid response team and the summer extern program, and aids in the recruitment of future RNs for the hospital.
Apply
Visit