James Shokite

Stratford, CT *****

adstfa@r.postjobfree.com - 203-***-****

Enthusiastic, people - oriented individual with excellent assessment and planning skills Behavioral Health Nursing. Strong medical assessment skills both as a field nurse in public health for 17 years as well as a combined in-patient experience of 10 years. I have extensive knowledge in the behavioral health field regarding symptomatically, the pharmacology of treating sighted symptomatically as well as identifying potential or present negative side effects of such treatment. I am compassionate, empathetic and have received dozens of,” Touch my Heart Card “, at my current place of employment by clients expressing their gratitude for the care I provided. I greatly enjoy providing education to my clients and their families when appropriate on their disease process and various treatments including pharmacological interventions, their targeted symptoms as well as potential side effects. WORK EXPERIENCE

RN Behavioral Health inpatient

Charge nurse - Saint Vincent Hospital Psychiatric Services. Overall responsibility for the day- to-day management of acute behavioral health inpatient floor, 26-bed capacity. Assess and treat acutely psychotic patients who present with various degrees of illness from various etiologies such as substance induced psychosis, formal thought disorder, or mood disorders. Daily responsibilities include morning safety huddle with all senior staff reporting on previous days noteworthy activities, safety issues, planned interventions for all problematic patients. Perform all intake assessments of referrals from centralized bed management assessing the appropriateness of referrals for inpatient admission. Admit all new clients. Morning report to all treatment team members, psychiatrists, social workers, and rehab therapists reporting on all new admissions as well as past events of the last 24 hours. Report twice daily to bed management regarding bed availability, acuity of the unit, and other factors such as unit acuity and staffing availability. Reports to all administrative staff as well as all individuals covering psychiatrists, assigning all RN staff daily patient assignments. Assigning mental health worker tasks. Admissions of all incoming clients from the main hospital as well as multiple affiliates. Assessing and determining in conjunction with on-call medical doctor triage medically ill clients requiring transfer to medical facilities. All associated documentation related to codes, medical, and or of violence. Direct care of two to three clients daily and all associated needs of those clients. Working closely with psychiatrist, medical doctor, and pharmacist to address the efficacy of medication treatment as well as any associated side effects and appropriate actions to take. Assisting my immediate supervisor with interview potential new RN candidates for employment. Saint Vincent Hospital Psychiatric Services - Westport, CT - March 2017 to Present RN charge nurse.

New England Home Care - July 1999 to June 2016

Field nurse case manager Behavioral health

Senior nurse Behavioral health home care case.

Psychiatric Emergency Room

West Haven Veterans Hospital - West Haven, CT - June 1993 to July 1999 Psychiatric Emergency Room.

EDUCATION: Associate’s in nursing Norwalk Community Technical College May 1993

AWARDS: 2015 Florence Nightingale Award recipient

Work history and experience

I began my career 25 years ago working for the Veterans Affairs Hospital, West Haven Connecticut as a newly graduated RN.

My first position was working in the Psychiatric Emergency Room triaging mentally ill patients who first presented to the general ER. Duties included stabilization of acute psychotic states such as suicidal ideation, alcohol and drug intoxication and or abuse, withdrawal symptom management. Other duties included disposition assessment such as inpatient or short term stay stabilization on an inpatient unit.

During my employ of seven years I also increased my knowledge base working on a critical care floor, MICU, after attending an eight-week critical care training course. I also worked on a general medical floor before eventually returning to the psychiatric emergency room. My experience in critical care and general medical nursing was the recommendation of my immediate supervisor and was instrumental in cementing my knowledge base of understanding physical illness and its treatment.

I also began my home care nursing career while working full time at the Veterans Hospital working as a medical home care nurse for various agencies. My many duties included drawing blood, IV infusions, wound care and overall medical care. I eventually left the Veterans Hospital position and began a seventeen-year full time career in home care nursing. Electronic record keeping: I have extensive experience in transitioning from paper to electronic records. Chosen by a former employer to select from various vendors to implement soft wear used in electronic record keeping and worked tersely to assist in its implementation and continued upgrading assisting other field nurses in trouble shooting and teaching. I was eventually promoted to the position of Senior Nurse Case Manager. I am well versed in electronic record transmission from the field via laptops and use of portable routers and smart phone applications. My experience includes 17 years of working 60 hours a week as a field nurse managing a large case load performing psychiatric, medical nursing, wound care as well as managed LPNs, Home Health aids. My other duties also included Psych evaluations for Medicare where I was responsible for visiting patient’s in assisted care facilities or in there home at the request of medical non – psychiatric nursing personnel assessing and determining if mental status presentations warrant further evaluation such as referral to psychiatrist.

I have worked extensively with Medicare, Medicaid, state inspections, corrective actions and audits, JCAO inspections.

I have several published articles, one a paper in defense of home that was presented to the Hartford legislature in Connecticut during budget cut negotiations. I am a 2015 Florence Nightingale excellence in nursing award recipient. I have continued my education in psychiatry and or Behavioral health by being an active member for over 17 years of,” Journal Watch Psychiatry “, a bi – monthly CD presented by the New England Journal of Medicine who presents the most up to date and relevant data on psychiatric behavioral health. I am very passionate about my work the care of my patients and am fascinated and intrigued by the field of Behavioral Health and health care in general.

I have a black belt in Tae – Kwon – DO, a brown belt in Hapkido.