Andrea Shattuck-Bosshamer, ADN, RN

I cannot say enough good things about Andrea Shattuck-Bosshamer as a teacher and educator. Over the past couple of years, she has taken on the role of precepting multiple nursing students who have passed through Outpatient Eye during their clinical placements, specifically in the operating room. Andrea is kind, patient, and knowledgeable. She is an expert and extraordinary at providing care to eye surgery patients in the operating room, something she has done for many, many years. But just as important, she does not keep that expertise to herself. She is so willing to share her knowledge and decades of nursing experience with her preceptees. It is a gift she gives with absolute generosity of spirit, and it is amazing to watch her with her students as she brings them along little by little.

Many of them are completely new to the operating room when they come to OPE. But as they spend a few weeks with Andrea working elbow-to-elbow, you can see their skills and confidence grow, as well as their interest in the OR. You can see them learn how to orient themselves (be calm and deliberate, don't touch the blue stuff), how to open items properly to the sterile field, how to do eye preps, and how to interact with patients and other staff via interviews and phone calls. They don't know any of this when they start in OPE. But they do after spending a few weeks with Andrea. And, thanks to her, they do so in a supportive, safe, and gentle environment that gives them confidence as they progress toward the start of their nursing careers.

Andrea does this quietly, almost unseen behind the closed doors of the operating room, without attention or fanfare. But she is exactly who you would want to teach the student who will be your nurse someday.