2012 "A New Year for Nurse Leaders"

We have entered into 2012 excited and passionate about new beginnings and opportunities as we sort through the IOM FON report.  The challenges are many, but our power as nurse leaders is great.  The California nurse leaders met in Palm Springs 2 weeks ago to talk through the Journey to advancing our great profession as nurse leaders. 

I'm sure the AONE  and ACHE conferences next month will continue the conversations, and I look forward to being at the table for ACHE to network and take part in the rhetoric.  Let's commit to tackling the challenges and considering them as new opportunities to forge our way through healthcare reform and teaching our future nurses about the importance of evidence-based practice.  As researchers and nurse leaders, let's do the necessary work to expand and refine new knowledge that will change health care and improve patient outcomes and the quality of nursing care.

Nurse Leader Publication

Hello Fans!!  I'm in the final stages of preparing my article titled, "Impact of Caring on Transforming Culture", which is expected to be published in Dec 2011 or Jan 2012.  Here's a highlight:

A Caring Work Environment--The nurse leader’s ability to develop and demonstrate caring will support building a collaborative, quality clinical environment.  Leaders in the organization are responsible for creating a caring environment supporting respectful, patient-focused interdisciplinary teams and to develop a culture of quality care and clinical excellence.  Nursing care is increasingly complex, and requires all team members to be aligned and prioritize patient safety and quality patient care.  The objective is to integrate the concepts of caring, and foster team behaviors that positively influence nursing practice and foster collaborative relationships among the healthcare team.  The development of collaborative relationships will lead to decreased adverse events for patients and the creation of a culture of safety and caring.

...looking forward to hearing your comments after your read the article in it's entirety.  Thanks for reading!!

Transformational Leadership, Best Practices, and the Operating Room

There continues to be much debate defining best practices in the OR.  This blog is #1 of #10 that points eye key authors who have researched this topic.  The full reference list will be included on #10.

Blog#1-Team Training and the OR

Team training is now widely used in healthcare to help improve patient outcomes and minimize human error.  The healthcare system needs significant reform to prevent injuries and to improve patient outcomes.  The Institute of Medicine reported in 1999 that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors in hospitals alone.   Team training minimizes human error leading to more favorable patient outcomes.  Team training supports collaborative processes that integrate safe practice principles into the within the team leading to decreased injuries and better patient outcomes (Salas, Wilson, Murphy, King, & Baker, 2007). 

The nurse leader must engage the entire clinical team, including physicians, in recognizing and practicing safety principles throughout the organization (Barter, 2010).  The healthcare environment is challenged with breakdowns in communication leading to strained working relationships, coupled with increased workload, and clinical incompetence jeopardizing patient safety.  Twelve-hour shifts and increased part-time work schedules for nursing staff have attributed to decreased continuity of patient care and increased safety risk (Rusch & Bakewell-Sachs, 2007).  Patients are presenting with complex illness that are challenging to management healthcare is often delivered in a rapid pace creating an environment that is hard to be heard and assure that everyone is aligned to provide safe patient care (Weinstock, 2010; Barter, 2010; Salas, et al, 2007).  The priority for many regulatory and consultative agencies, including the Institute of Medicine, The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and the American Hospital Association, has shifted to focusing on patient outcomes and strategies to improve the overall quality of care (Hospital Leadership Summit, 2006).  

Check back for blog#2 of #10 on this topic to explore more interesting facts about this topic.

Future of Nursing IOM Report

The nursing community is still trying to understand the critical elements and recommendations from the IOM FON Report.  The book is now readily available for everyone to purchase; all 600+ pages.  As an educator, leader, and consumer of healthcare, I am excited to learn more about our future in healthcare and encourage you to purchase your own copy today.  See link below...

http://books.nap.eduIOM Book/catalog.php?record_id=12956

AONE Conference in San Diego!

It's an exciting time to be a nurse leader living in San Diego!!  This week nurse leaders throughout the country have enjoyed a phenomenal nurse leader conference held in the most beautiful city in the US, San Diego.  The topics have been incredible, and ranged from CNO succession and onboarding to interruptions and distractions during medication administration, and beyond.  Tomorrow concludes the conference and I'm looking forward to another exciting day full of best practices sharing by some of the strongest healthcare leaders in the country.

Funding for CA Staff Ratios

Several years ago there was a state mandate supported by former Governor Schwarzenegger to require mandatory nurse: patient ratios in all acute California hospitals.  Today, almost two years shy of a decade, there is a federal proposal, supported by CNA, to provide financial support for these ratios to be sustained.  Given the financial state of California, I'm not clear on how/when this funding for nurse ratios would take place.  It's a great idea and much needed, just not sure if this makes the best financial sense given our economic climate.  Perhaps the CNA can work with healthcare leaders across California to develop a funding strategy.  Lots more to come on this very sensitive, and timely subject...

All the best,
Nurse Leader Today

ACNL Annual Conference

Just returned home from the ACNL annual conference.  Wow-what an exciting and amazing time to be a nurse leader in California!  The conference was both re-energizing and educational.  As a new adjunct faculty member, there are more pearls of wisdom that I garnered at the conference that I will be sharing with my nursing students next week.  First, I must remind my students to "Be an experience!" for their patients.  Nurses touch so many lives and it's important to remember that you should engage in remember-able, positive experiences with patients, families, and your peers.  You must understand-not just know the information.  So much of what is necessary to know in nursing school is not often understood.  Will you accept the challenge to help your new nurses understand?

More to come on the ACNL Conference...

All the best,
Nurse Leader Today