Dr. Sellars Educate

Word clouds can influence patient care, and help us better understand complex issues we experience in healthcare everyday.  Here is an excerpt of an article written by me, and several of my colleagues about the influence word clouds can have... Healthcare is experiencing intense, unprecedented reformation. The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, dispersed, and more horizontally aligned, requiring more collaboration than competition. Leadership styles associated with improved patient outcomes, increased teamwork, and reduced medical errors are needed to change culture and transform the healthcare environment. Word clouds, also known as tag clouds or term clouds, are an emerging technology for analyzing qualitative data. It's recommended to use word clouds as dashboards because they provide easy, quick, and meaningful analysis of qualitative data. Word clouds summarize or analyze text data and provide meaningful interpretations through text size and color....

There is power in nursing, and we should work collaboratively to ensure quality patient care is delivered 24/7.   As a leader, we should empower our teams to act on what they know, and instill confidence in their own ability to be successful (Huber, 2018). The power of leadership can transcend the healthcare environment to one of high quality, great patient satisfaction, and great enjoyment and satisfaction for staff. The leader must have values of trust, respect, and self-worth. These values will sustain and support the leader as they maneuver their various phases of their role as manager, leader, peer, advisor, counselor, disciplinarian, and even friend. As a new manager, it takes time to get to know staff. It’s a tough start because most nursing management positions need you to hit the ground running, yet, take the time to connect with staff is critical to your success. The value of getting to know staff, and connecting with them is the breeding ground for developing trus...

Now that we've started the conversation about the importance of nurses being educated at the BSN-level, let's dig dipper into the cost of education.  As politicians continue to talk about the debt that college graduates are being faced with, I don't see alot of legislation that is bringing us any relief. The Committee on Education and the Workforce continues to discuss the challenges on their website https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402070 Until next time, Your Nurse Leader Today

It's been a while since I've posted, and alot has changed!!   Just to catch you up...I've had my 1st CNO job (for 2 years, and I learned alot) and now finally I'm blessed to serve in my passion as an academic leader in the role of Director of RN-BSN Option and Associate Professor at Winston-Salem State University.   Enough about me...let's get to the topic of this post, BSN in 10 for RNs in NY legislation has been signed by Governor Cuomo.  I'm not going to get into the details about the politics, but will focus on the impact that this legislation will have on our nursing profession.   There are several benefits with this legislation, and it's highlighted very nicely in this article from 2008.   1. Nursing leaders are increasing their tuition reimbursements to help support this initiative.  -Going back to school is expensive, and many private institutions are charging twice as much as public institutions.   -To really...

Hello again from the Nurse Leaders Today Studio!! Well, the California State University nursing students have survived again!!  Just completed another leadership class with a group of 21 future RN to BSN students!!  California is certainly on their way to reaching the goal of 80% by 2020!! On a personal note, I've transitioned my move back home to NC!!  It's awesome to be with my family, but I will continue to keep my ties to California as part-time faculty for CSUF until I find a faculty job in NC.  So far, it's much harder than I anticipated, but I'm certain that God has a plan that I'll step in to when it's time. Now, back to Nurse Leaders today.... Healthcare continues to be plagued by finding enough experienced nurses, and the work I do with AMN Healthcare validates that.  We are seeing more demand for traveling nurses, and now just need to find those nurses that are ready to come back into the travel industry.  It's an exciting time to be a nurs...

A Caring Work Environment The leadership team’s ability to develop and demonstrate caring will support building this type of clinical environment.  The leaders in the organization are responsible for creating a caring environment that supports respect  among  peers leading to the development of a culture of quality care and clinical excellence.  Nursing care is increasingly complex and requires all team members to be aligned with prioritizing patient safety while providing a high level of quality care.  The objective is to integrate the conceptual framework created by to build caring into the nursing practice that will foster collaborate relationships among the healthcare team.  The development of collaborative relationships will lead to decreased adverse events for patient and the creation of a culture of safety and caring [i] .  The Joint Commission emphasizes the requirement of leadership to serve as the role model and change agents to promote ...

Happy New Year!! As we enter into the new year of 2014, healthcare is more uncertain than ever.  The one thing we know is that change is coming!  In the spirit of change and improving healthcare, take a look at the December 2013 Nursing Management article that I've published with my colleague, Dr. Ann Mayo.  I've included excerpts below and you can go to www.nursingmanagement.com to download the full article and references. For more than a decade, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has released reports that call for hospitals to explore possible solutions to complex healthcare problems. The Future of Nursing Report outlines 8 recommendations to lead change, advance health, and transform the healthcare environment.  The IOM recommended that hospitals utilize best practices and processes that promote patient-centered, quality nursing care. Sustainable transformation begins with the leadership team understanding the processes that create a culture of nursing excel...