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Winter 2014
2013 Magnet Conference Attendee Reflections, continued from page 13. Reflections from:
Cindy Dove, MS, RN, Nurse Manager Surgical Intensive Care, Surgical Intermediate Care, Surgical Progressive Care
After submitting several abstracts, I was thrilled to finally have one accepted for poster presentation at the 2013 ANCC Magnet Conference. This brought a whole new meaning and excitement to the trip to Florida for the conference. This would be my third time attending, and I felt very honored to be attending yet again, and even more so to be presenting this time. My first experience at the Magnet conference was during a transition in our Magnet journey. I was overwhelmed with excitement with all that I had learned and at the opportunities we had back at the Medical Center. This excitement drove me to become very involved in our original quest for Magnet designation. The second time I attended the conference was the year we celebrated our designation. This experience will always stay with me as it was a time when I felt most excited, engaged, and proud of my profession, and even more so, of nursing at UMMC. As I reflect on my third and most recent experience, I once again feel a source of pride. I truly enjoyed presenting my poster and teaching others about the great things we do at UMMC. I felt so proud to tell “our story” to anyone that would listen. Nurses were so impressed by our poster and asked great questions. It was also a great opportunity to network and learn from others. Additionally, I felt proud as most of the sessions I attended presented on ideals and topics that we were already doing or had in the works at UMMC. As I discussed this with my colleagues who attended, many felt the same way. I thought, “We are so MAGNET.” I did want to share some of the items I took away from two of the sessions I enjoyed most at the conference. Session: Transformation Leadership Strategies for Increased Employee Satisfaction
• Dashboard of Unit Base NSQI so staff can be more engaged in outcomes and action planning. • Day in the life of a leader: Having staff share time with manager so they can appreciate and understand the work managers do. • Having a unit based or hospital wide “concierge” service to meet employee needs and questions. • Importance of increasing leadership rounds. • Town Hall meetings. • Acknowledging staff with weekly hand written thank you notes. Session: NP Partnership (with the implementation of the new NP model in the SICU, I found this session to be informative.)
• NPs can have huge impacts on patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction, and readmission rates. • NPs and unit leaders need to partner to improve these outcomes. • Unit manager and NP partnership is key and is important to align goals, outcomes, PI, and safety.
Sheila Lee, BSN, RN, ACRN, SCNI and Chanelle Lake, RN, OCN, CNII
Reflections from:
Meredith Huffines, MS, BSN, RN Senior Clinical Nurse II Surgical Intensive Care Unit
I always enjoy going to nursing conferences for the opportunity to learn new ideas that I can bring back to UMMC. It always validates, too, that I am working at an organization that is, indeed, cutting edge. Many of the sessions that I attended at the ANCC Magnet Conference® proved to me again that UMMC is top notch in that we were already doing the best practices that the presenters were describing. The presentations at the conference once again corroborated that the leadership at UMMC supports innovative ideas and processes for providing patient care. I was proud that our nurses are on the front line in creating and implementing best practices. One of the sessions that I attended was a program called “I’m 4 Safety,” that was implemented in a hospital. There were four model behaviors demonstrated in this program: practice with a questioning attitude, communicate clearly, focus on the task, and support each other. What I found unique about this particular program was that nurses volunteered to become safety coaches. Each nurse attended thorough training on how to become a safety coach which involved education on both patient and staff safety. The training included infection control education, as well as safety in terms of the environment, and staff safety, such as proper lifting techniques. The coaches rounded on various clinical and non-clinical units and provided feedback and reinforcement on various safety behaviors they observed. They felt empowered to hold others accountable to the safety standards that were set forth by the organization. Safety coaches acted as a “portal of communication from the bedside to administration and education departments." The SICU has many different champions on the unit (i.e. hand hygiene, CLABSI, CAUTI champions which are effective), but I liked the idea of having nurses on the unit educated on all different aspects of safety to ensure a safe environment for patients, families, and staff. I also found it very fulfilling to present a poster with Cindy Dove, titled “Transformational Leadership: An Inter-professional Approach to Morbidity and Mortality Meetings,” to the many Magnet attendees. Knowing that we were educating others on our poster topic and possibly impacting another organization was inspiring. continued on page 15.