HIGHLIGHTING HCS’S WORK

HCS NURSING SERVICES UNIT PROVIDES COMMUNITY-BASED NURSING SERVICES TO MORE THAN 10,000 CLIENTS

Each issue, we will highlight the work of one of our teams. This issue, we’re taking a look at our nursing services team, which supports ALTSA clients with home- and community-based nursing services.

The nursing services unit, housed in the Home and Community Services division, is a small but mighty team of four people who oversee nursing services for more than 10,000 clients around the state. The team, led by Angela Nottage, Nursing Services and Performance Improvement Unit (NPIU) Manager, manages several programs that are designed to allow clients to receive skilled nursing, nursing tasks, nursing assessment and service planning, which they might otherwise only get in acute care hospitals or nursing homes, in their home or the community-based setting of their choice.

“I think about my grandmother. She’s spunky and she’s very independent, even at 93. She’s not leaving her home,” said Jerome Spearman, nursing services program manager for well-being, improvement and nursing. “The reason she wants to stay at her home is the memories of her husband, her family, family events. (With nursing services,) we’re still able to transform their lives even at an older age. They’re still able to be present, stay in their own home, be connected to family.”

The nursing team oversees several nursing programs that serve clients in community settings and in their own homes. One of those programs – the one serving the most clients throughout the state – is the nurse delegation program. This program connects long-term care workers with nurses who instruct the workers on nursing tasks such as administering insulin or performing blood glucose testing. Historically, such tasks would be performed in a nursing home, but through the nurse delegation program, about 9,500 clients are living in their own homes or communitybased adult family homes and receiving these nursing services.

Another HCS nursing program that serves people in their communities is the adult day health and adult day care nursing programs. Many clients who receive adult day services in their local community centers can receive nursing services such as vital sign monitoring, as well as the physical and occupational therapy in addition to the socialization that these programs provide. Nearly 1,000 clients are served at 12 locations around the state, mainly in King, Pierce and Spokane counties.

The nursing team also contracts to serve clients with complex care needs. Through the private duty nursing program, overseen by Program Manager Whitney Hightower, the state contracts with nurses who serve about 130 clients, most of whom are on ventilators, for as many as 16 hours a day in their homes or in adult family homes. The skilled nursing program similarly contracts with nurses to provide specific nursing tasks, such as injections, wound care and medication management, in the homes of about 100 clients.

This small HCS nursing team oversees all of these programs, including rules and regulations, contracts with nurses, and stakeholder relations. It also provides field consultation during the client assessment and a service planning process to determine which wraparound services would best serve the client.

“Overall our services, each of them, help people stay in the locations they want to stay,” said Marlo Moss, nurse delegation program manager. “It gives clients choice and it reduces the number of people who would typically be in a nursing home.”

Not only is this small team managing these programs, but they have big plans for the months ahead. Some of that work will focus on bridging gaps: the team is developing a new nursing curriculum that will break down nursing silos. They also are working with Residential Care Services on a nursing conference for all HCS and RCS nurses. On top of those tasks, the team has to contend with the nationwide nursing shortage and is increasing efforts to recruit nurses to contract with for private duty nursing and nurse delegation. Although this team is small, they have a lot on their plates and even more on the horizon. Thanks to their efforts, thousands of clients can live in dignity in the settings of their choice. “ Overall our services, each of them, help people stay in the locations they want to stay...It gives clients choice. – Marlo Moss, Nurse Delegation Program Manager

“The nurses of the NPIU bring years of nursing experience from a variety of healthcare backgrounds,” Angela said. “I am proud to be on a team of such awesome nurses who, on a daily basis, strive for excellence in what we do so as to improve the quality of lives for the clients we serve.”