NURSING HEROES TELL THEIR STORIES
Where would we be without the miraculous efforts of our nurses, who have given so much to protect us all? Read and view the personal firsthand accounts of these nursing heroes.
Tell Us Your Story! Submit Your Story or Video Here.
Lamar Love Joins Tipton Health as Director of Client Success
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Tipton Health—the nation’s premier nurse-centric consultancy—has hired Lamar V. Love as its first Director of Client Success. Lamar will advance Tipton Health’s commitment to nursing excellence by working with nursing leaders and hospital executives to identify and resolve their structural, operational and cultural challenges.
Lamar will lead all aspects of Tipton Health’s business development efforts. He will focus on ensuring nurse leaders nationwide have access to Tipton Health’s industry-leading nursing excellence solutions. Lamar will also be responsible for growing Tipton Health’s position as the nation’s top provider of consulting support to nursing teams seeking American Nurses Credential Center Magnet®, Pathway to Excellence®, PTAP® programs, and other designations.
“Lamar shares our values,” said Dan Tipton, president and CEO of Tipton Health. “He is a problem solver, and he is genuine. Likewise, we form deep, personal relationships with our clients and find great joy in developing evidence-based nursing excellence solutions that enable nurse leaders and their nursing teams to work in an environment where they can excel.”
Lamar has a long history of providing solutions to nursing and hospital senior leadership teams. He formerly served as Vice President of Solutions for HealthLinx, and he most recently led a team of Efficiency and Expense Reduction experts as a founding partner of System Stream LLC. Lamar is a graduate of the Ohio State University and is a certified business coach and trainer.
Lamar’s hiring bolsters Tipton Health’s team of highly experienced nursing consultants and staff.
“We are very excited to have Lamar represent Tipton Health and increase awareness about how we exalt the profession of nursing by enabling nurse leaders to achieve their visions for nursing excellence,” said Mary DelGuidice, Tipton Health Chief Nursing Officer.
About Tipton Health
Tipton Health is the nation’s premier nurse-centric consultancy, guiding more than 200 nursing teams to nursing excellence, often using the evidence-based Magnetâ, or Pathway to Excellenceâ frameworks. Tipton Health’s clients have a nearly 100% success rate in achieving designation. In addition, Tipton Health supports nursing change projects and hospital internal communications needs nationwide with award-winning marketing communications services. For more information, please visit tiptonhealth.com.
Dr. Pam Power Promoted to ACNO
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Tipton Health—the nation’s premier nurse-centric consultancy—has promoted Pamela Power, DNP, MSN, BSN, ACNS-BC, to be its first-ever Associate Chief Nursing Officer (ACNO).
Dr. Power will lead Tipton Health’s nursing excellence executive consultants, spearheading thought leadership strategy and overseeing nursing excellence education development. She previously served as executive nursing excellence consultant with a focus on developing nurse leaders and creating cultures of nursing excellence.
“Dr. Power has done outstanding work to help nursing teams across the country improve their cultures and work environments,” said Dan Tipton, CEO of Tipton Health. “There’s more pressure on healthcare staff—and nurses in particular—than ever before, and Pam’s work has been instrumental in showing nursing teams how they can improve processes so that they have more time to focus on patient care and their own wellbeing. This is a well-deserved promotion that recognizes her significant contributions to the clients we serve.”
Dr. Power earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Pittsburgh, master’s degree in nursing from Malone University and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Power is a board-certified clinical nurse specialist in adult health and a member of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.
“This promotion recognizes the level of leadership, excellence, collaboration, expertise and initiative that Pam has demonstrated since joining Tipton Health just 10 months ago,” said Mary DelGuidice, the company’s Chief Nursing Officer. “Pam has been instrumental in guiding our thought leadership strategy and establishing Tipton Health as a continuing education provider. She has established strong relationships with our team and nursing partners.”
About Tipton Health
Tipton Health is the nation’s premier nurse-centric consultancy, with more than 50 staff and nursing excellence consultants guiding more than 200 nursing teams to nursing excellence using the evidence-based Magnetâ, or Pathway to Excellenceâ frameworks. Tipton Health’s clients have a nearly 100% success rate in achieving designation. In addition, Tipton Health supports clients nationwide with award-winning marketing communications services with a focus on helping healthcare leaders effectively communicate with their various audiences. For more information, please visit tiptonhealth.com.
RSV Surge 2022: Stay Strong and Carry on
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Speaking at Tipton Health’s Special Nursing Leadership Webinar on managing the RSV surge, panelists representing children’s hospitals and a community hospital reported that their responses have been somewhat limited by existing nursing staffing shortages.
Joining moderator Pam Power, DNP, MSN, BSN, ACNS-BCD, ACNO, for the roundtable discussion were
Tara Buckenmyer, MHA, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, AVP of Nursing, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
Annette Carlisle-Spotts, DNP, Manager of Care Management and Clinical Effectiveness, Norton Children’s Hospital, and
Vickie Taylor, RN, DNP, NE-BC, Assistant Chief Nursing Officer, Augusta Health
All panelists mentioned staffing – a problem even prior to the RSV outbreak – as their primary challenge. Montefiore’s Tara Buckenmyer, for example, said that the hospital was unable to implement some parts of its response plan, because it did not have the nurses available to stand up additional units.
Augusta Health, which does not have a dedicated pediatric unit, asked staff with pediatric certifications to take on Emergency Department rotations.
The panelists reported that they are also leaning on float pools, student nurses and apprentices, nurse educators, nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, and licensed vocational nurses to plug staffing shortages.
Space & Supply Workarounds
The surge has also exhausted available pediatric beds or pediatric respiratory equipment, forcing nursing teams to find alternatives. The nursing team at Norton Children’s Hospital, in consultation with their engineering and equipment teams, is renting pediatric beds, cribs, pumps and other equipment as caseloads demand. Montefiore is sharing equipment across its various campuses.
Increased Communications
Each panelist mentioned the effectiveness of a “Daily Safety Brief” to bring together professionals in materials and supply, engineering, respiratory, nursing, and other disciplines to raise supply issues early – and thus, to resolve them early.
In the case of Augusta Health, the community hospital is connected to its peers across Virginia and relies on state-level communications to keep ahead of trends in outbreaks and supply shortages.
Addressing Burnout
The increase in RSV cases comes at a time when nursing teams are already short-staffed and overworked.
Norton has implemented a “Code Lavender” scheme (as an example, in the event of a patient death), which would prompt chaplain services or the hospital’s Employee Assistance Program to provide counseling to the traumatized employee.
Taylor of August Health mentioned their partnership with Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation to help offset burnout and encourage team members to reconnect with the “joy of nursing.”
Non-Patient Impacts
As Carlisle-Spotts of Norton wisely noted, the surge in RSV cases “trickles down to every area of care,” putting additional strain on not only medical teams, but also those in food services, environmental services, social work, and chaplain services.
In addition to the RSV patients themselves, their parents need adequate care. Montefiore leans heavily on family learning specialists to provide emotional support to parents. Likewise, Norton’s child life specialists and chaplain services teams have taken on a prominent role in helping families coping with RSV diagnoses.
As part of prevention, all panelists mentioned programs in the community – including ambulatory providers and school nurses – to educate on best practices for curbing RSV transmission. These practices include the importance of isolating sick children from healthy siblings; the importance of proper handwashing; and, guidance on when it’s advisable for a child to stay home and recover, versus risking increased exposure in the hospital setting.
Learn More From Our SpeakersVisit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar series, including this presentation on RSV.
Tipton’s next webinar, Innovative Solutions to Staffing, will be held on December 1, 2022, from 12–1 p.m. EST.
Summer 2022 Nursing Excellence Newsletter
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Thank you for reading Tipton Health’s Summer 2022 Nursing Excellence Newsletter. In this edition, Tipton Health’s executive nursing excellence consultants address some of the topics that are top-of-mind for nurse leaders right now. From an overview of four key areas that will impact the nursing profession into the future to a fresh look at alternate care deliver models—we’ve got you covered.
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A Heartfelt Thanks to Our Valued Nursing Partners
Nursing, This is Our Moment
Nursing Excellence White Paper: Resilience Interventions for Nurse Leaders
A Fresh Look at Alternate Care Delivery Models
What’s New in the 2023 Magnet Manual
The Journey to Inclusive Leadership
Meet the Award-Winning Tipton Health Magnet Document Review Team
Congratulations to Our Newly-Designated Clients
A Heartfelt Thanks to Our Valued Nursing Partners
Dear Nursing Partners,
On behalf of the entire Tipton Health team, we extend our heartfelt admiration and gratitude for your unrelenting leadership and dedication to the sacred calling of our great profession. Over the past two years, we have been honored to witness your courage, compassion and fierce support of your teams and the patients you serve.
At Tipton Health, our calling is to support your calling. We exist to exalt the profession of nursing by enabling nurse leaders and their teams to achieve the vision for nursing excellence to which they aspire, and which all patients deserve.
In the same way that professional practice models (PPM) provide a framework to guide nurses as they care for patients, families and community members, Tipton Health has established the first-ever nurse consultancy professional practice model. Our PPM has been developed for you and about you; it will guide the Tipton team as we come alongside you on your journey to nursing excellence.
Our Professional Practice Model
Our Focus is You: It is you, our nursing partners, who are the heart of Tipton’s professional practice model.
Deep Caring Relationships: Through your feedback, we have learned that you value a strong partnership, the establishment of trusting relationships, flexibility to individualize services, honest communication and, most importantly, consultants who truly care about you, your team and your aspirations. It is for this reason that these values are prominent tenets of our model.
Exceptional Nursing Expertise: The outer circle of Tipton’s PPM includes the foundational elements of Tipton Health: evidence-based practice, innovation, leadership, interprofessional collaboration, results and expertise/thought leadership.
Organizational Strength: The model is fortified by the solid foundation of the Tipton Health mission, vision, values and business model. Tipton’s PPM reflects who we are and all that we value; it will guide our team into the future.
Speaking of the future, in recent months Tipton Health has grown our executive nursing excellence consultant team, amassing a cadre of nurse leaders who are highly talented experts in nursing excellence and leadership. This year alone, Tipton will invest over $1 million in hiring some of the best and brightest leaders in the realm of nursing excellency and healthcare communications. This is an investment in you and for you.
We know that these remain challenging times and that it will take a while to regain momentum and strengthen our great profession. We also know that nurses are fierce in their dedication, love and commitment to relieving the suffering of others and advancing the profession of nursing.
Our sincere desire is that you and your team feel cared for in all that we do. Please know that Tipton Health’s utmost desire is to meet nurse leaders right where they are to deliver timely, relevant solutions that allow you to elevate your organization’s nursing practices to nothing less than exceptional.
With gratitude and admiration,
Dan TiptonPresident/CEO, Tipton Health
Mary Del GuidiceChief Nursing Officer, Tipton Health
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Nursing, This is Our Moment
COVID-19 has been a master teacher across the globe and across industries, but particularly in the realm of health care. It laid bare existing concerns about the United States’ shrinking public health apparatus, our widening disparities in health care and the impact of social determinants of health on our communities.
Additionally, it amplified concerns about the nursing workforce, including workplace environment, stagnant salaries, disparate distribution of nurses across the country and the looming 20% of nurses who indicate they will retire in the next five years (ANA, 2021).
Despite these aforementioned stressors, the nation’s 4.2 million nurses are well-positioned to take a deep breath in this post-COVID-19 era in preparation for making a tremendous impact on urgent issues that were overshadowed during the pandemic.
Four key areas will impact the nursing profession moving forward: the stability of our workforce, the diversity of our workforce, the ability of nursing education to align with the needs of the profession and the need for nurses to be involved in health policy at all levels.
Stabilizing the Work Force
Nurse leaders know that a stabilization of the work force is an essential step in 2022. Focusing on the work environment and understanding the factors that caused the departure of many nurses from their regular positions to travel, retire and retool is essential.
It is not enough to prepare new nurses for the nursing work environment that awaits them: We must also prepare the work environment to welcome these new nurses and engage them for the entirety of their professional lives by using all available tools, including Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s resources for creating joy in work.
Additional opportunities for engagement are available in the realms of community, health policy, health promotion, professional growth, leadership and other high-impact opportunities.
Diversity in Nursing
Nursing must now face important contextual issues such as gender equality, climate change, universal health coverage and social determinants of health. Diversity in our workforce should be viewed as an investment in every citizen’s safety and security. A more diverse workforce is better prepared to address social determinants of health—something that challenges 68% of patients seen. Today, 81% of working RNs identify as white or caucasian and only 12% identify as male.
Nursing Education
Investing in nursing jobs, nursing education, nursing leadership and service delivery should also be viewed as an investment in every citizen’s health and safety.
Nurse leaders and nurse educators must build a greater partnership than ever before. Nurse educators across the country must hear from nurse leaders what hard and soft skills are essential today in order for young nurses to be successful as new-to-practice nurses, as well as lifetime members of the profession.
Health Policy
Addressing the future of nursing must include a focus on health policy. In order to effectively address the health of a nation and a society, nurses must be in the boardroom at the decision-making table.
Discussions where nurses are essential include those related to health promotion, social determinants of health, health education and the healthcare workforce. Focusing on the importance of health policy should begin in nursing programs and continue in the professional setting.
Conclusion
For the 20th straight year, Americans have rated nurses as the most trusted profession (Gallup, 2022).
Having navigated two years of the global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on hospital census, staffing levels, nursing turnover and the cost of premium staff such as travel nurses, the honor is hard won.
Along with this honor, nurses carry the responsibility to continue working to impact the nursing profession in a way that will positively affect the lives of future generations of both nurses and patients.
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A Tipton Health Nursing Excellence White Paper
BATTLING BACK FROM HOPELESSNESS: Resilience Interventions for Nurse Leaders
Tipton Nursing Excellence Executive Consultant Pamela Power, DNP, MSN, BSN, ACNS-BCD, presents evidence-based interventions that can help nurse leaders to build resilience through increased social connectedness, self-care, optimism and gratitude. With more than 35 years of nursing experience, Dr. Power held leadership roles in clinical and academic settings, spanning from chief nursing officer to chair of a Baccalaureate program. She helped Pennsylvania Hospital earn its first American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet® designation. Most relevant to these times, Dr. Power’s doctoral work focused on nurse leader resiliency.
COVID-19 convinced many nurses to leave the profession or seek non-acute care positions, exasperating what was already becoming a crisis in nurse staffing for the nation’s hospitals.
The staffing challenge has not waned. Nurse leaders now find themselves managing a workforce heavily scarred by the stress of COVID surges while figuring out innovative ways to maintain staffing when there simply aren’t enough nurses willing to fill open positions.
Nurse leaders have to get creative—and they are, as demonstrated by a recent literature review on alternative staffing models conducted by Tipton Health’s Director of Nursing Excellence and Client Advocate Emily Brooks, DNP, RN-BC. Dr. Brooks augmented the review with information from colleagues.
Have a question or want to talk about care delivery models at your organization? Please contact Dr. Brooks at emilyb@tiptonhealth.com.
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What’s New in the 2023 Magnet Manual
With the nursing work environment rapidly evolving, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has updated its Magnet® Recognition Program framework for nursing excellence to better address contemporary nursing priorities. The 2023 Magnet Application Manual increases emphasis on nursing work/life balance, ambulatory care, diversity, health and safety, growth and development, and recognition and involvement.
The new manual can be used by organizations submitting for Magnet designation in 2023 and must be used by organizations submitting in 2024 and beyond.
What Has Changed
While most of the program details are unchanged from the 2019 Magnet manual, following are a few of the key changes in the new manual:
More evidence is required. The number of sources of evidence (SOEs), ambulatory care narratives (Amb) and empirical outcomes (EOs) has increased.
2019 Manual
2023 Manual
94 SOEs, 7 Amb, 27 EOs
103 SOEs, 14 Amb, 28 EOs
Continue to focus on quality improvement initiatives in your ambulatory areas. The new manual has doubled the number of ambulatory sources.
Research requirements are increasing. NK1 now requires a description of your hospital’s infrastructure that supports nursing research. NK2 is a nursing research study conducted at your hospital. Ensure that your principal investigator is employed by your hospital.
Nurse retention is a key focus of the new manual. In the new EP12EO, you must now establish and meet targeted year-over-year goals for nurse turnover rate.
For RN Nurse Satisfaction/Engagement (EP3EO), organizations can now target units that underperform in nurse satisfaction surveys with follow-up “pulse” surveys. The targeted pulse survey results can then be included with the results from the original nursing-wide survey.
Each Empirical Outcome narrative now requires at least two APA format references to demonstrate that interventions were evidence-based.
What You Should Do Now to Prepare
Become familiar with the 2023 Magnet Manual; identify areas for your nursing teams to focus (ambulatory, nursing research, nurse retention) and develop action/work plans. Having a deeper understanding of the specific requirements in the new manual will help you begin initiatives to meet the criteria.
Create nursing teams to work on the individual Magnet program model components (Structural Empowerment, Transformational Leadership, New Knowledge, Exemplary Professional Practice).
Engage and include clinical nurses in unit, division and organizational-level committees. Clinical nurses are the main character in over 30% of the Magnet criteria; over 10% of the narratives include interprofessional teams.
Identify your nurse retention rate data at the organization level and begin tracking yearly data; implement initiatives to reduce your nurse turnover rate.
Assist clinical nurses to access the latest nursing literature, enlist support of your medical/nursing librarian to identify nursing evidence-based practices.
Increase your nursing research focus by building and strengthening your nursing research infrastructure.
Continue ambulatory quality improvement initiatives; establish an ambulatory Magnet council to share ideas on QI initiatives, policies and procedures.
Focus on clinical, patient and patient satisfaction outcomes and outcome measures—while compliance and adherence to processes are essential, Magnet will not accept data related to compliance. You always want to report the real outcome of your QI initiatives.
Strengthen structures and processes around meeting minutes, documentation of team communications (email, minutes), and implementation/action plans. Post these on your intranet for all to use
Remember that documentation is essential for your Magnet application; as you work with your nursing teams, document the dates of your interventions and record key decisions and activities of your teams. Doing this along the way will make writing your Magnet document much easier!
This is not a comprehensive list of all the changes in the 2023 manual. If you have any questions, at any time, please contact Tipton at magnet@tiptonhealth.com.
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The Journey to Inclusive Leadership
What implicit biases do you have? Want to find out?
Here’s a test. You have two candidates for a nursing position. One is a man and the other is a woman. Who do you think would be more nurturing to your patients?
Did you feel any biases get in the way of your answer?
Those implicit biases, if left unchecked, can manifest themselves in microaggressions, such as small, off-the-cuff comments that reflect assumptions or generalizations based on some elements of a person’s identity.
“Microaggressions can create a hostile work environment if you’re not careful,” Hinton cautioned.
Hinton, who has more than 40 year of nursing leadership experience and who was often the only black leader within her hospitals’ executive teams, recalled the time when a hospital leader remarked after she gave a presentation on how well-spoken she was. Hinton later took the person aside to help him recognize the implicit bias in the remark.
Recognizing bias and taking action is critical for nurse leaders seeking to create a more inclusive culture, said Hinton, who serves as an executive nursing excellence consultant with Tipton Health and manages a leadership development consultancy.
“It is the leader who truly upholds the organization’s principles and brings the organization’s vision to life. It is the leader who promotes inclusivity that really makes this real and makes team members feel their organization’s mission,” Hinton said.
The journey to inclusive leadership requires individuals to get out of their comfort zone and it requires continuous attention and work.
“Practice makes promise. Practice makes priority. Practice makes permanence,” Hinton said.
Take the free, online Implicit Association Test—offered through Harvard University’s Project Implicit, which is designed to help individuals determine their level of awareness and biases.
Visit tiptonhealth.com/webinars to view our comprehensive library of nursing-focused, on-demand webinars and presentation materials. If there is a topic you’d like to see discussed in a future webinar, email us at info@tiptonhealth.com.
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Meet the Award-Winning Tipton Health Magnet Document Review Team
Tipton Health recently celebrated its inaugural Nursing Excellence Awards, honoring team members who have made notable contributions to our clients’ success. Tipton’s Magnet document review team received the Results Award, a tribute to their clients’ 100% success rate at achieving Magnet designation. The document review team works diligently every day to help Tipton’s clients shine their brightest.
Elizabeth Abrahams
Director, Magnet Review
elizabeth@tiptonhealth.com
Moira Owens
Senior Manager of Magnet Review
moira@tiptonhealth.com
Gen Griffith
Magnet Review Manager
gen@tiptonhealth.com
Lindsey Owens
Magnet Review Manager
lindsey@tiptonhealth.com
Greg Tolliver
Magnet Review Manager
greg@tiptonhealth.com
Terri Vian
Magnet Review Manager
terri@tiptonhealth.com
All team members can be reached by phone at 302-454-7901.
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Congratulations to Our Newly-Designated Clients
Tipton Health would like to extend a huge congratulations to our clients who have received Magnet or Pathway designation since the publishing of our last newsletter. It is our privilege to partner with you on your journey to continued nursing excellence. Your relentless dedication and tireless efforts have paid off!
Magnet
Beaumont Hospital, Farmington HillsFarmington Hills, Michigan
Inova Mount Vernon HospitalAlexandria, Virginia
University of Michigan HealthAnn Arbor, Michigan
Memorial Hermann Sugar Land HospitalSugar Land, Texas
Montefiore Medical Center, Wakefield CampusBronx, New York
Providence Holy Family HospitalSpokane, Washington
Pathway
OhioHealth Marion General HospitalMarion, Ohio
Prisma Health Hillcrest HospitalSimpsonville, South Carolina
MedStar Washington Hospital CenterWashington, DC
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10 Ways to Celebrate Your Nurses This Nurses Week
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Gracious Greetings. Nurse leaders should greet the staff at the beginning and end of each shift to say thank you and offer a small gift or treat.
Create a Wall of Thanks. Create a wall of gratitude in a common area and enable everyone who walks by to write and post a note of gratitude to nurses.
Portrait of Excellence. Hire a photographer and provide each of your nurses with a “professional nursing portrait”.
Know Your Nurses. Nurse leaders can shadow nurses during the week to better understand their work routines and share their daily challenges and triumphs.
Share a “Pal-entine”. Staff and leaders from across the hospital can write notes of gratitude addressed to individual nurses and nurse leaders throughout the week.
Honor Your Nurses. Create something to honor nurses, a healing garden, a meditation room, or a quiet area.
CNO at Your Service. The Chief Nursing Officer can schedule to meet with each department in the department. The nurses in the department can plan how they want to spend their time with the CNO.
Hold a Nursing Pep Rally. Cheer on nurses from each department as they brag about their work. The Chief Nursing Officer can share photos from the past year: the good, the hard and the sad.
Let the Docs Pick Up the Check. Partner with the Chief Medical Officer to create an opportunity for doctors to sponsor events throughout Nurses’ Week.
Share Free Learning. Take advantage of Tipton Health’s free keynote address, “The Leader Within: Advancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion”, presented by Tipton Nursing Executive Consultant Tommye Hinton MSN, RN, CPHQ, NEA-BC. Tommye shares insights from her decades of nursing leadership into how nurse leaders can identify their own implicit biases, as well as changes nurse leaders can make today to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in their workspaces. You and your team can watch the special presentation live on May 10, from 12:30-1:15 EDT and participate in the Q&A session, or you can watch a recorded presentation that will be available after May 10.Register Now
Learn more about Tipton Nursing Excellence Executive Consultant Tommye Hinton
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A Nursing Excellence Executive Consultant and Coach with Tipton Health and the principal of Brown ePoints Leadership Coaching/Development Firm, Tommye has more than 40 years of diversified nurse and healthcare executive experience.
Drawing upon 3.5 decades of leadership in 4 health systems in Michigan and New York, continuum of care leadership has been her focus. She has served as a Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Vice President Operations and serves currently as a Magnet Appraiser for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). She is a woman of influence, applying her cultivation model of “transforming me,” and employing a series of timeless, practical personal effectiveness strategies to develop high performing leaders and build high performing teams.
Tommye is passionate about leadership development and achieving outcomes and enjoyed every moment of her leadership journey.
She excels in nurse executive leadership competencies of
Self-knowledge
Strategic vision
Risk taking and creativity
Interpersonal and communication effectiveness
Inspiring and leading change
Tommye is also a sought after motivational speaker and teacher. She served as Assistant Dean for Clinical Practice at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, Rochester, NY. She taught leadership courses, and precepted graduate students pursing a Masters in Leadership. She has published articles on change management, performance improvement and leadership effectiveness. She is known for an inspirational and practical style, intellectual breadth, and disciplined approach, that produces superior outcomes.
Tommye has mentored many aspiring and novice nurse directors and managers, assisting them in choosing their path and crafting a personal development plan for their personal leadership journey.
Tommye’s personal mission is to inspire leaders or emerging leaders to value, seek and display leadership excellence.
See Tommye’s LinkedIn Profile.
Tipton Health adds depth to its team with new hires Greg Tolliver and Lindsey Nesselbush Owen
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Both Greg and Lindsey will serve as technical editors/document review specialists at Tipton. The pair will work collaboratively with the Tipton Health team of healthcare consulting professionals to support the firm’s more than 200 acute care nursing clients throughout the country, with an emphasis on helping clients achieve Magnet® status through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
“Greg and Lindsey’s extensive technical editing and writing experience are the ideal fit for this position and will further enhance our team as we continue to support our clients in their quest to raise the bar for nursing excellence in their organizations,” said Tipton Health president and CEO Daniel R. Tipton.
At Tipton, Greg and Lindsey will use their strong writing, data analysis and critical thinking skills to evaluate and edit application documents to assist nursing leaders and their teams in achieving recognition through the ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program, Pathway to Excellence® Program and Practice Transition Accreditation Program®.
Greg spent the past year working for Tipton Health as a freelance technical writer and document reviewer prior to joining the team full time. He served as an associate writing and literary instructor at Indiana University since 2018 and holds a master’s degree in English from both West Virginia University and Ohio University. Greg is currently working towards a doctorate degree in English language and literature from Indiana University.
Before Tipton Health, Lindsey worked as a grant writer for a medical education company where she developed and submitted formal grant requests and budgets for medical educational programs. She worked closely with the business development department to translate medical needs and goals into learner-focused interventions. Lindsey holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with an emphasis in professional and technical writing, from Nazareth College of Rochester in Rochester, New York.
About Tipton Health
Tipton Health is the nation’s premier nurse-centric consultancy, guiding more than 200 nursing teams to nursing excellence using the evidence-based Magnet® or Pathway to Excellence® frameworks. Tipton Health’s clients have a nearly 100% success rate in achieving designation. In addition, Tipton Health supports clients nationwide with award-winning marketing communications services with a focus on helping healthcare leaders effectively communicate with their various audiences. For more information, please visit tiptonhealth.com.
Tipton Health’s hiring growth continues with addition of Sarah McCrudden and Whitney Moore
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Sarah will serve as nursing excellence data analyst and Whitney will serve as marketing communications manager. The pair will work collaboratively with the Tipton Health team of healthcare consulting professionals to support the firm’s more than 225 acute care nursing clients throughout the country.
“Whitney and Sarah bring in-depth knowledge and experience to Tipton Health. Their unique skills will enable us to better support our clients to help them achieve and maintain nursing excellence,” said Tipton Health president and CEO Daniel R. Tipton.
In her role with Tipton, Sarah will support nursing leaders and their teams in driving nursing excellence and quality patient outcomes by providing data tools, analysis and actionable insights. Her experience in healthcare data analytics, project management and performance improvement methodologies will support Tipton’s clients in achieving high levels of quality, safety and satisfaction outcomes.
Sarah spent the past 10 years honing her data and analytics skills in healthcare-specific environments, working most recently as a patient-centered care data manager for New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Manhattan College in Bronx, New York.
As Tipton’s marketing communications manager, Whitney will help build awareness of Tipton Health’s brand and services in the healthcare market, while also providing expert marketing communications support to Tipton’s robust healthcare client base.
Before Tipton Health, Whitney worked for a Top 20 Critical Access Hospital developing, implementing and managing marketing and communications for the organization. In addition, her background includes significant experience in corporate branding and identity design. Whitney has a degree in both integrated media and Spanish from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
About Tipton Health
Tipton Health is the nation’s premier nurse-centric consultancy, guiding more than 200 nursing teams to nursing excellence using the evidence-based Magnet® or Pathway to Excellence® frameworks. Tipton Health’s clients have a nearly 100% success rate in achieving designation. In addition, Tipton Health supports clients nationwide with award-winning marketing communications services with a focus on helping healthcare leaders effectively communicate with their various audiences. For more information, please visit tiptonhealth.com.
Tipton Health grows nurse leadership consultancy with hiring of Drs. Pamela Power and Emily Brooks
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“Drs. Power and Brooks not only have decades of acute care leadership experience, they share our absolute commitment to addressing the short- and long-term challenges facing the nation’s nurse leaders as we work to drive nursing excellence,” said Tipton Health president and CEO Daniel R. Tipton.
Dr. Power will serve as senior executive nursing excellence consultant and will focus on nurse leadership development and creating cultures of nursing excellence. Dr. Brooks will serve as nursing excellence client advocate and will work with Tipton’s nearly 250 acute care nursing clients to assess their current challenges and develop solutions.
“Dr. Power and Dr. Brooks — two esteemed nurse leaders — will help our clients lead, develop and strengthen their nursing teams, advance the profession of nursing and achieve ever-increasing levels of quality patient care,” said Mary Del Guidice, MSN, BSN, RN, CENP, Tipton Health’s Chief Nursing Officer.
With more than 35 years of nursing experience, Dr. Power held leadership roles in clinical and academic settings, spanning from chief nursing officer to chair of a Baccalaureate program. She helped Pennsylvania Hospital earn its first American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet® designation and assisted it in becoming the first hospital in Philadelphia to achieve Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative certification. Most relevant to these times, Dr. Power’s doctoral work focused on nurse leader resiliency.
In her role with Tipton Health, Dr. Power will be responsible for creating better work environments for nurses, boosting morale and nurse engagement, and enabling nursing teams to validate their progress against the Magnet, Pathway to Excellence® and other evidence-based frameworks for excellence.
Dr. Power earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Pittsburgh, master’s degree in nursing from Malone University, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Power is also a board-certified Clinical Nurse Specialist in Adult Health, and is a member of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.
As a nursing professional with more than 20 years of experience, Dr. Brooks has served in several clinical, educational and leadership roles, including most recently as the associate chief nursing officer of Rochester General Hospital. Dr. Brooks has a demonstrated history of clinical and nursing excellence, including leading organizations to Magnet redesignation and attaining a Beacon Award for Excellence for critical care and behavioral health specialties. Dr. Brooks has been published and presented on pertinent topics, such as evidence-based practice and the role of the advanced practice nurse.
As a member of Tipton Health’s leadership team, Dr. Brooks will serve as the primary client liaison responsible for guiding hospital nursing teams on the journey toward nursing excellence.
Dr. Brooks earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Texas at Tyler, master’s degree in nursing from Athabasca University and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Dalhousie University.
Dr. Brooks is actively involved with professional organizations, such as the AACN and the New York Organization of Nurse Executives. She also served as a board member of Camp Cherith of Western NY.
About Tipton Health
Tipton Health is the nation’s premier nurse-centric consultancy, guiding more than 200 nursing teams to nursing excellence using the evidence-based Magnet® or Pathway to Excellence® frameworks. Tipton Health’s clients have a nearly 100% success rate in achieving designation. In addition, Tipton Health supports clients nationwide with award-winning marketing communications services with a focus on helping healthcare leaders effectively communicate with their various audiences. For more information, please visit tiptonhealth.com.
Out of chaos comes order – leaning on lessons learned to fight the Delta variant
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COVID-19 presented unprecedented challenges for healthcare professionals around the country and world. Three award-winning nurse executives learned how to innovate and collaborate in the midst of the pandemic. These nurse leaders shared their knowledge in the most recent Tipton Health Nursing Leadership webinar, It’s a Much Different Pandemic: How 2020 Lessons Learned Are Shaping Nursing’s Response to the Delta Variant Surge, moderated by Tipton Health CNO Mary Del Guidice, MSN, BS, RN, CENP.
Taking part in the expert panel were:
Ilia Echevarria, PhD, MS, RN, CCRN-K, NEA-BC, CENP, CHES Associate Chief Nursing Officer, NCH Healthcare System
Peggy Mark, PhD, MBA, BSN, RN, System Vice President, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Experience Officer, Premier Health
Maureen White, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FNAP, FAAN, Executive Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive, Northwell Health
When asked how COVID-19 influenced patient care delivered today, the nurse leaders discussed the following themes:
On patient care
Nurses gained a deeper level of empathy after being with patients when no one else could be … they became family members, providing emotional and physical support
Multi-disciplinary, cross-departmental partnerships developed, and colleagues built a greater appreciation for each other, especially between team members and physicians. Silos broke down and cooperation flourished among professionals at all levels
Positions changed to better suit patient needs, and leadership models were questioned
On the use of technology
Non-clinical staff became part of the patient care process, delivering updates to family members through a newly developed Covid-19 Call Center
Empowered and encouraged to make decisions, frontline staff showed innovation and creativity with the use of baby monitors for patient observation
iPads and iPhones were instrumental in keeping patients connected to their families
On nurse wellbeing – recognizing the trauma, not just stress
Offering mental health support was vital, using multiple channels including counselors, chaplains and designated calm areas
Leaders received resiliency training
The community became a partner on respite care and relaxation
Meeting agendas became centered around wellbeing versus leadership development during “Lunch and Learns” – offering self-care in a safe space for nurse managers
Proud moments during the chaos of the pandemic
The leaders were asked to reflect on their proudest moments with their staffs.
At Northwell Health, it was the healing power of music. A nurse choir formed to raise money for nurses through the hospital foundation. Bringing joy to patients and the public alike, their popularity and voices landed them on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” as a finalist.
Evolution and camaraderie in terms of team approach were the biggest positive impacts for Dr. Echevarria. Staff went from simultaneously reacting, planning and responding to organizing and mobilizing in a well-orchestrated manner with staff continuing to step out of their comfort zones.
Dr. Mark noted the pride and resilience of the nursing staff at Premier Health. Working tirelessly around the clock, the nurses were still managing to have smiles on their faces bringing joy to their colleagues and patients, showing compassion every single day no matter what. They remembered why they became nurses, and what that means.
White reminded the audience to “Look at the things that can happen, even in the darkest days – there are bright lights – you just have to try and look for those silver linings.”
Learn More From Our Speakers
Visit tiptonhealth.com/webinars to view the on-demand video from this webinar. If you complete the webinar, you can earn .75 contact hours through our partnership with Nurse Builders.
Meet the Panelist Presenting the It's a Much Different Pandemic Nursing Leadership Webinar
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Ilia M. Echevarria serves an Associate Chief Nursing Officer at NCH Healthcare System in Naples, FL. Dr. Echevarria joined NCH in December 2015 from the Philadelphia region where she served in progressive nursing leadership roles throughout the course of her nursing career.
In her role at NCH, she is responsible for oversight of the Critical Care and Emergency Service lines, Nursing Professional Practice Programs, the hospital-based Wound Care Program, Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice, and the School Health Program. During her tenure at NCH, she led the transition of the Nursing Education Dept to a system-wide workforce Center for Learning & Innovation, spear-headed Pathway to Excellence re-designation, implemented nursing peer review, the ongoing annual Research and Quality Improvement Conference and other nursing development programs.
In the Fall of 2020, she was appointed Director of the COVID taskforce and led efforts for the COVID-19 vaccine administration of employees and community members, establishing a hospital-based COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic. She currently serves as the COVID-19 Incident Commander.
During her 23-year nursing career, Dr. Echevarria has been successful in transforming nursing practice environments to foster cultures of collegiality, professional excellence, and clinical proficiency leading to enhanced service, safety, and quality of care delivery. She has been recognized for being a change agent, earning the Florida Organization of Nurses Executives, Excellence in Leadership Award in 2019. She is also the recipient of the DAISY Leader Award (2021). She has published on various professional practice and leadership topics, including programs implemented under her leadership.
Dr. Echevarria received her BSN from LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA (1998); her MS in Health Administration and Health Education joint degree from Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA (2006); her MSN in Community Systems Administration from Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA (2009); and her PhD in Nursing Science from Widener University, Chester, PA (2015). She holds four professional certifications as a health education specialist (CHES), in critical care nursing (CCRN-K), in nursing administration (NEA-BC), and executive nursing practice (CENP).
Peggy Mark, PhD, RNSystem Vice President, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Experience Officer, Premier Health
Peggy Mark has served as the System Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for Premier Health since May of 2017. In August 2020, she also assumed responsibilities of System Chief Experience Officer focusing on patient experience across the continuum of care.
Dr. Mark was born and raised in the Dayton area and has spent most of her career working in healthcare in this region. After spending six years in California, Dr. Mark returned to Dayton as Premier Health’s first Chief Learning Officer. She spent five years in that role where she successfully integrated clinical education, change management and leadership development strategies across the health system. Her passion for leadership, learning and excellence in patient care along with her deep love for nursing has served as a solid foundation for her current position as Chief Nursing Officer.
In her role as Chief Nursing Officer, Dr. Mark is responsible for the practice of approximately 4,000 nurses, patient care technicians, health unit coordinators and advanced practice providers across the care continuum. In addition, she is responsible for the division of Integrated Care that includes social work, case management, clinical documentation, and physician advisors as well as the Clinical Education division ensuring that clinical education is effective, high quality and coordinated across the health system.
One of many demonstrated outcomes of Dr. Mark’s leadership was in January 2019 when Premier Health was awarded Magnet Recognition by American Nurses Credentialing Center – one of 21 health systems in the United States awarded this honor which is the gold standard for nursing.
Dr. Mark received her BSN from Wright State University, an MBA from the University of Dayton and a PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch University. Dr. Mark’s doctoral research was focused on the intersection of relational, spiritual, and nursing leadership. Her research at a large, faith-based health system in California explored the role of the nurse leader in actualizing the health system goal that “every encounter is a sacred encounter.”
Maureen White, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FNAP, FAANExecutive Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive, Northwell Health
Maureen White is the Executive Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive for Northwell Health, the largest private employer in New York State overseeing 23 hospitals. Ms. White is responsible for developing and implementing the health system’s overall strategic plan and operational standards for patient care services. Ms. White is also the director of the Northwell Health Institute for Nursing, which focuses on nursing education, nursing research, the creation of healthy work environments, and the development of future nursing leaders within the health system. In 2015, she was appointed as the Vice Dean for Health System Nursing Services at the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies.
Prior to assuming these responsibilities, she served as Vice President for Patient Care Services for both North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. From 2000 to 2003, Ms. White was the Deputy Executive Director at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
In 2015, Ms. White received the New York University College of Nursing Distinguished Nursing Colleague Award for Contributions to the Profession of Nursing. In 2012, Ms. White was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. In 2015, she was inducted as a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP). She was the recipient of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) Mentorship Award in 2011. In 2008, Ms. White was the Humanitarian Partner of the Year recipient from Queensborough Community College. She was also a faculty member at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement from 2002 through 2005, focusing on workforce development initiatives. In 2004, Ms. White received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Molloy College and in 2000 she was recognized by AONE, receiving the prestigious Department Wide Innovations Award.
Ms. White holds two undergraduate degrees from Molloy College and an MBA from Fordham University.
Summer/Fall 2021 Magnet Newsletter
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Welcome!
Thank you for reading the Summer/Fall 2021 edition of the Magnet® Newsletter from Tipton Health. This edition features an interview with Mary Del Guidice — Tipton Health’s first-ever Chief Nursing Officer, recommendations on how to prepare for your next Magnet® designation, and other tips and insight from the experts at Tipton Health.
Article Navigation
Introducing Mary Del Guidice: Tipton Health’s First Chief Nursing Officer
Nurses Can Help Secure Health Equity
PHI—And How to Avoid It
Dates: An Essential Component of Your Magnet Documents
Writing an Effective EO Goal Statement
Prepare Now for Your Next Designation
Help Us Plan Our Fall Nursing Leadership Webinar Series
Introducing Mary Del Guidice: Tipton Health’s First Chief Nursing Officer
Mary Del Guidice, MSN, BN, RN, CENP, was named Tipton Health’s first-ever Chief Nursing Officer in July. Mary will be responsible for nursing client relations and nursing excellence consulting. She answers a few questions for the newsletter about what she will bring to Tipton Health’s clients.
Why did you become a nurse?
I can recall at a very young age being in an emergency room, looking up at the nurses and thinking I wanted to be just like them. They made me feel better and I thought what they did for me was magical. I wanted to make people feel the way they made me feel. From that moment, I felt a strong calling to be a nurse and never considered anything else. I have been a nurse for 38 years and have loved every moment, and I feel very fortunate to do something I love every day.
What made you decide to pursue nurse leadership positions?
I began my career as a clinical nurse on the night shift, loved every minute and never envisioned anything else.
My leadership career was inspired by many people. I was starstruck when I met my first CNO, Toni Fiore. She had this way about her that made everyone she interacted with feel special. I knew I wanted to be “like her.” Not necessarily a CNO, but someone who could also make other nurses feel special.
Eventually, a nurse manager position opened, and some colleagues were talking negatively about the staff, stating that they were a bunch of “brats,” they had been through many managers in a short period of time, and no one wanted to be their manager. This upset me because I knew the nurses and believed they just needed someone to care about them. This—along with a nudge from my mother, who advised me that I would impact more patients in a leadership role, and the confidence and support of my CNO—made me decide to become a nurse manager. I fell in love with my team and, to this day, have a picture of them in my office and stay in touch with some of them.
What are some accomplishments that make you proud?
As I think of accomplishments what always comes to mind are the many extraordinary people connected to each one. First and foremost, I am most proud of the teams I have been honored to work with and all that we became, built and accomplished together.
I remain tremendously proud of the team I had the honor of working with as a nurse manager. We began together with the lowest outcomes in the organization. We imagined together that we were opening a new hospital and recreated every aspect of care and operations on our unit. We even had a grand opening to celebrate “our new unit”! Our mantra was “happy staff makes happy patients”! We started with such low outcomes that we just decided to focus on doing the right things and knew the numbers would follow. Just two years later at the annual hospital patient satisfaction awards, I remember sitting thinking, here we go—the same unit is going to win again. I was shocked when they announced our unit. We had achieved six quarters of consistent improvement and had the highest scores in the organization. This led to our team winning the Press Ganey Client Success Story Contest. Our success continued as we also achieved the highest scores for RN satisfaction. It was a very special team—they were all heart—and I remain very proud of all that we became together.
Also, I’m always very proud to share that I was part of the first nursing team outside of the pilot to achieve Magnet® designation. This means that we were the first to go through the Magnet application process. At the time, I was a nurse manager and was asked by the CNO to lead the site visit preparations. While I didn’t really know what that meant, I did know it would require the help of nurses from every unit and every shift. This was the beginning of what became the “Magnet Champions” program.
After we achieved Magnet designation, countless organizations visited our organization to learn how we did it and how to create a “Magnet Champions” program. I also presented the concept of Magnet Champions at the second and third Magnet Conference. More than 25 years later I smile every time I hear someone refer to their “Magnet Champions.”
What are some of the most significant challenges facing nursing leaders today? What do you hope to achieve as Tipton Health’s first Chief Nursing Officer?
The most significant challenges I hear from nurse leaders today begin at the bedside and extend to the boardroom. Frontline nurses and leaders are exhausted, and RN turnover is increasing nationally. In addition, the financial state of healthcare is very fragile, causing nurse leaders to continuously define the value of nursing and advocate for scarce resources more vigorously than ever before.
The overarching challenge for nurse leaders is to balance addressing the urgencies of this time while remaining steadfast to the transformational leadership practices that secure a positive work environment, enabling an enriched and engaged workforce and the highest-quality care.
I am very proud to now be part of a team that is supporting and partnering with nurse leaders to successfully navigate these challenges.
Before becoming the Tipton Health CNO, I had the opportunity to work with the Tipton team as a consultant. In my first meeting CEO Dan Tipton, he spoke of the way the team truly cared about Tipton Health’s clients and their success. He made it very clear to me that the team wanted to have real impact at the bedside. Dan also shared his great appreciation for the profession of nursing and the work of nurse leaders.
From the start, I observed and admired the unrelenting dedication and authentic concern the entire Tipton team shared with their clients. This has been especially evident throughout the pandemic as the Tipton team quickly pivoted to address nurse leader needs, offering services such as free webinars that provided support through relevant topics such as team well-being. This dedication to making a difference is just one of the many reasons I feel very fortunate to join the Tipton team.
As CNO, I look forward to building upon the legacy of caring, success and partnerships that Tipton Health has created. Our goal is to be the team that all healthcare leaders turn to and rely on as they address the challenges of the day while also forging ahead to achieve their vision, from the bedside to the boardroom.
Today we are helping teams with everything from achieving Magnet and Pathway designation to improving the work environment for nurse leaders and staff, from developing strategic plans to redesigning care models, from strengthening shared decision-making to coaching nurse leaders, and everything in between.
Finally, on a personal level, I look forward to continuing my calling as a nurse by working with the entire Tipton Health interprofessional team to support nurse leaders and their teams as they realize their visions, hopes and dreams.
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Nurses Can Help Secure Health Equity
The coming years will present new and complex challenges for the nation’s nearly 4 million nurses, who represent the largest of the healthcare professions. Working at the intersection of health, education and communities, nurses are often the first and most frequent line of contact with people of all backgrounds seeking care.
In May 2021, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) released a report titled The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. An expert committee completed the report to “extend the vision for the nursing profession into 2030 and chart a path for the nursing profession to help our nation create a culture of health, reduce health disparities, and improve the health and well-being of the U.S. population in the 21st century.”
The report explores how nurses play a critical role in reducing health disparities and promoting equity, while keeping costs at bay, using technology, and maintaining patient- and family-focused care into 2030.
Originally scheduled for release in December 2020, the report was delayed until May to include lessons learned from COVID-19 and our nation’s racial and social justice issues, according to Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN.
Dr. Hassmiller, senior adviser for nursing at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and senior scholar-in-residence for the National Academy of Medicine, gave a presentation on the report in a June 2 webinar hosted by Columbia University School of Nursing and attended by nursing leaders and experts.
Regina Cunningham, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, CEO of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, served on the committee that helped draft the Future of Nursing report. She said low-income and minority communities were particularly hard hit by the pandemic.
“COVID-19 didn’t cause these things, but it showed us where a lot of the health disparities exist,” Dr. Cunningham said.
The NAM is also presenting a four-part webinar series exploring the blueprint for the next decade of nursing. The series covers addressing social determinants of health and achieving health equity, lifting barriers to expand nurses’ scope of practice, addressing nurses’ well-being, and diversifying the nursing workforce to advance health equity.
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PHI—And How to Avoid It
Among the many issues connected to writing Magnet narratives, one of the knottiest is protected health information—PHI.
PHI is any personal information that enables your readers to identify a specific person mentioned in the story.* We are required, under the HIPAA Security Rule, to ensure that cannot happen. The challenge, of course, is to navigate our way through a story by sharing enough information without breeching confidentiality. For this discussion, we’re focusing on the non-EO narratives in which you’re asked to write a patient-specific story: SE11, EP3, EP5, EP12, EP13, EP14 and EP17.
Names? Addresses? Dates? Bah! you say—I’m hardly likely to divulge any of that information in a Magnet example. But the fact is, your Tipton editors have seen a few of these nuggets slip by. They’re often embedded on page 12 of the patient record—things like the brother-in-law’s name and cell number. That, my friends, is PHI.
So, apart from scrupulously reading every single word of your supporting evidence, how else can you protect your Magnet application?
Be generic in the patient-specific narratives. Don’t even use the patient’s initials: Stick with “John Doe” or “Jane Doe.” You know to redact everything in evidence related to the patient. We also encourage you to redact room numbers and names of personal physicians or practices.
Do not include narrative references to where the patient lives/works or the names of short- or long-term facilities where the patient visits or lives. In evidence, redact those pieces of information.
Do not write specific dates (in patient-specific narratives only). Write “In 2020, …” Redact both the month and the date in supporting evidence.
Do not include any personal information about the patient (e.g., previous medical history, family relationships or marital status) that doesn’t help the story meet intent.
On a related topic, note that not all redaction strategies “work.” There have been many instances in which a client has blacked out text with a Magic Marker, but Tipton editors can still see the text, especially on a large monitor. We strongly recommend using software designed to redact your text.
If you would you like more tips on how to write your Magnet application, email Dan Tipton at dan@tiptonhealth.com, and he’ll tell you how we can help you tell your story.
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Dates: An Essential Component of Your Magnet Documents
Some of the most essential pieces of information in your Magnet document are the dates related to your narrative or outcome graph. Your appraiser uses these dates to ensure that the story fits within your Magnet window—and if it doesn’t, they’ll ask you for additional documentation.
Dates also help the appraiser establish your pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervention timeframes in the graphs in your EO documents. As you’re collecting stories and data for your Magnet documents, remember to include the date for each intervention and key event in your narrative.
Need help with dates or any other aspect of writing your Magnet documents? Email Dan Tipton at dan@tiptonhealth.com.
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Writing an Effective EO Goal Statement
The Goal Statement is a very short yet critical section in an EO. It has only two elements:
The Goal: The desired result of the PI project.
The Measure of Effectiveness: Identifies the outcome metric that quantifies the degree of improvement. We must attach a graph of the Measure of Effectiveness in the Outcomes section of the EO—and the data must demonstrate a “sustained improvement.”
A couple of things to keep in mind when writing your Goal and selecting your Measure of Effectiveness: Magnet requires that you have a Goal, and that you meet or exceed your Goal. Period. Those two things are non-negotiable. Beyond that—you decide how tight of a box you want to live in. Magnet does not require you to compare your performance against a benchmark for “regular” EOs.
We do have to compare our performance against national benchmarks in the Fab 5 documents. But that’s another story—for “regular” EOs you don’t have to. So, why would you? You decide on the level of specificity of your goal. I recommend you write broad goals using words like “to reduce” or “to increase.” That way, any movement in the right direction with your data means you’ve met Magnet’s requirement of “meeting or exceeding” the goal.
For example:
Goal: To reduce the patient falls with injury rate on 3 South
Measure of Effectiveness: 3 South’s Patient Falls with Injury Rate
When it’s done right, the Goal Statement is a very simple section in an EO. But when it’s not well thought out, it can become a nightmare! Be careful when you write your Goal Statement.
This was an excerpt from Tipton Health’s Magnet Writers Workshop. To learn more about the workshop, please contact magnet@tiptonhealth.com.
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Prepare Now for Your Next Designation
Where are you on your Magnet Journey?
Task
Need help?We’re at your service!
3 to 5 years before your submission
Develop or revise your nursing strategic plan.
Tipton Health’s executive nursing consultants will help you prioritize your work and align your strategic plan with your Professional Practice Model and the Magnet framework.
Verify with the ANCC that your nursing satisfaction survey instrument and patient satisfaction survey instruments (inpatient and ambulatory) meet Magnet requirements.
Tipton Health’s data team can help you make sense of your data and ensure you are collecting the right data to meet Magnet requirements.
18 months to 3 years before your next submission
Complete a Magnet Readiness Assessment.
You can do a self-assessment or have Tipton Health come on site to help you identify any lingering gaps. (Are you an initial designation or facing more significant challenges? You might be eligible for Tipton Health’s new Nursing Excellence Assessment Tool.)
About 18 months before your submission
Collect your narratives, evidence and outcome data.
Consider Tipton Health’s Magnet Deep Dive workshop.
Educate your Magnet writing team.
Consider Tipton Health’s Magnet Writers Workshop.
Contact us at magnet@tiptonhealth.com for more information.
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Help Us Plan Our Fall Nursing Leadership Webinar Series
We’re planning our Nursing Leadership Webinar Series for this fall, and we’re putting together content that is sure to hold your interest. Our topics include a detailed review of the 2023 Magnet manual; how to recruit and retain nurse leaders and much more; and lessons learned from the continuing battle against COVID. But we’d like your help. How can we make this series as helpful to you as possible? Tell us what we can do to improve the webinars and give us your topic ideas by clicking on the following survey link.
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Mary Del Guidice Named Tipton Health's First-Ever Chief Nursing Officer
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Tipton Health Communications — one of the nation’s leading nursing excellence and strategic healthcare consultancies— is proud to welcome Mary Del Guidice, MSN, BSN, RN, CENP, as the company’s first-ever Chief Nursing Officer. Mary joins Tipton’s growing team of highly experienced executive nurse leaders and consultants.
In this newly created role, Mary — who first joined Tipton Health in 2020 as a senior nursing excellence consultant — will be responsible for nursing client relations and nursing excellence consulting, including Magnet®, Pathway to Excellence® and PTAP®, as well as helping Tipton’s more than 200 hospital and health system clients identify and address unique organizational challenges.
“Mary is a well-respected nursing leader who has been instrumental in helping our clients identify and address complex challenges and providing them with the invaluable insights they need to grow,” Tipton Health CEO Dan Tipton said. “With our continued focus on nursing excellence, Mary brings the expertise needed to serve our clients in a dynamic and meaningful way.”
Mary has enjoyed a stellar three-decade nursing career where she has led teams to Magnet designations, improved nursing programs, enhanced patient care and improved clinical outcomes. As a healthcare executive, Mary served in a number of senior leadership roles at renowned hospitals and health systems around the country, including the University of Pennsylvania, Bon Secours Health System, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Hackensack University Medical Center. In 2018, Mary established Del Giudice Consulting — a firm focused on advising and mentoring healthcare organizations.
Additionally, Mary is a lead consultant on the Magnet4Europe initiative — a project designed to improve the mental health and wellbeing of European healthcare professionals, as well as transform the clinical work environment of European hospitals by implementing the evidence-based Magnet model.
“It is an honor and privilege to be named Tipton Health’s first CNO. I am humbled to join a respected healthcare consulting firm that is passionate about driving nursing excellence and improving the nurse work environment,” Mary said.
Mary earned both a master’s and bachelor’s degree in nursing from Saint Peter’s College.
Mary is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania. She is also a member of the American Nurses Association, American Organization of Nurse Leaders and the New Jersey State Nurses Association. Mary has presented nationally and published on many nurse-specific topics, such as satisfaction, leadership, staffing and finance.
Meet Elizabeth A. Capobianco, Tipton Health Nursing Excellence Consultant
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Tipton’s Nursing Excellence Consultants are a group of experts who have decades of experience leading renowned hospitals and health systems across the country. Learn more about one of those consultants, Elizabeth A. Capobianco, MS, RN-BC, NPD-BC. Elizabeth will specifically be supporting our clients with work around their Nursing Transition-to-Practice programs.
Elizabeth A. Capobianco, MS, RN-BC, NPD-BC
Elizabeth has been with NYU Langone Health in New York for 20 years, beginning as a staff nurse in 2001. She currently serves as a nursing professional development specialist at Langone.
In her role as a nursing consultant with Tipton, Elizabeth will focus on helping our clients develop and implement successful transition-to-practice programs, ensuring the highest level of patient safety and nursing care.
During her career, Elizabeth served as an adjunct clinical professor at NYU College of Nursing, as well as an adjunct professor at University of Buffalo College of Nursing.
Elizabeth earned her master’s in nursing education at New York University and her bachelor of science in nursing at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. She holds a certification in nursing professional development and is certified as a cardiac/vascular and medical-surgical nurse.
A member of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses and the Association for Nursing Professional Development, Elizabeth has earned numerous awards in her tenure at Langone, including the Eliminating Hospital-Acquired Infections Award, the Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Recognition Award for the Oral Care Committee, and the Nurse Leader of the Year Award.
She has published on evaluating the short- and long-term outcomes of a post-BSN residency program in the Journal of Nursing Administration, and presented on topics such as tracheal saline lavage, reducing CLABSI and CAUTI, and a public-private partnership to retain new nurses.
Continuing the Conversation About Race & Inclusivity in Nurse Staffing
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Where Things Stand
George Floyd’s death, the recent Derek Chauvin conviction and the spike in violence toward Asian Americans demonstrated that there’s still much more work to be done when it comes to diversity and other issues related to race.
These shared experiences have created a sort of “awakening” in the nursing community, according to webinar participants. Nurse leaders have a unique opportunity to drive real change. The first step is taking an open-eyed look at where things stand within nursing in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusivity.
In fact, a poll of the nearly 100 webinar participants showed that while nursing is making progress toward diversity, nurses feel it is not as much progress as they’d like to see. When asked the same question about nursing leadership more specifically, participants similarly felt like there was progress, but more room for improvement.
Organizational Improvement That Goes Beyond Diversity
Pursuing diversity isn’t enough, according the webinar panel. Equity and inclusivity are just as important. Diverse leaders must be empowered and engaged to help people excel and thrive.
How Nursing Can Move Forward
Now is not the time to be quiet. Nurses and nurse leaders should speak up to make a difference. Part of progress is creating awareness about the lack of diversity in nursing and nursing leadership. There are four main points any organization should thoughtfully consider:
Does your organization reflect the makeup of the people that you serve?
If the answer is no, what do you do with that data?
How can nurse leaders help to change their organizations to be more reflective of their communities?
In addition, how can nurses take real action within their communities?
Learn More From Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar video about racism and health equity.
Revolutionizing Staffing with a Long-Term Solution
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If your health organization faces challenges when it comes to staffing, you’re not alone. Inadequate staffing is one of the most common challenges for facilities of all sizes, from standalone organizations to multi-hospital systems.
While the problem has been compounded in the last year, but it’s not a new one. Even when we were not in a pandemic, nursing vacancies, difficulty with the recruitment process, unscheduled absences, and increased volume all posed challenges that made maintaining appropriate staffing levels difficult.
Your organization likely has strategies in place to “bandage” your staffing issues, but could you benefit from a longer-lasting solution? Odds are the answer is yes.
In our recent webinar, “Reduce the High Cost of Travelers! Adopt a Long-term Strategy to Stabilize Staffing,” Rosemarie Aznavorian, DNP, RN, CENP, CCWP, CCRN-K, MedPro Healthcare Staffing Vice President of Client Services and Chief Clinical Officer, offered some insight into a long-term method for overcoming staffing shortages.
Why Staffing Needs Have Worsened in the Last Year
All of the issues outlined above can occur during “normal times,” but the problem is magnified during a time of crisis, like a pandemic.
In many cases, crises affect only a specific health organization, or perhaps organizations within a certain community or region. But during a global pandemic, most hospitals, standalone facilities, and health systems are all experiencing the same thing, which creates a competition for resources.
When a staffing crunch occurs, most organizations have some type of strategy in place to fill the gaps, so to speak.
These solutions often include unit- or hospital-based staffing float pools or overtime for available staff, along with the use of travelers. The most common use of travelers includes 13- and 26-week assignments—in other words, a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
While these temporary staffers, who are primarily pulled from the United States supply of registered nurses, offer a way to meet staffing goals, it’s only temporary.
A Longer-Term Solution
The problem with a short-term solution to a long-term problem is that the staffing shortage isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, it may worsen before it gets better.
There’s a trifecta of causes—there’s an existing shortfall of as many as one million nurses, the workforce is aging, and the pace of nurses entering the workforce is slower than what’s leaving.
Even worse? The pandemic itself further contributed to a sharp increase of nurses considering leaving the workforce. A national study found that 36 percent of RNs now plan to leave the bedside, 25 percent report that they can’t adequately care for patients, and 20 percent know a nurse who died from COVID-19.
That’s why a longer-term fix is needed. Foreign-educated nurses can offer that, providing several key benefits:
The recruitment of foreign-educated nurses is highly regulated, often requiring compliance with regulatory boards and vetting against U.S. standards. That ensures a high level of competence and quality.
A large number of foreign nurses have a BSN and at least seven years of experience. They’re also highly motivated to learn and grow.
Most of these nurses work on a long-term contract with the ability to transition to your staff. This provides enhanced outcomes and higher levels of patient satisfaction.
Foreign-educated nurses offer a flexible workforce and are often willing to work “difficult” shifts that can be hard to fill.
Staffing with foreign-educated nurses for longer periods of time helps stabilize bill rates and may have no upfront costs. Your organization is better able to plan what your costs are going to be, depending on your needs.
A high percentage of foreign-educated nurses eventually move from temporary assignments into full-time roles.
While there are certain factors your organization will need to consider as you look to hire foreign-educated nurses, such as ensuring they know how to navigate U.S. specifics like setting up a checking account and obtaining childcare, this strategy offers many long-term benefits.
Learn More From Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar video about a long-term solution to staffing needs.
Tipton’s next webinar, Part IV – A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing, will be held on April 27, 2021, from 12:30–1:30 p.m. EST.
How to Approach Physician Relations, Social Distance Style
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Imagine, if you will, how physician relations worked in a pre-pandemic world. Those in a physician relations role for a hospital or health system typically serve as the “face of the hospital,” spending much of their time meeting face-to-face with physicians.
That was before COVID-19. As the pandemic took root in early 2020, everything we knew about how most of our jobs operate changed. That was especially true for those working in physician relations, who had to pivot to get things done in a different way.
During our recent Engage webinar, “Physician Relations in a Socially Distant World,” Shannon Mennel, MHA, Physician Relations Territory Manager for Cancer Treatment Centers of America, discussed how physician relations has evolved in the last year and tips for pivoting to find success.
What’s Changed in Physician Relations?
The better question may be: What hasn’t changed? The answer to that question is: Effective physician relations remains an integral part of business development for hospitals and health systems.
The process for developing that business has changed to adapt to the new and evolving realities of the pandemic world.
Pre-pandemic, physician relations involved a lot of organic conversations, allowing for hospital and health system representatives to quickly make multiple connections, finding pain points and solving for them.
Physician relations now often requires a lengthier process with the same end goal in mind. Multiple touchpoints are needed to make the same connections, and it often requires a mix of written communication and persistent calls to follow up.
How to Find Success in a Virtual World
How can your health organization stay ahead of the changes and find success in physician relations? Your processes will need to adapt to the new reality.
Even as more Americans are vaccinated and we come closer to a post-pandemic reality, many changes will stick around for the long-term. It’s likely that interactions in the future will be a hybrid of both in-person and virtual, so it’s important to both be adaptable and to find ways to prove your organization’s value.
In her organization, Shannon found that these tips helped promote success:
Strategize methods of overcoming communication barriers.
Ask for and set up virtual meetings when possible.
Partner with internal physicians.
Use LinkedIn as a tool to connect with physicians and to leverage existing connections to reach physicians. Personalize your outreach messages and make them relevant.
Reach out in multiple layers by having different people within your organization email or message physicians and other clinicians over time. This reaches physicians with the same message but in different voices.
Partner with medical organizations to find out how you can help physicians within your outreach community.
Ultimately, your goal is to elevate yourself and your organization in a way that keeps you relevant. Even in a virtual world, that’s doable.
Meet the Panelists Presenting the Special Webinar: Part III – A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing
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In our upcoming special webinar, our panel of experienced nursing executives will hold follow up discussion on race and nursing. This special webinar will focus on the emotional toll of racism, health equity and anti-Asian racism.
Ena Williams, MBA, MSM, BSN, RN, CENP
Ena currently serves as Chief Nursing Officer at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), a 1,541-bed, Magnet®-designated, Level I trauma, academic medical center
Ena began her nursing career in Jamaica where she served in numerous staff and leadership roles. After migrating to the US, she joined the team at Yale New Haven Hospital as a staff nurse and has progressively advanced to her current role. She has served as a coordinator, an educator, manager and ultimately the Nursing Director of Perioperative Services. She was promoted to VP and Associated Chief Nurse in 2012 and assumed the current role of Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at YNHH.
Ena earned her diploma in nursing from the University Hospital of the West Indies, her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Western Governors University and her MSM/MBA from Albertus Magnus College. She is currently enrolled in a PhD program. Ena is a graduate of the GE Health Management Nurse Executive Fellowship and is board-certified in executive nursing practice by the Association of Nurse Executives. She has published several journal and book chapters and is a frequent speaker at local/national nursing conferences.
Ena currently serves on the board of the Connecticut Hospital Association, the Gateway Community College Foundation, The Whitney Center, the nominating committee for the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). She is a member of the AONL, ANA, and a lifetime member of the National Black Nurses Association. Ena has been recognized with numerous awards: the Trailblazer Award from the National Black Nurses Association (2017), the Cornell Scott Health Leadership Award from the NAACP of Greater New Haven (2015). In 2012 she was recognized by the West Indian Social Club of Hartford as an outstanding Jamaican in the field of healthcare (2010) and in 2012 as an outstanding Jamaican in America in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence.
Ernest J. Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Ernest J. Grant is the 36th president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the nation’s largest nurses organization representing the interests of the nation’s 4 million registered nurses.
A distinguished leader, Dr. Grant has more than 30 years of nursing experience and is an internationally recognized burn-care and fire-safety expert. He previously served as the burn outreach coordinator for the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals in Chapel Hill. In this role, Dr. Grant oversaw burn education for physicians, nurses and other allied healthcare personnel and ran the center’s nationally acclaimed burn prevention program, which promotes safety and works to reduce burn-related injuries through public education and the legislative process. He also serves as adjunct faculty for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where he works with undergraduate and graduate nursing students in the classroom and clinical settings.
Dr. Grant is frequently sought out for his expertise as a clinician and educator. In addition to being a prolific speaker, he has conducted numerous burn-education courses with various branches of the U.S. military in preparation for troops’ deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented him with a Nurse of the Year Award for his work treating burn victims from the World Trade Center site. In 2013, he received the B.T. Fowler Lifetime Achievement Award from the North Carolina Fire and Life Safety Education Council for making a difference in preventing the devastating effects of fire and burn injuries and deaths within the state.
An active participant in professional organizations, Dr. Grant is a past chair of the National Fire Protection Association board of directors and served as second vice president of the American Burn Association board of trustees. He is also a member of Sigma Theta Tau and Chi Eta Phi. Dr. Grant served as president of the North Carolina Nurses Association from 2009 to 2011. In 2002, the ANA honored him with the Honorary Nursing Practice Award for his contributions to the advancement of nursing practice through strength of character, commitment and competence.
Dr. Grant holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing degree from North Carolina Central University and master’s degree in nursing and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2014. He is the first man to be elected to the office of president of the ANA in its 122 years of existence.
Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FACHE
Dr. Dawson is the 13th President of the National Black Nurses Associates, Inc. In 1976, Dr. Dawson earned her bachelor’s degree and in 1984, she earned her master’s degree, both from UABSON. In 2010, she earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton, School of Nursing (FPBSON). In 1984, Dr. Dawson completed her hospital administration residency at Gaston Memorial Hospital, NC. She has experience in academic medical centers, community hospitals, and academia. She served in senior-level positions such as, Vice President of Clinical Operations (2000-2006), Chief Nurse Executive (1997-2006), Associate Chief Operating Officer (1993-1997), Nursing Director (1989-1993) assistant to VP of Nursing (1984-1989), and nurse manager (1979-1983). She managed her own healthcare consultant business.
In 2019, Dr. Dawson was inducted into the Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame Nurse. She is a Scholar in the Sparkman Global Health Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2017), Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (2007), Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellow (2000 Alumni), and Johnson & Johnson Wharton Nurse Administrative Fellow (1999 Alumni).
Dr. Dawson is active in 15 local, state, regional and national professional organizations. She has served as the President for Birmingham Regional Organization of Nurse Leaders., and President for the Alabama Organization of Nurse Executives. She is active on many local, state and national boards.
Dr. Dawson has served as principal investigator, project director and coordinator on HRSA and foundation grants and as a grant consultant and program evaluator. Her translational research and scholarship focus are on career barriers and mobility, management development, succession planning, career progression, and workforce diversity and planning. She has publications in books, journals, newsletters, and podcasts. She was a contributing author in the Drive-Thru Flu Shots: A model for mass immunization that was adopted the CDC as their model that is being used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Dawson is an experienced, dynamic health care leader and a sought-after lecturer, workshop and seminar leader focusing on leadership, workflow design, organizational systems assessment, succession planning, workforce development, community health, strategic planning, health careers, program planning, and system-wide assessment and leadership development.
Alana Cueto MSN, RN, CNL
Alana has spent her professional career improving the health and well-being of vulnerable children and families living in distressed urban neighborhoods through service, scholarship, education and advocacy. Alana is a registered professional travel nurse, certified Clinical Nurse Leader, Fellow at the New York Academy of Medicine and Immediate Past-President at the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN).
Alana combined purpose and passion as Founding President of the NAHN Garden State Chapter having led the chapter in cultivating healthier communities for all residents in the State of New Jersey. She also served on Governor Phil Murphy’s Healthcare Transition Advisory Board for the State of New Jersey, appointed November 2017.
As a nurse member of Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH) she contributed to the survey for the development of the Sustainable Development Goals used at the United Nations (UN). She presented at the UN’s 62nd Commission on the Status of Women: Empowering Girls and Women through Innovative Nursing and Midwifery Interventions, and numerous other conference presentations including the 2020 League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Health Summit and Tipton’s Special Webinar Series: A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing.
Alana has been honored for her leadership, health advocacy, and volunteerism. Recognitions include 2019 NJSNA/Institute for Nursing Dons & Divas Award, NAHN National Henrietta Villaescusa Community Service Award (2016), Seton Hall University College of Nursing Elizabeth Ann Seton Young Alumni Award (2015), and the Hispanic Leadership of New Jersey Health Advocate Award (2015)–a three part award that includes a Bronze Medal of Honor and Special Recognition from both the United States Congress and the State of New Jersey Joint Legislative Commendation. On September 28, 2019 The Wilson Initiative for Health & Social Equity, Inc. recognized Alana as an “Unsung Hero” for her advocacy in addressing the social determinants of health and for creating a more diverse workforce. The Alana Cueto Nursing Scholarship was established by The Wilson Initiative to help pave the way for minority students pursuing careers in nursing.
Alana resides in the City of Perth Amboy, New Jersey where in 2018 she demonstrated her commitment to servant leadership by running a political campaign against the incumbent for a City Council position. Despite not being elected she continues civic engagement and commitment to the community as a member of the City’s Planning Board and through collaboration with community leaders and stakeholders in an effort to engage residents on initiatives related to health and well-being.
Alana is proud to share that of all her achievements—the greatest has been to be the mother of her two children; Wesley and Caryn.
Mary Joy Garcia-Dia, DNP, RN, FAAN
Dr. Garcia-Dia is the president of the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA), as well as the program director for Nursing Informatics in the Information Technology Department and the Center for Professional Nursing Practice at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. During her remarkable career, Dr. Garcia-Dia has remained passionate and active in the nursing community.
Dr. Garcia-Dia serves on the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee for the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a joint initiative of the AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For the last eight years, she has been an advisor to the PNAA Human Rights Committee on matters involving unfair labor practice. In her capacity as PNAA President, Dr. Garcia-Dia sits as Board Member on the Alliance for International Ethical Recruitment Practices and provides recommendations on contracts and recruitment practices to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, Philippine Consulate in Washington DC. Dr. Garcia-Dia was also a panel member in the AARP Public Policy Institute Roundtable Discussion in 2016, discussing the AARP’s CARE (Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable) Act. As a past member of the National Advisory Council on Research for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health, Dr. Garcia-Dia continues to raise educational awareness in addressing the underrepresentation of minority health through grant projects (Patient Centered Outcomes Research and All of Us).
Dr. Garcia-Dia values the education of healthcare professionals, holding multiple academic positions along with her other roles. She serves as a Nursing Informatics MSN course developer at the City University of New York School of Professional Studies, an adjunct assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, and an adjunct faculty member at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing.
Dr. Garcia-Dia received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Saint La Salle College of Nursing and her master’s degree in nursing informatics from New York University. She completed the Minority Nurse Leadership Institute fellowship program at Rutgers University College of Nursing in 2006. In 2015, Dr. Garcia-Dia received her doctor of nursing practice from Case Western Reserve University.
Preparing & Advocating for a Nursing Budget in the Age of the Pandemic
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Budgeting for a nursing department requires a good bit of give and take even in “normal” times. Right now doesn’t qualify as “normal,” even as we hopefully head toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That means that budgeting for nursing is even more challenging. How can you create a budget that provides what’s needed for your team, meets patient needs—and gets C-Suite approval?
Nancy May, Chief Nurse Executive for Michigan Health; Mary Fagan, Vice President of Patient Service and Chief Nursing Officer at Rady Children’s Hospital; and Tracy Gosselin, Chief Nursing & Patient Care Services Officer at Duke University Hospital, recently discussed this topic with Tipton Health Executive Nursing Consultant Mary Del Guidice during our March 16 Nursing Leadership webinar.
Review the webinar and earn 0.5 contact hours
The Pandemic’s Effect on Budgeting
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of our lives in the last year. Nowhere is that more evident than in the healthcare industry.
Healthcare providers were forced to essentially drop everything non-COVID-19 and focus on delivering care during a crisis. Nurses and nurse leaders faced increased challenges as a result, many of which directly impact current and future budgeting:
Transition and volatility in staffing
Acquisition of PPE and increased budgetary needs for it
Lower patient census numbers, but increased need for hands-on care
Need for nurses to perform roles outside normal responsibilities
Because of the intensive and evolving care needs of COVID-19 patients, lower-paid jobs, such as respiratory therapists, played a pivotal role in the provision of care. During the course of the pandemic, many people in those positions left their current jobs or healthcare altogether, requiring healthcare organizations to backfill these critical roles. In the interim, nurses often needed to handle some of those responsibilities, taking them away from other tasks.
How can nurse leaders navigate these challenges when budgeting? In the immediate future, it’s all about recognizing that change is inevitable, setting “big picture” plans aside temporarily as needed, and keeping the focus on the present in a shorter-term budget.
That last point may be especially important as we navigate the immediate future without knowing many factors, such as how many people will be vaccinated (and when) and how COVID-19 variants may affect the population. Without a crystal ball to help you plan, it may be easier and more effective to plot out your budgetary needs on a quarterly basis, rather than for a full year.
Gaining C-Suite Approval
When it comes to obtaining approval from those in leadership at your organization, it’s ultimately all in how you sell your budget.
There’s a good saying that “the qualitative informs the quantitative, and the quantitative informs the qualitative.” In other words, you need both the data and a compelling story to demonstrate your budgetary needs.
You have to tell your story in a compelling way—helping your CFO and other leaders develop a clear understanding of what your nursing team needs, how it impacts patient care, and why it ultimately matters. That involves breaking down relevant data in a clear and concise way that identifies what the data means from a leadership perspective.
It’s also important to ensure you’re staying aware of overall challenges your hospital and health system are facing and the dynamics of healthcare as a whole. Use predictive analytics when available to scope out what to anticipate and how care needs might change.
On a simpler basis, pose a few overarching questions to yourself and to your nurses:
Has this pandemic changed how we’re going to provide care moving forward?
Is our emergency department [or some other pertinent department/service] going to need to be so big, or will telecare fill the gap?
Do we need to take a look at greater support for the provision of remote/telehealth services?
Should nursing support shift from one service or department to another?
Keeping your budget requests in line with changing times—such as the shift from in-person to telemedicine care—can help make it more likely your budget will receive the greenlight.
Building a meaningful relationship with your CFO is also an important part of relaying your budgetary needs. Ask questions that help you understand his or her perspective and come armed with answers to questions your CFO may potentially ask.
Ultimately, you’re working collaboratively to support your staff and ensure you have a healthy work environment that supports patient health and wellness.
Learn More From Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar video about the pandemic’s effects on nursing budgets.
Tipton’s next webinar, Reduce the High Cost of Travelers! Adopt a Long-Term Strategy to Stabilize Staffing, will be held on April 13, 2021, from 12:30–1 p.m. EST.
Meet the Expert Presenting the Physician Relations in a Socially Distant World Webinar
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Shannon is an experienced physician relations professional with more than a decade of experience. During her career, she’s worked in different types of healthcare organizations, including academic medical centers, a pediatric teaching hospital and an oncology specialty hospital. Shannon works extensively with physicians to expand their networks and referral growth within the communities they serve. She partners with physician groups throughout the Delaware Valley to educate other providers about the clinical care services offered at CTCA and the specialized care offered by the physicians on the medical staff.
Meet the Panelists Presenting the How to Win C-Suite Approval for Your Budget Webinar
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Dr. Fagan has been with Rady Children’s since 1987 in various roles, including Manager and Director of Critical Care Services and Quality Management Director, and she has been the Chief Nursing Officer since 2010.
Dr. Fagan received her bachelor’s degree in Nursing at St. Louis University, a master’s degree in Nursing from Yale University, and a PhD in Nursing from the University of San Diego. She practiced as a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) nurse and educator at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis and as a PICU nurse at Yale-New Haven Medical Center.
Tracy Gosselin, PhD, RN, AOCN, NEA-BC, FAANChief Nursing and Patient Care Services Officer, Duke University Hospital
Dr. Gosselin is the Chief Nursing & Patient Care Services Officer for Duke University Hospital, overseeing the inpatient, procedural units, and ambulatory care areas. Before assuming this role, she served as the Associate Chief Nursing Officer for the Duke Cancer Institute and the Ambulatory Care Service Line.
Her career began as a staff nurse in 1993 at Duke Hospital in an oncology unit, and she has served in clinical and administrative positions of increasing scope and responsibility throughout her career.
Dr. Gosselin received her bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Northeastern University, her master’s degree in Nursing from Duke University, and her PhD from the University of Utah. She is a member of numerous professional nursing organizations including the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, Sigma Theta Tau, the Oncology Nursing Society, the American Nurses Association, and the North Carolina Nurses Association.
She is a past recipient of a North Carolina Great 100 and the Oncology Nursing Society Linda Arenth Excellence in Cancer Nursing Management award. She actively publishes and presents in the areas of nursing and leadership. She also serves as a Clinical Associate for the Duke University School of Nursing and is currently the President of the Oncology Nursing Foundation.
Nancy May, DNP, RN-BC, NEA-BCChief Nurse Executive, University of Michigan Health System
As CNE, Dr. May is responsible for nursing practice and regulatory standards for University Hospital, Mott Children’s and Women’s hospital, OR nursing, ambulatory care clinics, advanced practice, homecare, and dialysis in the community.
She began working at the University of Michigan in 2015 as the Chief Nursing Officer for ambulatory care. In that role, she was able to restructure nursing to support new care delivery models to impact outcomes for Patient-Centered Medical Homes as well as strengthen the shared governance models.
Dr. May became involved with nursing associations in the ‘90s. As a member of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care, she envisioned the need for Magnet standards to be embedded into the Magnet document to support the role and value of the registered nurse.
She was appointed to the Board of Directors for AAACN, where she later served as President. During that time, Dr. May created an NSI Taskforce, which developed an Industry Report and worked with CALNOC and later Press Ganey for data mining outcomes.
During her presidency and board work, the Core Curriculum on Care Coordination and Transition Management (CCTM) was published, certification for CCTM developed, and the Role of the Registered Nurse White paper and NSI Industry Report were published. In addition, a taskforce was started for a Nurse Residency for Ambulatory nurses.
Continuing to advocate for ambulatory care nursing, Dr. May accepted and sits in appointed positions on the Magnet Commission, as well as the American Organization of Nurse Leaders Board of Directors. Dr. May has also participated at a national level for ambulatory care with the Institute of Health Improvement on Medication Reconciliation, Telehealth, and Closing the Loop on referrals resulting in white papers on the topics. In addition, she has been a member of the Joint Commission Nursing Advisory Board, Press Ganey Chief Nursing Officers Council, and done committee work for AONL and AAACN.
Tipton Health Communications Welcomes Lisa Roman-Fischetti as Nursing Excellence Client Advocate
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Tipton Health Communications — a full-service hospital certification consultancy and strategic communications agency focused on nursing excellence — is proud to welcome Lisa Roman-Fischetti, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, as the company’s new Nursing Excellence Client Advocate.
A nurse with nearly 30 years of clinical experience, Lisa most recently served since 2014 as Magnet Program Manager for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She was responsible for providing the leadership needed to successfully maintain American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet® designation. In that role, Lisa brings with her years of hands-on expertise that will serve her at Tipton.
In her role with Tipton, Lisa will serve as the primary client liaison responsible for guiding hospital nursing teams on their journey toward nursing excellence.
“Lisa has been working toward nursing excellence for years in her role with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,” said Dan Tipton, president and CEO. “She brings a high level of expertise to her new role, where she’ll help lead and shape the journeys for our clients.”
Before serving as Magnet Program Manager at CHOP, Lisa worked in a similar capacity as Magnet Program/Nursing Quality Director at Fox Chase Cancer Center, located in Northeast Philadelphia. In this leadership role, she successfully guided the organization to its fourth Magnet designation.
“Throughout my nursing career, I have had the pleasure of helping several organizations achieve Magnet designation. I look forward to bringing that expertise to Tipton and supporting hospitals and health systems around the country that are working toward nursing excellence,” Lisa said.
Lisa earned her bachelor’s degree in Nursing at Holy Family University and earned the Oncology Certified Nurse credential from the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation. In 2005, she returned to Holy Family University to earn a master’s degree in Nursing, Community Health. She became Nurse Executive-Advanced, Board-Certified in 2016.
In addition to her leadership roles, Lisa has played an active role at multiple Magnet conferences, presenting at the podium and through posters. She has also actively participated in several regional and national nursing community consortiums.
Promoting and Encouraging Joy & Meaning Among Nurse Managers
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There’s no doubt about it: The past year has been challenging for nearly everyone, but those within the healthcare space have been especially impacted. To stay in a healthy mental and emotional space, it’s vitally important to find joy and purpose in the work we do, even when it’s hard.
While that can be difficult for every person at times, the job responsibilities of nurse managers and the often frantic pace of their work make it even more difficult. But there are some steps that health systems, hospitals, and individual nurse managers can take to seek—and promote—joy and meaning in the workplace.
Lee Galuska, PhD, RN, NE-BC, and Judi Hahn, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, discussed this topic in Tipton Health’s March 2 webinar.
What We Know About Joy & Meaning
In order to feel satisfied and content with the work we’re doing on a daily basis, both joy and meaning are important. Finding “meaning” in our work means feeling as if the work being done is significant, while “joy” comes as a result of feeling that work is meaningful.
For nurses, the fulfillment part is easy—“I am a nurse” is a powerful statement of purpose. Joy and meaning are cultivated within the nursing environment with strong leadership and opportunities to learn and grow.
But the question of meaning and joy are a little more complex at the nurse management level, where there’s potentially less daily, meaningful interaction with patients and patient families. This factor, combined with stress and burnout, makes the work challenging.
How can we promote greater satisfaction and meaning among nurse managers? The results of a qualitative study of nurse managers found five distinct ways to make the nurse manager role more meaningful:
Provide mentorship opportunities. It’s important for nurse managers to be able to provide mentorship to others and to be mentored themselves.
Instill patient focus. Because there’s less patient interaction, it’s easy to lose sight of the help being provided to patients, but focusing on the patient experience and impact can help.
Encourage professional development. Nurse managers can create and cultivate a meaningful environment for the professionals who report to them, which in turn provides a meaningful experience for the nurse managers.
Promote optimism. Everything becomes more joyful with a positive and optimistic outlook; it’s easier to spot the meaning.
Empower nurse managers. Knowing you have the support of leadership within your health organization can help provide you the impetus you need to identify and solve problems.
Learn More From Our Speakers
Visit tiptonhealth.com/webinars to view our on-demand webinars and presentation materials.
Register today for Tipton Health’s next webinar, How to Win C-suite Approval for Your Budget & the Pandemic’s Impact on Nursing Budgets, which will be held on March 16, 2021, from 12:30–1:15 p.m. EST.
Tipton Health Communications Welcomes Lea Nathan as Nursing Excellence Document Manager
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A writer and editor with more than 20 years of experience, Lea has vast experience developing training guides, tutorials, continuing education materials, exam test questions and other complex, technical content for healthcare, educational and non-profit organizations across the country.
In her role with Tipton, Lea will be responsible for evaluating, editing and rewriting hospital clients’ American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet®, Pathway to Excellence ® Program, and Practice Transition Accreditation Program® (PTAP) application documents.
“Lea brings a wealth of technical editorial experience to our team of accomplished writers,” said Dan Tipton, president and CEO. “Her insight and expertise will help us continue to provide meaningful support to our more than 200 healthcare clients as they navigate their designation journeys.”
Prior to joining Tipton Health Communications, Lea served as president of TLN Writing Company in Colorado Springs, Colorado — a role she has held since 2008.
“I look forward to utilizing my technical writing and editing skills to serve Tipton’s healthcare clients and being part of a team that helps organizations successfully achieve designation,” Lea said.
Lea earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Salem College. She is a member of the American Medical Writers Association.
Meet the Panelists Presenting the What Brings Joy to Your Nurse Managers Webinar
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Executive Director, Center for Nursing Excellence, UCLA Health
Dr. Galuska is a nurse leader with more than 30 years of experience in clinical, educational and administrative roles. She is currently Executive Director of Nursing Practice, Education and Research in the UCLA Health Center for Nursing Excellence. In this role, she oversees the professional development of more than 4,500 nurses, academic affiliations, the nursing research and EBP programs, Magnet® recognition program, CNS practice, and multiple clinical programs. She is also an adjunct faculty member of the UCLA School of Nursing.
Dr. Galuska spent most of her career in Connecticut before relocating to Los Angeles in 2013. She received her PhD in nursing, with a focus on nursing leadership development, from the University of Connecticut, and her master’s in nursing administration from the University of Hartford. She has published widely and presented on the subject of nursing leadership development and nurses’ experiences with meaning and joy. Currently on the board of the Association of California Nurse Leaders, Dr. Galuska has held leadership positions in numerous professional organizations.
Judi Hahn, PhD, RN, NEA-BC
Director of Nursing Professional Practice, Yale New Haven Hospital
For the past eight years, Dr. Hahn has been overseeing the professional and educational development of the Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) nurses as the Director of Professional Practice and Nursing Education. In addition, her work spans across the health system. She has created new opportunities for the hospital to thrive by connecting nursing students with YNHH initiatives. Dr. Hahn’s longtime experience and passion for nursing professional practice provided her the leadership opportunity to redesign the clinical nurse advancement program for nurses across the health system. She holds a passion for nursing professional governance and the framework it provides for nurse engagement and autonomy and supports clinical nurses in decision making through council work.
In addition to her work at YNHH, Dr. Hahn also currently lectures at the Yale University School of Nursing on leadership theories and applications in healthcare systems and other organizations, and on evidence-based practice.
As a nursing consultant at Tipton, Dr. Hahn works on new initiatives to drive continued success in nursing and healthcare. She consults with departments of nursing on strategic initiatives such as developing a shared leadership structure, establishing a Center for Nursing Excellence and leading a strategic planning retreat.
Dr. Hahn earned her bachelor’s and master’s of science in nursing; and her doctorate of philosophy nursing. She holds certification with the American Nurse Credentialing Center as a Certified Nurse Executive-Advanced and a professional in healthcare quality. She received a certificate from Yale School of Management in strategic agility and has published in the areas of nursing professional governance and the joy and meaning in work for nursing. Dr. Hahn is currently an ANCC Magnet® Appraiser.
Meet the Panelists Presenting the Why You Should Stay in Nursing Webinar
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Cathy began her career with OU Medicine in 1997, while in nursing school. Upon graduation, she worked as an RN in Labor and Delivery at the University Hospital. She spent 11 years in Women’s Services, where she worked as a nurse leader, then took on the role of director in 2006 before moving into a nurse executive position. In 2008, Cathy became Vice President of Nursing at The Children’s Hospital. She was named Chief Nurse Executive for OU Medicine in 2017.
Passionate about nursing practice, Cathy is committed to improving patient outcomes and the experiences of the patients and families she serves. She believes strongly in the power of shared governance and the positive impact it has had on OU Medicine. For Cathy, serving the nursing team at OU Medicine is an honor and a privilege.
Cathy has a master of science with a major in nursing education from Southern Nazarene University; a bachelor of science with a major in nursing from the University of Central Oklahoma; and an associate degree in nursing from Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma City campus.
Debbie Ford, MSN, RNChief Nurse Executive and Vice President of Quality, Ochsner Medical Center
Debbie is an accomplished and innovative executive with more than 10 years of senior executive leadership experience and more than 20 years of clinical and administrative leadership experience in hospital and non-hospital settings. She is responsible for oversight of nursing and patient care excellence and quality patient standards across the hospital and clinical settings. Debbie was named Ochsner Nurse Executive of the Year in 2017 and Ochsner Executive Division Leader of the Year in 2018.
Previously, Debbie was vice president of patient care/CNO for a 700-bed hospital in the Baton Rouge area for eight years, and before that, CNO at a 250-bed hospital in the Lafayette, Louisiana area with progressive roles at the same facility.
Debbie currently serves on the Louisiana Action Coalition leadership committee, and she is a member of the Louisiana Organization of Nurse Executives and the American Nurses Association. She is also an instructor for the Louisiana Nursing Leadership Institute. Debbie holds a Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellowship from Wharton, an Academy GE Fellows Nurse Executive and an American Advocacy Institute Fellowship. She is an American Nursing Credentialing Center Magnet™ Chief Nursing Officer, currently at ANCC Magnet™ Fourth Designation 2019. Her story, “She Raised Her Hand,” was featured on DearWorld.org in June 2020.
She earned her master’s in nursing at Northwestern State University in Shreveport, Louisiana, a bachelor of science in nursing at University of Southwestern Louisiana and an associate degree in nursing at Louisiana State University at Alexandria.
Francine BarrInterim Chief Nursing Officer, Inova Alexandria Hospital
Francine is an experienced health system executive who has led acute care operations, strategy, clinical operations, clinical outcomes achievement, Magnet®-level professional practice and case management across the continuum of care. With a strong background in operations, nursing, quality, safety, case management and servant leadership, Francine has the expertise to build structures, processes and interprofessional teams resulting in highly reliable performance. She previously served in numerous executive roles at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, including vice president of care management, CNO, COO and CEO.
Francine has earned multiple awards and recognitions, including the Bon Secours Health System Incorporated “Top Performer” for Physician Engagement at the 98th Percentile, the Executive Women in Business Achievement Award 2017 (Richmond Style Weekly and Business Sponsors) and a Fellowship in Health Management from Academy GE. The Bon Secours Richmond Healthcare Foundation established the “Francine Barr Endowed Scholarship” to support St. Mary’s Hospital staff nurses in the pursuit of advanced nursing degrees.
Francine has been published in American Nurse Review and Health Progress and has given presentations on topics ranging from electronic document submission to integrating the theory of human caring into nursing practice. A member of numerous professional associations, Francine draws on a broad range of skills to support a patient-centered environment in which collegiality, negotiation and interdisciplinary communication are considered core behaviors and expectations.
Francine received her doctorate of nursing practice from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing; a master’s in nursing from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University; a bachelor of science in nursing from West Virginia University; and an associate degree in nursing from West Virginia Northern Community College.
January 2021 Magnet Newsletter
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Welcome!
Thank you for reading the January 2021 edition of the Magnet® Newsletter from Tipton Health Communications. This edition features tips for successful project management, how to keep your resiliency tank full, and other tips and insight from the experts at Tipton Health Communications.
Article Navigation
Keys to a Successful Transition to Practice Program
Words Matter—Decoding Magnet Questions
The SPARK of Caring
Top Off Your Resiliency Tank with These Simple Tips
Check an Item Off Your To-Do List
Is Your Narrative Aligned With Your Graph?
Pathway to Success—Caring for Your Nurses on Every Level
Keys to a Successful Transition to Practice Program
Transitioning into a real work environment is challenging for all new graduates, including nurses. New nurses often feel underprepared and overwhelmed, which can lead to plummeting new graduate retention rates. Implementing an effective transition to practice program ensures that over their first year on the job, new nurses will feel supported and prepared to take on any challenge that’s thrown at them.
Mary Rose Papciak, Tipton Executive Nursing Consultant, shares her key insights into running an effective transition to practice program.
Mary Rose is not only responsible for the nurse residency program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, but also serves as a Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP) appraiser team leader for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
What are the basic components of a typical transition to practice program?
Programs vary in length across organizations, but six months to one year is the recommended length of a program. A full year is the gold standard to really support nurses during their transition into the role of registered professional nurse. When setting up your curriculum, search the literature and create evidence-based program goals and objectives that align with your organization’s mission, vision and values.
You should also develop a variety of teaching strategies to include in your program curriculum to meet the needs of every nurse. And be sure to assess how these strategies are working over the course of the program. Take the time to train your preceptors to specifically support new graduates, as this can be very different from working with an experienced nurse.
After the 12-month program, are those new nurses fully prepared to work on the unit?
While we should do our best to ensure nurses feel fully prepared after their transition to practice program, an ideal program promotes lifelong learning for staff. Encourage continual learning by offering professional development opportunities for staff, hosting unit-based activities, promoting involvement in organizational committees and educating staff on professional governance.
It’s also important to maintain a consistent, healthy work environment for all of your nurses, but especially new graduates. Through role modeling by preceptors and the support of their cohort and peers, your new nurses will transform into successful professional nurses.
Is it just the program coordinator that’s responsible for the new graduate’s education?
Definitely not. There’s a host of people who should be involved in the transition to practice program. You should be engaging all stakeholders of the program, including the nurse leadership team, the executive team, organizational leaders, preceptors and the nursing professional development team. Throughout the course of the program, be sure to share outcome measures with these parties to show them the return on investment they’re getting from the program.
It’s also important to implement an evaluation process where you use feedback from nurse residents and your leadership team.
Any other considerations for a successful program?
Be sure to celebrate the hard work of your new graduates! They work hard during their first 12 months, while also orienting and learning. They’ve spent all year developing their professional selves, so take the time to celebrate their journey from being hired to practicing as professional nurses!
For more information on creating a successful transition to practice program, reach out to our Tipton consultants at info@tiptonhealth.com. Tipton Health also provides PTAP and CCNE document review support.
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Words Matter—Decoding Magnet Questions
By: Moira Owens, Senior Magnet Writing Manager
Ask anyone who’s taken Tipton’s writers workshop with Michelle Beuscher, and you’ll hear about the importance she places on the words in the Magnet questions. The reason is simple: Each word in a Magnet question provides a clue to, or a way to decipher, what you’re being asked to describe and demonstrate in your stories.
Take the words “organization” and “organizational,” for example. When you see one of those words in a Magnet question, chances are you need to align the nurses’ efforts in your story with your hospital’s strategic plan (not Nursing’s plan). Note that you need to attach that plan as a supporting document (and you should use the plan that was in effect when the nurses were working on their initiative).
Make sure you understand the Magnet definition for each nurse title. Some stories specify a particular level of nurse (clinical nurse, nurse manager, advanced practice nurse, assistant vice president/director or chief nursing officer) as your main character. If the question does not specify a level, you’re free to use any nurse your hospital employs.
Recognize that your hospital may not use the same job titles as the American Nurses Credentialing Center. So when you’re asked to write a story with an assistant vice president or director as the main character, read the definition of that level in the Magnet manual. Your hospital’s “director-level” nurse might not align with the ANCC’s definition—and that’s grounds for your story getting “dinged” for additional documentation.
SE9 can be a bear to write, right? Don’t forget you need to provide supporting evidence for all six components—but you have a max of five supporting documents! We often find that merging “Organizational Enculturation” and “Development and Design” can work. Possible documents to use are a scavenger hunt or an orientation checklist combined with a detailed calendar or agenda to illustrate how the program is organized.
Our team is always available to answer any questions you have and provide the support you need. Contact us at any time at info@tiptonhealth.com.
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The SPARK of Caring
As COVID-19 cases begin to rise across the country again, we all need to focus on not only caring for ourselves but caring for each other in our everyday acts. In Tipton’s November 17 webinar, cohosted by the Philippine Nurses Association of America Inc. (PNAA), Dr. Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, LL-AAN, returned to remind us how important it is to have a caring mindset.
Mary Joy Garcia-Dia, DNP, RN, FAAN, president of the PNAA, shared the leadership theme she chose to begin her presidential term with: SPARK. SPARK stands for Stories of People, Achievements, Resilience and Kindness. While her original goal was to use storytelling to celebrate 2020 as the Year of the Nurse, Dr. Garcia-Dia realized that her theme is even more fitting when applied to the resilience nurses have shown in the fight against COVID-19.
Dr. Watson, founder of the Watson Caring Science Institute, tied in the SPARK theme, noting that this painful time reveals how we are all connected. The pandemic also has put a spotlight on what nurses have been doing behind the scenes for years through their practice of care.
To learn how you can apply Dr. Watson’s 10 principles of caring to your nursing practice, as well as your everyday life, click here.
To register for our upcoming webinars click here.
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Top Off Your Resiliency Tank with These Simple Tips
Many of us are feeling extreme burnout after nearly a year of dealing with COVID-19. But few of us feel it as intensely as healthcare workers. In Tipton Health’s December 15 webinar, Dr. Jeff Doucette, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia, offered tips on keeping your “resiliency tank” full when work is constantly draining it.
You probably spend more waking hours at work than you do anywhere else, so it’s important to feel good about the work you’re doing and the environment you do it in. Here are a few strategies for strengthening your resiliency and keeping a positive attitude.
Finding Positivity
The way you choose to react in a situation can dramatically affect how you maintain and boost your resiliency—especially under the pressure and stress you feel at the moment. Try to find the positive in every situation and see the glass half-full. You’ll not only inspire others around you to be more resilient, you’ll boost your own resiliency as well.
Work-Life Effectiveness
In the quest to achieve work-life balance, everyone seems to be looking for a one-size-fits-all fix. Don’t fall into that trap! Instead, think about what works best for you personally when juggling work and the rest of your life. Some of us do better working at 100% capacity from 9 to 5 and completely shutting work out after hours. Others do better taking breaks throughout the day and checking emails after the workday has ended. It’s different for everyone—and it’s never perfect. When you adjust your expectations, you’ll gain the freedom to define your own balance.
Practicing Mindfulness
Live in the moment. By being more present at work, you can turn even the smallest events into powerful moments. The keys to being present are doing everything with intention—and without judgment. And remember, you need to apply that nonjudgmental attitude to yourself, too. Remind yourself that the skills you bring to your role are exactly what’s needed in the moment and practice self-compassion.
Maintain awareness. Keep tabs on your feelings by doing a head-to-toe scan, especially in stressful situations. Staying ahead of your emotions will help you slow yourself down enough to choose how you react.
Practice gratitude. Find opportunities during the day to connect with others and remind yourself what you have to be grateful for. Studies show that practicing gratitude during stressful moments can alter your brain’s chemical reaction to stress by lowering your cortisol levels and increasing your DHEA levels.
To register for our upcoming webinars click here.
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Check an Item Off Your Magnet To-Do List
For those of us who are balancing a long to-do list at work, many projects can seem overwhelming when we sit down to begin. A multiyear project like Pathway to Excellence® designation or Magnet Recognition® might appear impossible, but by prioritizing tasks and applying key project management skills, you can achieve designation success.
Michelle Beuscher, Tipton’s Director of Hospital Excellence, heads our MPD Bootcamp, educating Magnet Program Directors across the nation on what to expect during the documentation phase of their Magnet journey. Michelle shares her top project management tips below for how to tackle something as daunting as a designation like Magnet or Pathway.
Start early and develop a plan. It can take longer than you think to identify all of the goals you have for your project and the strategies to work through each of them. Give yourself ample time before your project officially “launches” to outline your steps to success.
Don’t go it alone. Build a team that can support you and add their own expertise to your venture. Nursing council members, leadership committee members and executive representatives can strengthen your project by offering feedback and lending a helping hand.
Establish clear accountability. Now that you have your plan and your team, it’s time to set up your chain of command. Let everyone on your team know who is responsible for which steps across the project and who can be turned to as a resource when needed. You also will want to work with your CNO to establish a method to ensure that all of your team members will be held accountable for their piece of the puzzle.
Stay on top of the details. In a project like Magnet designation, which runs across multiple years, it’s easy to miss all of the little pieces that need to be in place to accomplish your larger goals. Use the tools you have available to monitor the status of each of these small details to ensure success.
Communicate with leadership. Develop effective communication strategies to keep your leadership teams, especially your CNO, informed on the progress you’ve made and the challenges you’re facing. Keeping leadership in the loop can be as simple as including them in a monthly committee meeting, sending them quarterly progress updates or involving them in the process directly.
Even when you’re facing a project that spans multiple years and passes through many hands, there’s no need to get overwhelmed. By applying strong project management strategies and breaking the tasks down bit by bit, you’re sure to succeed.
Email Tipton at info@tiptonhealth.com to learn more about how you can sign up for our MPD Bootcamp or receive support for your designation journey.
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Is Your Narrative Aligned with your Graph?
By: Elizabeth Abrahams, Director of Magnet Review
Sorting through data can be a tricky process. By the time you finish checking and reporting all the outcome data for our EOs, you can easily forget to correlate this data back to the narrative you’re writing. Elizabeth Abrahams, Tipton’s Director of Magnet Review, shares her top tips for ensuring your narrative matches up to your data.
An essential component in writing EOs is the alignment of your narrative (the EO’s story) with the outcome data reported in your graph. The Magnet® appraiser will read through the interventions section of your narrative to identify the population, then look in the Outcomes section and graph to see if that same population’s/unit’s data is reported in the graph.
For example, if you are writing a story for EP16EO—Evaluating Patient Safety Data, carefully read the criteria for this EO before you begin writing. This EO requires data at the unit level to be reported in the Outcomes section. If the hospital-wide nursing falls team is working to reduce the falls with injury rate in the hospital, you will have hospital-wide falls rate data. But, in this EO, we need to tell the story of one particular unit’s efforts to evaluate the patient safety data and then report an improvement in their falls rate in the Outcomes section and graph. Additionally, the appraiser will be looking for alignment of the dates of your interventions in the narrative with the intervention dates in your graph. Before you determine your narrative to be “finished,” make sure you complete one last check to make sure that your narrative aligns with your graph.
Need help with writing your EOs? Contact Tipton at info@tiptonhealth.com.
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Pathway to Success—Caring for Your Nurses on Every Level
In a year of PPE shortages, emergency innovation and record patient numbers, what are your nurses saying about their leadership support and the work environment your organization has created?
Although we can’t control the external factors that ratchet up the demands on our workforce, nurses at Pathway-designated organizations are instrumental in controlling the practice environment— and that can significantly boost staff satisfaction and engagement. Empowering nurses and creating a positive practice environment are more important than ever and key to retaining our talented, dedicated nurses.
What makes Pathway special?
A Pathway to Excellence designation is built upon a positive practice environment where nurses can excel and thrive. Obviously, even in “normal times,” this would be the setting where most nurses would want to work. But in the midst of COVID-19 surges, when healthcare workers are under immense pressure, they need to know without a doubt that the in a hospital they work in values and supports them.
The most recent Pathway manual highlights new EOPs focusing on compassion fatigue and physical fatigue. Especially right now, when burnout among nurses is high and it feels as if there’s no end in sight, to know that the organization where they work is dedicated to their well-being can make all the difference in the world. Pathway organizations foster work-life balance, supportive leadership, interprofessional collaboration and nurse development.
Pathway designation demonstrates your ability to create a positive practice environment for your nurses and is a major selling point for new recruits.
My hospital already has Magnet designation. Should we pursue Pathway?
The answer is simple: Yes! Hospitals can benefit from both Magnet and Pathway designations. Organization have used both the Magnet and Pathway frameworks to create their blueprint for successful key measures in nurse engagement, nurse retention, interprofessional collaboration, safety, quality and outcomes.
Unique to Pathway is the well-being standard and demonstration of the organization’s commitment to staff having a voice in organizational initiatives to promote work-life balance. Pathway emphasizes a supportive environment with a shared governance structure that values nurse contributions in everyday, every-shift decisions affecting their clinical practice and well-being. Such hallmark practices help retain current staff and attract future prospects.
By combining these two designations, a hospital can boast not only nursing excellence in caring for patients, but also excellence in its focus on staff.
If you feel that your organization may be interested in pursuing a Pathway designation, write to us at info@tiptonhealth.com.
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Top Off Your Resiliency Tank with These Simple Tips
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Many of us are feeling extreme burnout after nearly a year of dealing with COVID-19. But few of us feel it as intensely as healthcare workers. In Tipton Health’s December 15 webinar, Dr. Jeff Doucette, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia, offered tips on keeping your “resiliency tank” full when work is constantly draining it.
You probably spend more waking hours at work than you do anywhere else, so it’s important to feel good about the work you’re doing and the environment you do it in. Here are a few strategies for strengthening your resiliency and keeping a positive attitude.
Finding Positivity
The way you choose to react in a situation can dramatically affect how you maintain and boost your resiliency—especially under the pressure and stress you feel at the moment. Try to find the positive in every situation and see the glass half-full. You’ll not only inspire others around you to be more resilient, you’ll boost your own resiliency as well.
Work-Life Effectiveness
In the quest to achieve work-life balance, everyone seems to be looking for a one-size-fits-all fix. Don’t fall into that trap! Instead, think about what works best for you personally when juggling work and the rest of your life. Some of us do better working at 100% capacity from 9 to 5 and completely shutting work out after hours. Others do better taking breaks throughout the day and checking emails after the workday has ended. It’s different for everyone—and it’s never perfect. When you adjust your expectations, you’ll gain the freedom to define your own balance.
Practicing Mindfulness
Live in the moment. By being more present at work, you can turn even the smallest events into powerful moments. The keys to being present are doing everything with intention—and without judgment. And remember, you need to apply that nonjudgmental attitude to yourself, too. Remind yourself that the skills you bring to your role are exactly what’s needed in the moment and practice self-compassion.
Maintain awareness. Keep tabs on your feelings by doing a head-to-toe scan, especially in stressful situations. Staying ahead of your emotions will help you slow yourself down enough to choose how you react.
Practice gratitude. Find opportunities during the day to connect with others and remind yourself what you have to be grateful for. Studies show that practicing gratitude during stressful moments can alter your brain’s chemical reaction to stress by lowering your cortisol levels and increasing your DHEA levels.
Learn More from Our Speakers
We will hold our next webinar, Self-Leadership in a Pandemic (and Every Other Day), on January 12, 2020, 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT.
Meet Tipton Health's Newest Executive Nurse Consultant, Mary Rose Papciak
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Tipton’s Executive Nursing Consultants are a group of experts who have decades of experience leading renowned hospitals and health systems across the country. Learn more about our most recent addition, Mary Rose Papciak, MPA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC.
Mary Rose Papciak, MPA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC
Mary Rose has served NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) for 16 years, starting her career as a staff nurse. Currently, Mary Rose serves as the program director for Professional Nursing Practice Innovation at NYP. In this nurse executive role, Mary Rose is responsible for the hospital’s Vizient/AACN Nurse Residency Program™, providing support to new graduate hires for their first year and creating mentorship connections for new nurses. Mary Rose collaborates with system chief nursing officers to implement the residency program across the NYP network.
Mary Rose also serves as a Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP) appraiser team leader for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
Prior to her work as the Program Director for Professional Nursing Practice Innovation, Mary Rose served as the patient care director of the Medical Step-down Unit and Acute Care for Elders Unit at NYP. Along with managing patient care in her units, she also planned and operationalized the opening of a new 23-bed medical step-down, high-acuity unit.
Mary Rose earned her executive master’s degree in public administration at New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Widener University.
She participates in the New York City Nurse Residency Program (NRP) Consortium as a mentor to new NRP program coordinators. Mary Rose also holds an ANCC Advanced Nurse Executive Certification.
Meet the Experts Kicking Off Tipton's Communications Webinar Series
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To those of us not ingrained in the healthcare world, medical terms and hospital systems can seem like a foreign language. One of the best ways to make healthcare relatable is by storytelling, in articles, newscasts and now, in podcasts. Last year, Fox Chase Cancer Center put out a seven-part award-winning series called, Connected by Cancer, which explores the daily life and operations of one of the country’s founding comprehensive cancer centers.
The masterminds behind the series, Andrew Becker and Jeremy Moore, will be leading an incoming Tipton Health Communications webinar on how to tell your organization’s story, through podcasting.
Andrew Becker, MA
Andrew is the director of donor relations at Fox Chase Cancer Center, leading the institution’s efforts to recognize and engage with its donors. He previously served as director of external communications, leading two award-winning print publications and serving as executive producer and host of Connected by Cancer. Earlier in his career, he served in a national communications role at the American Cancer Society and spent several years at Golin. He supported the national rollout of the Truth Initiative tobacco prevention campaign, and managed teen tobacco prevention education efforts for several state departments of health. Other notable accomplishments include leading the media campaign to mark Smokey Bear’s 65th birthday and leading global media relations to celebrate Benjamin Franklin’s 300th birthday. He has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida State University, and a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University.
Jeremy Moore, MA
As the senior director for communications at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Jeremy serves as counselor to the President & CEO on media relations and government relations and directs a department that produces award-winning publications and strategic internal and external communications. He is responsible for protecting the institution’s brand in times of crisis and promoting its virtues on the widest possible channels. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Springfield, Jeremy has served in similar roles at the American Association for Cancer Research after a long career in journalism at the Associated Press, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Slack Inc. family of medical trade publications.
About the Series
Connected by Cancer is a seven-part narrative series modeled after industry-best journalism series. Each 30-minute episode explores a different facet of the daily life and operations of one of the country’s founding comprehensive cancer centers. The format is to embed the listener into scenes, and then spend the latter part of the episode in conversation with some of the participants or other related experts. The episodes cover the experience of being a patient, and the work of nurses, doctors, cancer researchers, prevention specialists, and volunteers. Episode 7 is a bonus episode, featuring a conversation with a retired lab technician whose late husband made one of the landmark discoveries in the history of cancer research: the Philadelphia Chromosome.
Register for their podcast here.
The SPARK of Caring
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As COVID-19 cases begin to rise across the country again, we all need to focus on not only caring for ourselves but caring for each other in our everyday acts. In Tipton’s November 17 webinar, cohosted by the Philippine Nurses Association of America Inc. (PNAA), Dr. Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, LL-AAN, returned to help us all remember how important it is to have a caring mindset.
Mary Joy Garcia-Dia, DNP, RN, FAAN, president of the PNAA, shared the leadership theme she chose to begin her presidential term with: SPARK. SPARK stands for Stories of People, Achievements, Resilience and Kindness. While her original goal was to use storytelling to celebrate 2020 as the Year of the Nurse, Dr. Garcia-Dia realized that her theme is even more fitting when applied to how nurses have remained resilient in the fight against COVID-19.
Dr. Watson, founder of the Watson Caring Science Institute, tied in SPARK by pointing out that this transitional time in our world reminds us we are all connected. The pandemic has put a spotlight on what nurses have been doing behind the scenes for years through their practice of care.
To learn how you can apply Dr. Watson’s 10 principles of caring to your nursing practice, as well as your everyday life, click here.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view the on-demand recording of this webinar.
Tipton’s next webinar, The Myth of Work-Life Balance, will be held December 15, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT. Register today!
Every Nurse is a Palliative Care Nurse
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The destructive effects of COVID-19 have made palliative care more important than ever in the hospital setting. Around the globe, nurses and physicians are struggling to provide effective and holistic care to a growing number of patients whose lives have been threatened by the virus.
Billy Rosa, PhD, MBE, ACHPN, FAANP, FAAN, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psycho-Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Betty Ferrell, PhD, RN, FPCN, FAAN, is the Director and Professor of the Division of Nursing Research and Education at the City of Hope as well as the Principal Investigator of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC). The two medical experts discussed their strategies for improving palliative care in any setting during Tipton Health’s October 20 webinar, “Every Nurse is a Palliative Nurse: Alleviating Serious Health-Related Suffering Worldwide.”
According to Dr. Rosa, the key to true palliative care is understanding the definition and applying it to your practice. The International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care describes palliative care as “the active holistic care of individuals across all ages with serious health-related suffering due to severe illness, and especially of those near the end of life. It aims to improve the quality of life for patients, their families and their caregivers.”
When you understand this definition, you can begin to incorporate some of the following strategies into your hospital’s plan of care:
Where to start?
Integrate palliative care into all aspects of nursing care. Start by understanding your patients’ palliative care needs, then reflect on how to address them through your individual nursing practice and interdisciplinary collaborations—both within your unit and across the organization.
Take advantage of available resources. ELNEC offers a range of free resources including newsletters, publications, videos, educational slide decks and more. This information will deepen your understanding of effective palliative care and the latest best practices. You can also access an in-depth COVID-19 resource center to help your nurses navigate through these challenging times.
What can I do as a nurse leader?
Make your voice heard. Pay attention to institutional planning, collaboration with the community, policies being introduced and how palliative care fits into each of these areas. Use your voice to advocate for incorporating palliative care in your organization’s day-to-day practices.
Collaboration is key. Push for your ethics council, social workers, physicians, spiritual care and other internal stakeholders to work together. This will lead to better understanding of how their roles fit into effective palliative care. Bringing these experts together, along with your nurses, will help you deliver the care your patients deserve.
How do we promote health equity through palliative care?
Examine your approach. Take a careful look at where you may be falling short when it comes to caring for minorities. Death and after-life care are very important across different cultures, and it’s important to respect the spiritual, cultural and religious practices of patients and their families. Be sensitive to and accommodating of cultures that are different from your own. To get in touch with your own unconscious biases that may factor into your approach, you can take Harvard University’s implicit bias assessment.
Disparities come from all directions. When examining health equity, it’s not enough to consider structural discrimination and inequitable policy. You must also understand how powerful the effects are—economically, socially, politically and historically. Acknowledge these different factors when you’re working on equitable care. As an example, Dr. Rosa pointed out that you should always use inclusive language when dealing with members of the LGBTQ+ community. Don’t make assumptions—ask the patient what pronouns they prefer and what name they would like to be called.
Adopt an attitude of naïve curiosity. Recognize that there are huge variations in cultural influence, and that we’re all from different backgrounds. Again, don’t make assumptions—even if someone may “look the same” or “speak the same” as you. Keep an open mind and be politely curious about who your patients and colleagues are. This will help you to be more attentive to their needs, so you can provide the care they deserve.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Click here to view our on-demand webinar video featuring Dr. Rosa and Dr. Ferrell’s full interview.
Tipton’s next webinar, Stories from the Front Lines of the Pandemic, will be held November 10, 2020, 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT.
November 2020 Magnet Newsletter
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Thank you for reading the November 2020 edition of the Magnet® Newsletter from Tipton Health Communications. This edition features firsthand accounts from nurses across the country who have been fighting against COVID-19, how to incorporate your nurse’s stories into your Magnet documents, and other tips and insight from the experts at Tipton Health Communications.
Article Navigation
COVID-19 Warriors – The Forefront of True Grit and Resilience
What is Your Warm Blanket?
Maintaining Magnet in the Midst of COVID-19
Finding the Silver Lining
You Give Me Hope
From the Front Lines To the Page – Incorporating COVID-19 Stories Into Your Magnet Application
Thank you for joining us for this very special edition of the Tipton Health Magnet Newsletter. We turn this issue over to you — the courageous and wonderful nurses who have literally put their lives on the line to care for others during the COVID-19 pandemic. Remembering these stories of bravery, innovation, leadership and every day commitment is important. We have created a special website at www.nurseherostories.com to record and share your stories. We encourage you to post your personal remembrances. What was your worst day and what got you through it? What examples of empowered nurses did you see? How were you and your leadership team transformational? Following are just a few of your remarkable stories. Be sure to register to hear nurses tell their stories during our special Nurse Hero Stories webinar on November 10th at 12:30 EST.
COVID-19 Warriors: The Forefront of True Grit and Resilience
Marifel (Max) Axalan, BSN, RN, CNN, Nurse Clinician – NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
As I sat down and contemplated my unit’s experience during the pandemic, I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotions. My throat was tight, my eyes were blurry, and the tears just kept falling. “I survived COVID-19! My teammates survived COVID-19!” I could hear my brain screaming over and over, “This is victory!” Or is it?
It was March 16 when N2/N8 Hemodialysis and Apheresis nurses were finally called into action: Dialyze COVID-19-positive patients. Our patients need us. We were physically at our patients’ bedside for over four hours straight from beginning to end of dialysis treatments. We endured the profuse sweating under our PPE (like having continuous “hot flashes”). We didn’t dare leave our patients’ side for bathroom breaks so we held the urge until the treatments were done. In those fearful moments, we knew we were extremely exposed and vulnerable to this unknown enemy. But we were all determined to fight it with all our might. We had to win this battle for our patients, for our families, and for each other. Our team became more cohesive than ever. We shared each other’s strategies on how best to protect ourselves. We wore impermeable blue isolation gowns, we used face shields, N95 masks, surgical masks, shoe covers, bonnets, anything available—we had them on. Endless hand-washing and disinfecting. Without a doubt, our infection control practices were above and beyond! Our staff bathroom was even outfitted with a shower we could use at the end of our shifts. It felt like we washed away some of the fears at bringing the enemy home to our loved ones. But in that tiny corner of our hearts, the dread and uncertainty lingered.
We were so thankful to have had the immense support of our empowered department and NewYork-Presbyterian leaders; the dedication demonstrated by our equally committed partners (Medical Director, Nephrology Team, and Hemodialysis Technicians); and lastly our hardworking NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell colleagues, associates, and support staff. Indeed, our mission was made possible by the unsurpassed generosity of our institution to provide us the supplies and equipment we desperately needed while other institutions were found lacking. Not to mention the bountiful nourishment, free accommodations and transportation, laundered scrubs, financial and mental health support, and so much more. Indeed, all these provisions and resources kept us going. Somehow, the heavy burden became bearable. We were beyond grateful.
The trials and tribulations came in droves. Our patients were acutely sick and we never knew when the next time we would see them would be. Our goodbyes seemed more frequent. But there was one goodbye we never imagined saying…to one of our own. Our hearts were broken. Our resilience wavered, and our spirit—almost defeated. She was a fearless warrior. An extraordinary nurse who possessed unrivaled grit and valor. We missed her dearly and found comfort amongst each other. Emotional support poured in even from strangers.
In the midst of all this unimaginable devastation and anguish, our faith was our lifeline. It held us steadfast. Prayers were our constant companion and ally, our infinite source of strength. We filled our minds with positive thoughts to rebuild our spiritual defenses. Our heart-to-heart virtual or phone conversations with families and friends and near others strengthened our grip on our daily emotional struggles. Our nutritious dietary intake and the fanatical regimen of doses of vitamin C, prebiotics, probiotics, and other immune-boosting supplements kept our physical defenses almost impenetrable.
Looking back, the whole experience seemed surreal. And so here we are—heart in pieces, bruised faces, battered spirits, but still standing strong and hopeful. Our Hemodialysis/Apheresis Unit even won 2020 Weill Cornell’s much coveted Structural Empowerment Award. Truly, we are all in this together. Without a doubt, this is victory.
Sign up to hear more nurses tell their stories in our upcoming webinar.
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What is Your Warm Blanket?
Kari-Lynn Malec, RN, Interventional Radiology at Henry Ford Hospital
What is your warm blanket? A nurse collecting unemployment during a COVID crisis, a global healthcare pandemic? Who thought this could happen? An RN was redeployed from a navigator position to ED to home care and eventually to taking a personal leave and then a furlough. Wow! How did this happen? How come I couldn’t go? Every day upon arrival at work I asked to be redeployed. I was not sent. Thirty-one years of experience, a graduate degree, a national certification and a plethora of experience. Wanting to support the true hero—the nurse at the COVID patient’s bedside. The hero nurse—I sure didn’t feel like a hero. The media told me I was one. My neighbors dropped off gifts, leaving them on the front porch. They were supporting the hero. I was not. I was sitting home guilt-ridden because I was not at the bedside.
The development of a basic concept of nursing emerged. I could not find my warm blanket to hand out or a pillow to fluff. Reflecting on my position and wondering what the warm blanket I was providing was, as I was not supporting my colleagues, nor did I feel I was contributing like a hero. I was looking inward when I needed to be looking at finding a place back at the bedside where I could put a warm blanket on someone. I sunk to a dark place with no self-worth and felt for the first time in my career no one wanted me. I didn’t feel like a hero. I didn’t feel like a real nurse.
My colleagues were struggling around the country as I sat and did my office job. I didn’t know where my warm blanket was. Often, my thoughts would drift to bedside patient care. How could I change jobs in the midst of a crisis when nurses were furloughed? Knowing the crisis could come back in the fall and winter and being in the same position again but wondering whether I would be paid this time. It all came down to the general concept of the warm blanket. Maybe I couldn’t support my colleagues, but maybe I could go somewhere where I could be with the patient. I needed to change my focus on how or when to apply the blanket. I needed to suppress the guilt or release it. I always wanted to teach a class on giving love—fluffing a pillow, putting a warm blanket on a patient and tucking them in—not innate in some people.
People learning with the overwhelming nature of academia have a difficult time applying concepts and “giving love.” It is significant to look in a patient’s eyes and share the love. Supporting, guiding—and the true nature of our calling to nursing. The education to support the practice, and the love to help guide the patient through their journey. As an ED nurse for many years, recognizing that an injured toe or a GSW is still a journey for that patient. And everyone can close their eyes and feel the nurse through the application of a warm blanket. My thoughts continuously flowed to the bedside. Holding a hand, fluffing a pillow. Helping guide a patient through their journey while I am at the bedside. This is my true calling. This is where I belong and where I can support my colleagues. I don’t need to be a hero. I just need to hold the warm blanket for when it is ready to be applied.
What is your warm blanket?
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Maintaining Magnet in the Midst of COVID-19
Madelyn Torakis, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Director, Nursing Excellence and Magnet Program – Henry Ford Hospital
September 23, 2013. My first day as an employee of Henry Ford Hospital (HFH). I was hired into this amazing organization to help lead the efforts to achieve Magnet® designation, the highest honor and recognition for nursing excellence in the world. I worked hand in hand with Gwen Gnam, Chief Nursing Officer and VP Patient Care Services, on this journey. We built programs from the ground up, revised existing programs and reinforced a culture of excellence, autonomy and pride amongst our nursing staff. Finally, in February 2019, we submitted all the supporting documents to the Magnet Recognition Program for review by a team of appraisers. We waited for a response, submitted additional clarification documents and waited some more. The next step in the process involved a site visit by the appraiser team, which we were finally granted in January 2020. It was an amazing three days! The appraisers were wowed with everyone they spoke with—nurses, physicians, support staff. All this took place before we even thought about or even really heard about the coronavirus. Although it was only a few short months ago, it feels like it was in another lifetime.
After the site visit, we waited again, this time to receive a call from the Magnet office informing us that the Commission on Magnet Recognition wanted to call us publicly to announce their decision. That call came to us on Thursday, March 12. We arranged for our official call to take place on Friday, March 20, at 9:15 a.m. We were understanding more about the coronavirus by this point and the guidelines indicated gatherings of no more than 250 people. We had dreamed of this day for 6½ years and we knew that the Buerki auditorium could easily accommodate that number of people. After all, we had planned a big celebration! By Monday, March 16, however, gatherings of 250 people or less was changed to 50 people or less, and by Wednesday, March 18, it was down to no more than 10! We decided that the coronavirus was not going to rob us of our joy, so we gathered 10 of us on the stage in the Buerki (maintaining social distancing), invited people to join us on the conference call and live-streamed it on the SONIFI TVs on the units. We received the great news we had hoped for and the 10 of us celebrated as if there were 100 of us in the room! We were finally being recognized as a Magnet hospital—something we had known we were all along!
Very quickly after our designation call, HFH went into full COVID-19 survival mode. It has been challenging to say the least, but I can honestly say that we have proven over and over again why we are a Magnet hospital. Leadership, teamwork, resiliency, advocacy, autonomy, compassion, innovation, dedication and tenacity. These are only some of the words to describe the culture of Henry Ford Hospital. We know that together we will make it through to the other side of this. And when we do, there will be much to celebrate (with a gathering of more than 250 people)!
A note from one of the Magnet appraisers:
“You all have been in my thoughts especially as I see all the stories of what HFH is facing during this pandemic and all that you are doing to care for the people of Detroit. It was an honor and a privilege to visit your organization and I am so happy for all of you. My very best wishes to you, Gwen, Ronnie and all the fabulous nurses at HFH.”
Click here to hear Madelyn tell her story firsthand.
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Finding the Silver Lining
Jeanie Hubert, OR RN – Hunterdon Medical Center
COVID-19 had a silver lining for me because it allowed me to use my skills as a medical-surgical nurse to care forothers when it was desperately needed. I have been an operating room nurse for the last four years; however, I have a background in medical-surgical nursing. In the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to put my “med-surg nurse hat” back on and put my skill set to good use.
During the months of March, April, and May, I was redeployed as an emergency room nurse at Hunterdon Medical Center. I was able to use my skills in medical-surgical nursing that I do not normally employ on a daily basis in the operating room. Jeanie the med-surg nurse was back in full force; in the blink of an eye, I was starting IVs, drawing bloodwork, administering various medications and treatments, and performing numerous bedside procedures in an emergency room that was overwhelmed with patients. The emergency room never slowed down during the 12-hour shifts that I worked. The other (incredible) nurses and I gave our all to these patients; we worked in sixth gear from the minute that we arrived to the minute that we were able to go home. We were absolutely exhausted at the end of each day.
In addition to serving in the ER, I worked at pop-up field hospitals just outside New York City. These hospitals were rapidly constructed by the U.S. military. Patient rooms were merely cots that were separated by curtains. Six large oxygen tanks fed each patient “wing,” with oxygen tubing running directly to each individual room. One medication cart supplied each wing. It was like the television show M*A*S*H came to real life in 2020. I truly felt like I was in a movie of some kind. I worked 12- to 14-hour shifts straight through—not taking any breaks to eat, drink, or use the bathroom because I did not want to remove my mask (or my hazmat suit). I averaged about 70 hours per week, caring for patients infected with COVID-19. Almost daily I watched patients die from respiratory failure, despite our best efforts to recover them. I watched the patients rapidly deteriorate right in front of me. I cared for patients of all ages; some as young as their early 20s were unable to maintain their oxygen saturation above 90% without supplemental oxygen. It was the most horrific experience in the seven years that I have been a nurse, without a doubt.
I am thankful for the experiences that I had as a professional; however, I am deeply saddened by the impact of COVID-19. Many patients did not survive, and my heart is heavy with grief for those we could not save. This experience was life-changing; I appreciate the simple things in life—like a “typical day at work” or a bright and sunny day—on a whole new level.
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You Give Me Hope
Lorraine Lewis, BSN, RN, originally from Cardiac Cath Lab – Long Island Jewish Medical Center
With the rapid closure of the Cardiac Cath Lab, Lorraine volunteered to be redeployed to the Emergency Department (ED). She chose the ED because of both her clinical background and familiarity with the Senior Admin Director, Helena Willis, MSN, RN, CEN. She and Helena had worked together in the past and maintained a relationship. Lorraine worked mostly in the “tent” and was immediately impressed by the level of support and comradery there.
The support from and for each other was amazing. She acknowledged that everyone was scared to death, the unknowns of this virus were overwhelming, but “we all hung in together.” When the ED volume started to drop, the tent closed and then Lorraine just volunteered to work in the MICU that was created in our Interventional Recovery Suite (IRS).
Lorraine was fortunate to be with a coworker, Marykate Alcusky, BSN, RN, CEN, in the ED. When their services were no longer needed there, together they went to the MICU annex located in the IRS. Again, Lorraine was amazed by the comradery and the support they received from the nurses in the area. Most notable to Lorraine was one of the agency nurses. She felt that the agency nurses would be “guests in our home” and quickly realized that indeed they became family as well. One particular nurse, Ashley, left a special mark on Lorraine.
Ashley is a travel nurse originally from Florida. She joined the MICU staff and was often working in the IRS. Lorraine was immediately taken by Ashley’s incredible bedside manner. Lorraine recalled visiting a patient that Ashley was caring for. Lorraine had a bond with the family and tried to visit whenever she could. On this day, very shortly after Lorraine arrived, this patient, “Juan,” began to desat and become significantly bradycardic, Ashley jumped out of her seat before Lorraine could say a word. Ashley’s comment, “No one dies alone here,” and the fact that she ran into the room to hold his hand will be forever etched in Lorraine’s memory.
Lorraine spoke of the need for humanism and human touch. She felt the pictures and anecdotes posted around the room about the patient and the family helped to develop relationships. It was difficult, particularly in Surge B, because the environment could easily be overwhelming. When asked about support from management, both from her home unit and the new units, Lorraine enthusiastically replied that she felt supported. Units worked as well as they could and she was comfortable knowing that she was part of the solution. The level of support for each other was amazing! There were no titles, no hierarchy. Everyone chipped in with everything they had. In terms of self-care, Lorraine noted how grateful she was to be working with Marykate in both areas. They would talk every day; on her days off she would have Marykate check on her patients and vice versa. There were times each cried, but luckily they were different times.
When asked about the silver lining, Lorraine spoke of how lucky she was “to meet all these amazing people that I ordinarily would not cross paths with. It was also important to capture any small miracles along the way. Words cannot describe the support I felt from everyone.” Lorraine is also passionate about the fact that, in her eyes, the true heroes are the patients and their families. “We are doing our job, they were fighting every step of the way.” Lorraine states that her strong faith was vital to getting through the past few months. She remembers working with a patient in Surge B who was extubated. She whispered in the patient’s ear, “Thank you. You give me hope.”
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From the Front Lines to the Page – Incorporating COVID-19 Stories Into Your Magnet Application
Moira Owens, Senior Editor, Writing Support at Tipton Health Communications
It’s hard to think of a topic that has been more all-consuming than the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since the stories in your Magnet application should represent the spectrum of experiences in your four-year Magnet window, it stands to reason that the coronavirus will figure into one or more of your examples. Learn more about how to do it below.
TL4: Provide one example, with supporting evidence, of the CNO’s leadership that led to a strategic organizational change.
In TL4, you’re asked to write a story about an initiative your chief nursing officer (CNO) led that had an organization-wide impact (meaning it extended beyond the Nursing department). We’ve seen several stories from our clients in which the CNO has led projects related to COVID-19 to ensure the safety of staff, patients and visitors, such as creating comprehensive employee screening, testing and surveillance protocols or centralizing and enhancing personal protective equipment. One CNO opened a “tranquility tent,” staffed by a wellness liaison, a counselor from the Employee Assistance Program, a greeter and a social worker. Hospital personnel can go to the tent when they need a calming space to recharge. There, they can speak with a chaplain or behavioral health specialist. They can find materials to help with meditation exercises. And they can leave supportive notes for one another at specified drop-off spots. Efforts like these can give a huge boost to staff morale.
To write your TL4, remember to use your hospital’s strategic plan (not the Nursing strategic plan) as the anchor to your story, which should illustrate how your CNO’s actions aligned with one of your strategic goals. The rest of your evidence should demonstrate your CNO in action—show by emails and meeting minutes how she or he advocated for the initiative.
There are lots of opportunities for your other nurses to shine in your application. EP13 (nurses applying available resources to address ethical issues related to clinical practice), EP14 (clinical nurse[s] resolving a security issue by making contributions to an interprofessional group) and NK3 (clinical nurses using evidence-based practices that are new to the organization or a revision of an existing practice) are all ways to highlight your nurses’ efforts.
For your Empirical Outcome documents, be sure to report an outcome measure (not a process measure!). Potential COVID-19 outcome measures are average length of stay (ALOS), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) rate or mortality rate.
Here at Tipton, we’ve been overwhelmed with stories that illustrate the heroism, humanity and humility that nurses across the country have demonstrated during these difficult times. Phone us at (302) 454-7901 and find out how we can help you tell your story.
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Read More Moving Narratives These brave nurses’ stories are just the beginning. Read more about how nurses across the country found hope and strength during the pandemic.
Hear Their Stories Firsthand On November 10th, six brave nurses will re-tell their moving experiences on a live webinar. Please join us to hear their stories.
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Partner with Expert Communicators — and Keep Costs Down
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Let Our Expert Communicators Fill the Gaps
Here’s an understatement: 2020 has been an extremely challenging year and it’s not over. After scrambling to manage the COVID-19 crisis, hospitals and health systems around the country are now dealing with the economic aftermath.
Struggling to steady bottom lines ravaged by the pandemic, hospital administrators are being forced to make difficult financial decisions, including budget cuts and staff reductions. For many organizations, communications and marketing departments and their budgets have been downsized and reduced.
The reality is hospital marketing and communications teams must do more with less.
Imagine this: You receive a call at 8 a.m. on a Friday from your CEO saying that you need to overhaul your internal communications plan and present your updated strategy to the hospital leadership team at a 9 a.m. meeting on Monday.
Or this: Layoffs claimed a key member of your digital marketing team, but one of your service lines is still demanding an email marketing campaign and they want it to go out next week.
With fewer staff members to support these different initiatives, you may be asking yourself, “How am I even going to get this done in time?”
The answer is obvious at least to all of us at Tipton Health. We can help you. With our Communications Services Solutions, we can help you meet any project requests caused by staffing challenges.
Our expert team of creators, strategists and designers are ready to step in as a full-service extension of your team. We’ve worked with small and large organizations alike – both as in-house and agency professionals. We have the skill and expertise to help you leverage your voice and address your communication challenges head-on. With more than 190 hospital and health system clients around the country, we understand the complexities and nuances of the healthcare industry.
Tipton Health’s Communications Services Solutions can help you with a wide array of communications projects, including:
Internal and External Communications
Executive Communications and Strategic Advisement
Media Relations
Crisis Management
Copyediting
Brand Development and Management
Email Marketing
Web Content Development
Graphic Design
Illustration
2020 has taught all of us the importance of being flexible and adaptable. In these times of change, we work closely with you to tailor our services to meet your specific and unique needs.
Don’t go in it alone – turn to Tipton as a trusted partner who will help you advance your goals and priorities in a budget-conscious way. If you would like to learn more about our Communications Services Solutions, call us at 302-454-7901, or send us an email at info@tiptonhealth.com.
Learn About Upcoming Panelist, Mary Joy Garcia-Dia
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In our upcoming webinar Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA) president, Mary Joy Garcia-Dia, will co-host with Jean Watson, PHD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, (LL -AAN), founder of the Watson Caring Science Institute speaking on self-care for caregivers.
Mary Joy Garcia-Dia, DNP, RN, FAAN
Mary Joy Garcia-Dia is the president of the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA), as well as the program director for Nursing Informatics in the Information Technology Department and the Center for Professional Nursing Practice at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. During her remarkable career, Mary Joy has remained passionate and active in the nursing community.
Mary Joy serves on the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee for the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a joint initiative of the AARP and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For the last eight years, she has been an advisor to the PNAA Human Rights Committee on matters involving unfair labor practice. In her capacity as PNAA President, Mary Joy sits as Board Member on the Alliance for International Ethical Recruitment Practices and provides recommendations on contracts and recruitment practices to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, Philippine Consulate in Washington DC. Mary Joy was also a panel member in the AARP Public Policy Institute Roundtable Discussion in 2016, discussing the AARP’s CARE (Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable) Act. As a past member of the National Advisory Council on Research for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health, Mary Joy continues to raise educational awareness in addressing the underrepresentation of minority health through grant projects (Patient Centered Outcomes Research and All of Us).
Mary Joy values the education of healthcare professionals, holding multiple academic positions along with her other roles. She serves as a Nursing Informatics MSN course developer at the City University of New York School of Professional Studies, an adjunct assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, and an adjunct faculty member at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing.
Mary Joy received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Saint La Salle College of Nursing and her master’s degree in nursing informatics from New York University. She completed the Minority Nurse Leadership Institute fellowship program at Rutgers University College of Nursing in 2006. In 2015, Mary Joy received her doctor of nursing practice from Case Western Reserve University.
Click here to register for the webinar!
Nursing Is a Team Sport
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With the influx of patients, the critical care division quickly tripled in size, caring for over 150 patients at the peak of the surge. Approximately 120 patients required ventilatory support on a daily basis. This was greater than six times the normal volume. Given that there were no proven treatments for COVID-19, the team focused on supportive care including oxygen therapy, multiple medications, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH), and prone positioning (Khan et al., 2020). All of these treatments were intricate and clinically challenging, which required an enhanced nursing skillset. It quickly became evident that we needed an effective nursing plan to manage the surge and complex needs of the COVID-19 patients.
Background: According to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), a pandemic is a global disease crisis or outbreak that affects a wide geographical area and a large number of people (APIC, 2014). In a global pandemic, there are a large number of deaths as well as social and economic disruption (APIC, 2014). In a systemic review by Pasquini-Descomps, Brender, and Maradan (2017), the last noted global health concern was the influenza pandemic of 2009 known as the H1N1 crisis. It was noted during this pandemic that there were significant impacts on health care including the need for increased hospitalizations, isolation of patients in hospitals, and increased vaccine and antiviral stockpiling. There were considerable social impacts such as airport screening, school closures, social distancing, masking, and shelter-in-place orders (Pasquini-Descomps et al., 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic shares similarities with the H1N1 crisis in terms of the social, financial, and global health impact.
Significance: The acuity and volume of patients that were admitted to critical care units at such a rapid pace during the COVID-19 pandemic posed many issues. The increasing patient volume coupled with an expansion of the division from four to ten units made staffing very difficult. The critical care division typically required 24 nurses on average per shift. At the peak of the pandemic, staffing requirements exceeded 50 nurses per shift. The units were staffed with a combination of seasoned and novice ICU registered nurses (RNs), contracted agency nurses, and redeployed RNs and ancillary staff with and without ICU experience.
Interventions: Developed during World War II, team nursing was a care model where a team of nurses and aides cared for a group of patients together (Duffield et al., 2010). The lead RN supervises the lesser-skilled staff in order to have a more effective and efficient use of staff (Duffield et al., 2010). According to Dickerson and Latina (2017), team nursing led to an increase in staff satisfaction, morale, and patient safety. Over a 90-day period of implementing a team nursing care model that involved having two RNs per patient, one novice and one experienced, staff satisfaction increased by 11%. Under the team nursing model, novice nurses reported feeling more supported and felt they had better opportunities to learn efficient strategies. The study also reported having zero patient falls over a three-month period, which supported the claim of increased safety (Dickerson and Latina, 2017). Although Duffield et al. (2010) suggested that team nursing is an older care model, the team nursing approach allowed the critical care division to tackle the large influx of patients with varying acuity levels. The team nursing care model helped with the reality that staffing was stretched beyond capacity and the traditional nursing care model would not have accommodated the heavy workload and complexity of care. A team nursing approach was adopted to manage the volume and patient acuity at LIJMC. Nurses from different specialties such as pediatric ICU, the operating room, and the emergency department served as functional or task RNs in the units. They worked alongside lead critical care nurses and assisted with tasks like finger sticks, documentation, and tube feedings. Team nursing allowed the primary nurse to spend less time away from the patients or performing lower-priority tasks, and more time performing complex interventions like patient monitoring, initiating and titrating medications, obtaining emergent blood specimens, and communicating with the interdisciplinary team about the rapidly changing plan of care. Patient care assistants served as integral parts of the nursing team. They were utilized for stocking supplies, performing activities of daily living with patients, equipment and patient transport, and assisting with FaceTime communication with families, as no visitors were allowed in the building.
Evaluation: Ma, Park, and Shang (2018) posited that employees work best in an environment with good interdisciplinary collaboration where each member of the nursing team feels that their contributions are valued and respected. Surgical ICU nurse Kaitlin Hendricks recalls how helpful the team nursing approach proved to be during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Kaitlin, the team nursing approach was helpful especially on days where she was the primary nurse assigned to care for four critically ill patients. According to Kaitlin, without implementing the team nursing care model, this seemingly impossible situation would have actually been impossible. Jamie Roggio, cardiothoracic ICU nurse, noted that she saw that power of teamwork in one of the many pop-up ICUs. With the help of nurse managers, hospital directors, and environmental and engineering services, this newly renovated space became a fully functioning critical care unit. Jamie echoed Kaitlin’s feedback that functional nurses in a team nursing model helped to alleviate the workload and her stress level. Having a functional RN to perform what seemed like minor tasks like readjusting pillows, changing a patient’s gown, and hanging a new bottle of a medication allowed her to focus more on the patient’s clinical course. Dhalia Puri, pediatric ICU RN, served as a functional nurse during the height of pandemic. In her role she performed patient baths, postmortem care, and finger sticks, and changed bags on continuous infusions of lifesaving medications. As a functional nurse, Dhalia felt that the team nursing approach and collaboration was key.
Conclusion: With the patient volume surging to three times the norm in critical care, the division leaders were forced to come up with a plan to provide safe and quality care. What was old became new again; the team nursing care model helped to safely care for patients and staff. Through a team nursing approach, the teams were able to successfully divide and conquer. During several debriefs held following the peak of the crisis, the team overwhelmingly stated that the team nursing approach assisted with staff engagement, team building, stress reduction and burnout, improved patient care, and improved overall staff well-being.
Now it’s Your Turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
References: Dickerson, J., & Latina, A. (2017). Team nursing. Nursing, 47(10), 16–17. doi:10.1097/01.nurse.0000524769.41591.fc Duffield, C., Roche, M., Diers, D., Catling-Paull, C., & Blay, N. (2010). Staffing, skill mix and the model of care. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19(15–16), 2242-2251. https://doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03225.x Kaufman, M. (2020, July 15). LIJ Ranks 2nd Citywide For Number Of Coronavirus Patients. Patch.com Khan, I., Zahra, S., Zaim, S., & Harky, A. (2020, May 05). At the heart of COVID‐19. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jocs.14596 Ma, C., Park, S. H., & Shang, J. (2018). Inter- and intra-disciplinary collaboration and patient safety outcomes in U.S. acute care hospital units: a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 85(1–6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.05.001 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. (2014). Outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics—what you need to know. https://apic.org/Resource_/TinyMceFileManager/for_consumers/IPandYou_Bulletin_Outbreaks_Epidemics_Pandemics.pdf Pasquini-Descomps, H., Brender, N., & Maradan, D. (2017). Value for money in H1N1 influenza: a systematic review of the cost-effectiveness of pandemic interventions. Value in Health, 20(6), 819–827. https://doi:10.1016/j.jval.2016.05.005
Part of the Solution
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Rich was one of the first nurses deployed from the Cath Lab to the ED. His prior experience included ED and so this was an easy transition.
Rich was eager to go, to be “part of the solution.” Initially, he was deployed to the main ED and was roving in order to help work up patients in all pods. He was struck by how incredibly sick these patients were and was particularly struck by a “walk-in” who collapsed on arrival. Patients required more emotional support, as there were very few family members allowed to visit.
Rich was later sent to work in the new “tent” in the lobby. Again, he was taken aback by how sick patients were on presentation. He worked in the tent with a variety of nurses, including some from Cohen Children’s Medical Center and some from the Cardiology department. Following the tent closure, he was again redeployed as a functional nurse to a variety of critical care units on a day-by-day basis. He was able to assist with medications, IVs, personal care and communication with families.
When asked about the impact of this pandemic, Rich simply said, “I came every day to do the best that I could. The rest was out of my hands.”
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Redeployment to the ED
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With the rapid closure of the Cardiac Cath Lab, Lorraine volunteered to be redeployed to the Emergency Department (ED). She chose the ED because of both her clinical background and familiarity with the Senior Admin Director, Helena Willis, MSN, RN, CEN. She and Helena had worked together in the past and maintained a relationship. Lorraine worked mostly in the “tent” and was immediately impressed by the level of support and comradery there.
The support from and for each other was amazing. She acknowledged that everyone was scared to death, the unknowns of this virus were overwhelming, but “we all hung in together.” When the ED volume started to drop, the tent closed and then Lorraine just volunteered to work in the MICU that was created in our Interventional Recovery Suite (IRS).
Lorraine was fortunate to be with a coworker, Marykate Alcusky, BSN, RN, CEN, in the ED. When their services were no longer needed there, together they went to the MICU annex located in the IRS. Again, Lorraine was amazed by the comradery and the support they received from the nurses in the area. Most notable to Lorraine was one of the agency nurses. She felt that the agency nurses would be “guests in our home” and quickly realized that indeed they became family as well. One particular nurse, Ashley, left a special mark on Lorraine.
Ashley is a travel nurse originally from Florida. She joined the MICU staff and was often working in the IRS. Lorraine was immediately taken by Ashley’s incredible bedside manner. Lorraine recalled visiting a patient that Ashley was caring for. Lorraine had a bond with the family and tried to visit whenever she could. On this day, very shortly after Lorraine arrived, this patient, “Juan,” began to desat and become significantly bradycardic, Ashley jumped out of her seat before Lorraine could say a word. Ashley’s comment, “No one dies alone here,” and the fact that she ran into the room to hold his hand will be forever etched in Lorraine’s memory.
Lorraine spoke of the need for humanism and human touch. She felt the pictures and anecdotes posted around the room about the patient and the family helped to develop relationships. It was difficult, particularly in Surge B, because the environment could easily be overwhelming. When asked about support from management, both from her home unit and the new units, Lorraine enthusiastically replied that she felt supported. Units worked as well as they could and she was comfortable knowing that she was part of the solution. The level of support for each other was amazing! There were no titles, no hierarchy. Everyone chipped in with everything they had. In terms of self-care, Lorraine noted how grateful she was to be working with Marykate in both areas. They would talk every day; on her days off she would have Marykate check on her patients and vice versa. There were times each cried, but luckily they were different times.
When asked about the silver lining, Lorraine spoke of how lucky she was “to meet all these amazing people that I ordinarily would not cross paths with. It was also important to capture any small miracles along the way. Words cannot describe the support I felt from everyone.” Lorraine is also passionate about the fact that, in her eyes, the true heroes are the patients and their families. “We are doing our job, they were fighting every step of the way.” Lorraine states that her strong faith was vital to getting through the past few months. She remembers working with a patient in Surge B who was extubated. She whispered in the patient’s ear, “Thank you. You give me hope.”
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All Hands on Deck
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As the COVID-19 crisis was growing exponentially, it became apparent that the staff of the Cardiology department could be utilized in a different fashion to meet the needs of our surging units. The hospital’s strategic plan was to close this department and redeploy the staff. Managers within the department met, discussed each employee, their clinical background and expertise and preliminarily where we thought they would have the best fit. Following those meetings, we phased out the department and met with staff to discuss redeployment.
Elizabeth was initially redeployed as a functional nurse on the med-surg floors. She then volunteered to work in the Emergency Department as the volume was tremendous and new areas were opening up. Fortunately, there were several other members of the Cardiology department redeployed there, so there were some familiar faces (what you could see of them under all the PPE) there.
With the arrival of agency nurses and the decrease in ED volume, Elizabeth came to us and volunteered to take a district in a critical care environment. She has critical care experience and this was both a natural fit and a desperate need. Elizabeth talked about that deployment. She was even willing to flip shifts and work nights full-time. This meant she would be separated from most of her current coworkers, but she saw the need and rose to the occasion. She spoke of floating within the critical care division, working with all different nurses, doctors and PCAs. Elizabeth noted that the established units were a little easier than the “pop-up” units because there was a better understanding of where to find supplies and what resources were available. She also noted that despite the tremendous volume, the support for the team and nursing ratios were better than what she was hearing about other hospitals.
When asked about a particularly memorable patient experience, Elizabeth spoke of a patient from SICU. The patient was very sick and the attending was speaking to the family regarding a terminal wean. She was so impressed with the patience the attending had during this difficult conversation. She remarked about how the entire team pulled together and supported this patient and each other. Assignments were difficult, especially in the beginning, but there was never a time that you would not get help if you needed it. She felt supported both by the administration of her home department and that of her “temporary home.” Elizabeth was also very impressed by a “titles at the door” approach—essentially all hands on deck, all the time.
I asked Elizabeth what was one thing that she will always remember about this experience and she stated, “Every shift I can remember at least one RN that made a connection. I can picture someone who was there and helped the day go smoother.”
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Everyone Pitches In
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I don’t have a particular story for you. But what I do want to share with you regarding the COVID surge is how great everyone was. As you probably know, it was super-busy. And all the nurses that came to help (from WTD, STD, peri-op) and medical assistants (from the doctors’ offices) were absolutely wonderful. Not once did I feel like they didn’t want to be here helping us. Everyone pitched in to do what we had to do to help our patients. There were times when we were tripled up on patients and it became overwhelming, too busy to eat, too busy to go to the bathroom, too busy to have a sip of water. The extra people that were here helping really kept us going.
I also want to give kudos to our two educators (Donna Cybulski and Colleen Stancavage) who were here every day with us, guiding us, running for supplies, and helping us prone the patients. It was pretty scary at first turning them with breathing tubes, central lines, arterial lines, Foley catheters. They showed us how to do it and keep the patients safe. At times, they took over proning the patients with other staff members so that we were able to get our work done. I am so proud to work for Jefferson! The level of teamwork everyone displayed is what kept us going. We all got through it together!
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The Person Beyond the Patient
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John Deshotel, RN, Case Manager – Our Lady of the Lake
At Our Lady of the Lake, we see the person beyond the patient. An example of the special bond our team creates with each patient we are privileged to serve happened on Tuesday, September 1.
Patient “Jim Doe” was transferred from another hospital to our care on August 8 following a work-related injury, which caused him to undergo multiple complex surgeries on both hands. Throughout his recovery, he interacted with case manager, John Deshotel, RN. During a physical and occupational therapy appointment, John noticed that Jim’s health was beginning to improve. He thought to himself, “How can I provide Jim with a change of scenery?” John requested an order for Jim to receive care beyond the rehab floor, which was granted by his doctor. He brought him to the third-floor balcony of the hospital and saw Jim light up with joy as he experienced breathing in the fresh air. During their time spent together, John learned that Jim’s wife had given birth while he was hospitalized. Since Jim had only met his baby through FaceTime, due to the prior COVID-19 visitor restrictions, John had an idea to make one of their upcoming outings extra special.
John took Jim to the hospital’s beautiful Assisi garden for what Jim thought was just another day outside. As John wheeled Jim into the garden, a familiar face began to appear in the distance. It only took Jim a moment to realize it was his wife walking towards him holding their newborn son, who he was about to meet for the very first time. Jim was overwhelmed with emotion. This heartwarming reunion was made possible by John, who saw the person beyond the patient and understood that there is no better medicine than family. Thank you, John, for being the Spirit of Healing.
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Nurse Liaison Task Force
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The COVID-19 Nurse Liaison Task Force Implementation at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ
The shared governance model warrants that clinical leaders on the frontline make empowered, team-oriented decisions at the point of care for the betterment of the organization. At Monmouth Medical Center (MMC), a needs assessment revealed an obligation to restructure the organization’s flow of communication during recent events in our nation’s history.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the visitation policy was amended indefinitely, while continuing to protect MMC staff, patients, and the community at large. This proved challenging to the patients and their loved ones, who had been prohibited from visiting at that time. While patients were encouraged to utilize the telephone and video capabilities of available smart devices to communicate with their friends and family, part of the patient population remained at a disadvantage. Those with disabilities, sensory deficits, cognitive deficits, or language barriers did not benefit from such technology. To remedy this, staff nurse Lauren Fleming, MA, BSN, RN-BC, and other frontline nurses launched the COVID-19 Nurse Liaison Task Force to bridge communication between the healthcare team, the patients, and their loved ones with a new role and structure. Lauren is the former Chairperson of the Patient Care Coordinating Council (PCCC)—a shared governance steering committee—as well as former Chairperson and current consultant of the Medical-Surgical Shared Governance Council.
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety, “Patient and family engagement creates an environment in which clinicians, hospital staff, patients and families work together as partners to improve the quality and safety of care” (AHRQ, 2017). This guide finds that in addition to the benefits regarding patient outcomes, patient and family engagement helps hospitals respond to Joint Commission standards that recognize the need for patients and families to be active and informed decision-makers throughout care. The nurse liaisons were tasked with championing this partnership while upholding MMC’s mission and vision amid dire circumstances.
Six professional registered nurses, who operated in a designated office with telephone and computer capabilities, while maintaining appropriate social distancing and infection control precautions, filled the liaison role in the medical-surgical division. They were assigned a telephone number in correspondence with their workstation and had access to the electronic medical record. They were expected to clock in for full eight-hour shifts, five days a week, and coverage spanned Monday through Sunday. Schedules were made in two-week increments and relayed promptly to their respective directors of patient care, the MMC Command Center, and the staffing department.
The nurse liaisons worked directly with the designated COVID-19 units. Each nurse liaison was assigned to an ongoing caseload of positive COVID-19 patients and persons under investigation for COVID-19 (PUIs) and remained with this group through discharge or until a change in the care plan. This continuity of care built trust and rapport with the patients and their loved ones.
Per HIPAA, a designated loved one (“point of contact” person) was determined for each patient. Once permission for the correspondence was obtained, the nurse liaison served as the main line of communication between the healthcare team and the point of contact. Nurse liaisons directly reported to the Magnet office and worked with directors of patient care, unit nurse leaders, physicians, advanced practice nurses, medical residents, case managers, social workers, other healthcare providers, dieticians, and Patient Satisfaction on the COVID-19 unit in which their patient was admitted. Predetermined topics of discussion with points of contact included: questions for the primary nurse, questions for the physicians, questions for the care team, plan of care, medications and side effects, discharge instructions. Nurse liaisons also followed up with the patients after discharge to ensure they were comfortable, their concerns were addressed, and recommended infection safety guidelines were understood.
Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety also links evidence between communication, safety, and quality: “Communication is the foundation of partnerships between the patient, family and clinicians and affects the safety and quality of care received during the hospital stay” (AHRQ, 2017). It is noted in the guide that effective communication can improve standards such as patient outcomes, patient safety, and perceptions of quality. To bolster communication between the task force and frontline staff, a script was provided to the nursing stations and operators. Informational flyers on the initiative were handed to COVID-19-positive patients and PUIs on admission. By taking these actions, the nurse liaisons ensured that everyone worked together to achieve these standards. To further amplify communication, the task force’s accomplishments and family feedback through Patient Satisfaction were presented to the Patient Care Management Council (PCMC) and the PCCC as a model of best practice within MMC. The PCMC is one of the specialty councils of shared governance.
The main goal of this role was to enable open channels of communication in the best interest of the patient. In addition to this enhanced communication, the nurse liaison position permitted the interdisciplinary team directly caring for COVID-19 patients to spend valuable time in the isolation rooms instead of answering multiple phone calls throughout the shift, which helped to conserve personal protection equipment. The task force was so successful in the medical-surgical division that it was replicated in the Intensive Care Unit.
The COVID-19 pandemic and New Jersey–mandated visitor restrictions forced a chasm between the hospital and patients’ loved ones. By self-assessing the needs of the patients, their points of contact, and the interdisciplinary team, the nurse liaisons tailored the task force’s initiatives to meet MMC’s standards of care and exceed expectations. Through the utilization of teamwork and best practice, they adjusted the task force’s function to meet the ever-changing needs of the community. The COVID-19 Nurse Liaison Task Force acted as a conduit, thereby facilitating a partnership between the interdisciplinary team and the families for the betterment of the patient population.
For more information about this best practice, contact Lauren Fleming, MA, BSN, RN-BC, at Lauren.Fleming@rwjbh.org.
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Internet Citation:
Information to Help Hospitals Get Started. Content last reviewed December 2017. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
Recommendations on the Unit
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Kari Szczechowski, IMC, Magnet Program Coordinator – Beaumont Trenton
Stephanie Lemoine, BSN, RN, made a recommendation to have windows placed in IMC doors for the ICU patients that they were receiving so that the team could have a visualization of these patients for their safety. Stephanie submitted this for quality review on March 31 as she saw it as a patient safety concern. After administration obtained quotes for the windows and coordinated with facilities and the vendor, the windows were installed on May 1 into six patient IMC patient room doors. On that day, the IMC staff worked to move patients to different areas of the unit to remove them from the construction occurring to these patient rooms.
They constantly communicated with the patients to inform them of this process and inform them why it was being done, while also contacting family members to let them know why their family members were being temporarily relocated to a different room. Through Stephanie’s recommendation, the IMC is now well-equipped to handle ICU overflow if another surge should occur, allowing them to provide safe patient care to these patients in an isolation setting.
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Around the Clock Cath Lab
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Heather Allen, Cath Lab – Beaumont Trenton
The pandemic that affected Michigan early this year brought nursing and hospital staff to the frontline. Wanting to help and ready to do their part in this fight, Cath Lab nurses truly stepped up, right from the frightening beginning. Nursing staff readily dispersed to help in the emergency room and signed up to be redeployed to the intensive care units. These nurses were ready to support the patients and families in the area where they work and live.
Upon learning that the previous plan to develop an intensive care unit in the outpatient surgery center was not going to work, the team came together to turn the Cath Lab pre-/post-procedural area into an intensive care unit overnight. All staff, with help from multiple different departments, had a hands-on board. The Cath Lab team worked all hours of the day and night to staff a new unit with the surgical ICU team while still covering a 24-hour call schedule and staffing a cardiac catheterization unit and interventional radiology unit for emergent procedures. By staff stepping up to work extra shifts and all different hours, Beaumont Trenton was able to keep their STEMI program and Interventional Radiology department open for emergencies in the area it serves. True teamwork showed when nurses and staff from different units throughout the hospital joined together and made sacrifices to care for our community and patients. Nurses from specialty units such as PACU and Cath Lab took on intensive care patient assignments with assistance from one surgical ICU nurse per shift.
Patients and families were especially vulnerable during this time. The Cath Lab nurses made the extra effort to help families have a voice and support their family members in such a scary situation. By using FaceTime, making extra phone calls, and taking the time to learn about the interests of their patients, nurses helped to ease the difficult situation and care for their patients and families. Taking extra steps to work with families was key to progressing through the added challenge of limited visitation and contact. Patients often felt isolated and required empathetic and caring nurses to aid in their recovery, especially as family was not available to join the care team in person. These nurses truly were there for patients and families during this time.
Katie Sturgill, BSN, RN, Clinical Manager, was an outstanding leader as she inspired the team with her communication and scheduling skills, dedication, and emotional support. Jill Assed, RN, Heather Allen, RN, Robyn Clevinger, RN, Trisha Cooney, BSN, RN, Chelsea Foucher, RN, Tammy Shivel, RN, Chelsey Thackery, BSN, RN, Corri Wotta, BSN, RN, and Keli Wludyka, RN, were nurses that deserve recognition for going above and beyond for their patients, families, and community.
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Embracing Reusable Alternatives
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Prior to COVID-19, OhioHealth had partnered with vendors for a single-use video laryngoscope for intubations. Through the transition from reusable to single-use, OhioHealth disposed of the reusable products as they reached end-of-life. During the onset of COVID-19, many healthcare organizations purchased large quantities of both single-use and reusable products to ensure supplies were adequate in the event a surge of COVID-19 patients occurred. After hearing about this potential lack of availability of these important products, Dr. Jessica Kynyk, Critical Care Clinical Operations Chair, and Everett Haley, Nurse Manager for Medical Intensive Care Unit 1, began the process of seeking alternative measures.
Everett Haley’s Perspective:
We asked the question, “Can you simply sterilize the single-use product in the same manner other delicate electronic products are sterilized?” Through a partnership with Sterile Processing Department Manager Chad Pinkstock, we removed a single-use video laryngoscope from our intubation cart and put it through the sterilization process. After completing the process, I then tested the functionality of the product and demonstrated it to several of the intensivists for their approval of its function. We then did the same process a few more times to ensure the product remained functional. From that moment we began to store the sterilized single-use laryngoscopes in a non-patient care area until they would be needed in an emergent situation.
About two weeks after the initial process was developed and the supply of sterilized single-use products began to build up, we were unable to receive an adequate supply of the products we needed, resulting in potential safety concerns. This shortage was evident initially in the Emergency Department (ED) and the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU). I shared with the ED leadership team, including Nurse Manager Holly Tinnerello and Business Manager Ashley Klunk, that we were able to successfully reuse the single-use products, and they worked with OhioHealth System Incident Command to seek approval to use the products.
This process ensured that we experienced no patient safety events as a result of a lack of intubation supplies. It was an excellent example of a partnership between physicians, nursing, sterile processing, and infection prevention to adapt an innovative approach to a problem.
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Uplifting Families of Patients
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For frontline healthcare workers, it’s difficult not being able to comfort families of patients during times of need. But associates at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital and others throughout the system are finding a way to spread care and compassion to patients’ families, despite the physical barriers.
Nurses and staff are creating personal cards for families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19. They stamp their own thumbprints, shape them into a heart and write their names underneath. The cards are then sanitized before being given to the patient’s family.
“I couldn’t imagine what they’re going through, and we try to connect with them as much as possible,” Jennifer Hollis, RN, BSN, a staff nurse at Riverside Methodist, told 10TV reporter Stephanie Stanavich. “We hope to let families know that their loved one was never alone and that the healthcare workers were right by their sides holding their hands.”
Though they’ve been creating these cards for the past couple of months, Hollis said she’s ready to get back to comforting patients and families like normal.
“I’m ready for a day when we don’t have to make so many cards. I’m ready for a day when I don’t have to make these phone calls to these families like this anymore,” said Hollis.
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You can view the original story here.
Forefront of Grit and Resilience
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Marifel (Max) Axalan, BSN, RN, CNN, Nurse Clinician – NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
As I sat down and contemplated my unit’s experience during the pandemic, I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotions. My throat was tight, my eyes were blurry, and the tears just kept falling. “I survived COVID-19! My teammates survived COVID-19!” I could hear my brain screaming over and over, “This is victory!” Or is it?
It was March 16 when N2/N8 Hemodialysis and Apheresis nurses were finally called into action: Dialyze COVID-19-positive patients. Our patients need us. We were physically at our patients’ bedside for over four hours straight from beginning to end of dialysis treatments. We endured the profuse sweating under our PPE (like having continuous “hot flashes”). We didn’t dare leave our patients’ side for bathroom breaks so we held the urge until the treatments were done. In those fearful moments, we knew we were extremely exposed and vulnerable to this unknown enemy. But we were all determined to fight it with all our might. We had to win this battle for our patients, for our families, and for each other. Our team became more cohesive than ever. We shared each other’s strategies on how best to protect ourselves. We wore impermeable blue isolation gowns, we used face shields, N95 masks, surgical masks, shoe covers, bonnets, anything available—we had them on. Endless hand-washing and disinfecting. Without a doubt, our infection control practices were above and beyond! Our staff bathroom was even outfitted with a shower we could use at the end of our shifts. It felt like we washed away some of the fears at bringing the enemy home to our loved ones. But in that tiny corner of our hearts, the dread and uncertainty lingered.
We were so thankful to have had the immense support of our empowered department and NewYork-Presbyterian leaders; the dedication demonstrated by our equally committed partners (Medical Director, Nephrology Team, and Hemodialysis Technicians); and lastly our hardworking NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell colleagues, associates, and support staff. Indeed, our mission was made possible by the unsurpassed generosity of our institution to provide us the supplies and equipment we desperately needed while other institutions were found lacking. Not to mention the bountiful nourishment, free accommodations and transportation, laundered scrubs, financial and mental health support, and so much more. Indeed, all these provisions and resources kept us going. Somehow, the heavy burden became bearable. We were beyond grateful.
The trials and tribulations came in droves. Our patients were acutely sick and we never knew when the next time we would see them would be. Our goodbyes seemed more frequent. But there was one goodbye we never imagined saying…to one of our own. Our hearts were broken. Our resilience wavered, and our spirit—almost defeated. She was a fearless warrior. An extraordinary nurse who possessed unrivaled grit and valor. We missed her dearly and found comfort amongst each other. Emotional support poured in even from strangers.
In the midst of all this unimaginable devastation and anguish, our faith was our lifeline. It held us steadfast. Prayers were our constant companion and ally, our infinite source of strength. We filled our minds with positive thoughts to rebuild our spiritual defenses. Our heart-to-heart virtual or phone conversations with families and friends and near others strengthened our grip on our daily emotional struggles. Our nutritious dietary intake and the fanatical regimen of doses of vitamin C, prebiotics, probiotics, and other immune-boosting supplements kept our physical defenses almost impenetrable.
Looking back, the whole experience seemed surreal. And so here we are—heart in pieces, bruised faces, battered spirits, but still standing strong and hopeful. Our Hemodialysis/Apheresis Unit even won 2020 Weill Cornell’s much coveted Structural Empowerment Award. Truly, we are all in this together. Without a doubt, this is victory.
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Value of Virtual Care Connection
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Michele Gaguski, RN (pictured left), Christine Miller, RN, Susan Saporito, RN (pictured right)
Like the rest of the country, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health New Jersey was up to the challenge of providing care for our patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Oncology nurse navigators collaborated with the entire cancer center team to be frontline screeners for the cancer center and perform a quick COVID-19 assessment, take temperatures, and guide patients to a safe visit.
While screening a patient, I overheard the name of one of my navigated patients that I supported frequently. I introduced myself as her nurse navigator and our eyes smiled at each other above our masks as we air-hugged. This was the new normal during this pandemic. Even though our face-to-face meeting was now through a mask and shield, it provided a glimpse of the human touch. Throughout the pandemic, nursing leadership met with the nurse navigators to learn more about the usefulness and versatility of telehealth for patients with cancer and the utility of this technology within the navigation department. The nurse navigator team was continuing to reach patients via phone to provide support, education, and guidance. Thinking this through with nursing leadership and the breast center team, the idea of using telehealth for nurse navigation was explored.
Telehealth was being used successfully for medical and nurse practitioner provider visits in all the departments. It became clear that it was time to bring this technology to nurse navigation. This was a team effort with the breast center team, nursing leadership, telehealth support team, and the informatics technology (IT) team. A schedule was created with our Epic EMR system for the nurse navigator team at our cancer center and allowed a face-to-face connection for patients with their nurse navigators. The nurse navigators enrolled and attended telehealth training. It quickly became apparent that the time and energy invested in telehealth was more than worthwhile.
To start, the navigators are piloting and collecting data with the use of telehealth in patients with breast cancer. Nurse navigation now calls the patient prior to their breast surgical consultation as an introduction and schedules a telehealth visit following that appointment for further follow-up. Oncology nurse navigators can once again “meet” with patients and deliver nursing care virtually throughout the cancer care continuum. We completed our first telehealth visit with a patient with newly diagnosed breast cancer. The telehealth visit lasted for 25 minutes, during which we reviewed her plan of care. I was able to assess the patient’s level of anxiety by the look on her face when she said, “I want to be told the truth about my condition even if it’s not good news.” This was an important need for her, and I also assessed the level of understanding and engagement with our discussion by her facial expressions and the fact she was writing down several points of information as we spoke. Being able to see her face-to-face not only helped with my assessment, but it also provided a personal touch that enabled and improved patient experience during this time.
Data is being collected on tele-navigation volumes, the number of barriers identified, and the number of visits completed successfully without having to revert to the phone. With the use of this data, the team will continue to improve our tele-navigation program while delivering an exceptional patient experience during these unprecedented times.
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My First Real Loss
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Marilee Mann, BSN, RN, Medical Intensive Care Unit – Henry Ford Hospital
Today was my first actual loss at Henry. I lost my first patient to COVID. I have taken care of two months’ worth of COVID-positive patients, but today was different. Today it was my turn to talk to family, comfort them, and tell them I would stay at the bedside until his last breath was taken. And today I did just that…I played him classical music, held his hand, stroked his hair and was just present with him as he did, in fact, take his last breath. When “we” nurses say we will be there, we will. We lost three patients in the last 24 hours. This is hard. Today was hard. That being said…we are in this together and look out for one another. Today I was asked by a staff doc how I was doing, hearing about the patient that had passed the night before. The patient I had today, his “brother,” asked me how I was doing with all of this—he is losing a family member and is asking about how I am doing?!
Our chaplain came up today doing his rounds…he asked how I was holding up. Today another favorite staff doc bought the entire Medical ICU team lunch (and dinner) to show his gratitude. The food was fantastic and much appreciated…shout-out to Rocco’s Italian Deli in Midtown.
We had a patient attempt an “escape” and scoot out of bed and sat straight on the floor—that was fun. Hahaha.
My manager put together a video of the staff on our unit during this pandemic—a collection of photos—we watched it as a group today. Tamara said, “And look at us all smiling, we smiled through all of this…how have we smiled through all of this?”
We only had seven patients today in our ICU, out of 12 beds…and we lost two of them in our 12-hour shift. This is just my little slice of ICU life today.
Today had to be one of my toughest days at Henry. Today really hurt. Today I ugly-cried, with mascara-streaked cheeks under my riot gear. Today I FaceTimed my patient for his family, so they could say goodbye. I sat at my patient’s bedside while one by one his family said goodbye. They cried, they told him how much they loved him, how much they would miss him, how unfair this virus is. For 30 minutes I held that phone, my heart completely breaking for them. This tragic personal moment where a child said goodbye to his father, a mother pleading with God to take her son’s pain away, all while I, a complete stranger, listened. When they had said their last goodbyes, I turned the phone towards my face, promising them he would not be alone, I would stay with him, I would keep him free from pain, and just how sorry I was, all while choking back my tears. When I left his room after the call I fell apart, the ugly-crying I referred to earlier. This is horrible—no one should have to say goodbye to their family member via FaceTime. He passed 47 minutes later with a stranger holding his hand.
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Digging Up Old Specialities
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Jeanie Hubert, OR RN – Hunterdon Medical Center
COVID-19 had a silver lining for me because it allowed me to use my skills as a medical-surgical nurse to care for others when it was desperately needed. I have been an operating room nurse for the last four years; however, I have a background in medical-surgical nursing. In the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to put my “med-surg nurse hat” back on and put my skill set to good use.
During the months of March, April, and May, I was redeployed as an emergency room nurse at Hunterdon Medical Center. I was able to use my skills in medical-surgical nursing that I do not normally employ on a daily basis in the operating room. Jeanie the med-surg nurse was back in full force; in the blink of an eye, I was starting IVs, drawing bloodwork, administering various medications and treatments, and performing numerous bedside procedures in an emergency room that was overwhelmed with patients. The emergency room never slowed down during the 12-hour shifts that I worked. The other (incredible) nurses and I gave our all to these patients; we worked in sixth gear from the minute that we arrived to the minute that we were able to go home. We were absolutely exhausted at the end of each day.
In addition to serving in the ER, I worked at pop-up field hospitals just outside New York City. These hospitals were rapidly constructed by the U.S. military. Patient rooms were merely cots that were separated by curtains. Six large oxygen tanks fed each patient “wing,” with oxygen tubing running directly to each individual room. One medication cart supplied each wing. It was like the television show M*A*S*H came to real life in 2020. I truly felt like I was in a movie of some kind. I worked 12- to 14-hour shifts straight through—not taking any breaks to eat, drink, or use the bathroom because I did not want to remove my mask (or my hazmat suit). I averaged about 70 hours per week, caring for patients infected with COVID-19. Almost daily I watched patients die from respiratory failure, despite our best efforts to recover them. I watched the patients rapidly deteriorate right in front of me. I cared for patients of all ages; some as young as their early 20s were unable to maintain their oxygen saturation above 90% without supplemental oxygen. It was the most horrific experience in the seven years that I have been a nurse, without a doubt.
I am thankful for the experiences that I had as a professional; however, I am deeply saddened by the impact of COVID-19. Many patients did not survive, and my heart is heavy with grief for those we could not save. This experience was life-changing; I appreciate the simple things in life—like a “typical day at work” or a bright and sunny day—on a whole new level.
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
Magnet® Designation In COVID-19
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Madelyn Torakis, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Director, Nursing Excellence and Magnet Program – Henry Ford Hospital
September 23, 2013. My first day as an employee of Henry Ford Hospital (HFH). I was hired into this amazing organization to help lead the efforts to achieve Magnet® designation, the highest honor and recognition for nursing excellence in the world. I worked hand in hand with Gwen Gnam, Chief Nursing Officer and VP Patient Care Services, on this journey. We built programs from the ground up, revised existing programs and reinforced a culture of excellence, autonomy and pride amongst our nursing staff. Finally, in February 2019, we submitted all the supporting documents to the Magnet Recognition Program for review by a team of appraisers. We waited for a response, submitted additional clarification documents and waited some more. The next step in the process involved a site visit by the appraiser team, which we were finally granted in January 2020. It was an amazing three days! The appraisers were wowed with everyone they spoke with—nurses, physicians, support staff. All this took place before we even thought about or even really heard about the coronavirus. Although it was only a few short months ago, it feels like it was in another lifetime.
After the site visit, we waited again, this time to receive a call from the Magnet office informing us that the Commission on Magnet Recognition wanted to call us publicly to announce their decision. That call came to us on Thursday, March 12. We arranged for our official call to take place on Friday, March 20, at 9:15 a.m. We were understanding more about the coronavirus by this point and the guidelines indicated gatherings of no more than 250 people. We had dreamed of this day for 6½ years and we knew that the Buerki auditorium could easily accommodate that number of people. After all, we had planned a big celebration! By Monday, March 16, however, gatherings of 250 people or less was changed to 50 people or less, and by Wednesday, March 18, it was down to no more than 10! We decided that the coronavirus was not going to rob us of our joy, so we gathered 10 of us on the stage in the Buerki (maintaining social distancing), invited people to join us on the conference call and live-streamed it on the SONIFI TVs on the units. We received the great news we had hoped for and the 10 of us celebrated as if there were 100 of us in the room! We were finally being recognized as a Magnet hospital—something we had known we were all along!
Very quickly after our designation call, HFH went into full COVID-19 survival mode. It has been challenging to say the least, but I can honestly say that we have proven over and over again why we are a Magnet hospital. Leadership, teamwork, resiliency, advocacy, autonomy, compassion, innovation, dedication and tenacity. These are only some of the words to describe the culture of Henry Ford Hospital. We know that together we will make it through to the other side of this. And when we do, there will be much to celebrate (with a gathering of more than 250 people)!
A note from one of the Magnet appraisers:
“You all have been in my thoughts especially as I see all the stories of what HFH is facing during this pandemic and all that you are doing to care for the people of Detroit. It was an honor and a privilege to visit your organization and I am so happy for all of you. My very best wishes to you, Gwen, Ronnie and all the fabulous nurses at HFH.”
Click below to hear Madelyn’s story firsthand.
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
Staying Strong in the ICU
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Trisha Brazeal, BSN, RN, I6-Neuro Stepdown Unit – Henry Ford Hospital
Looking back now, it all seems like it was a bad dream. I remember hearing about COVID on the news and thought to myself, “It will never get bad in the US.” I would soon realize how wrong I really was. I was an assistant manager for a stroke/neuro stepdown unit. We had two units, one with 18 beds, and one with eight. We had some critical patients at times, but typically they would be transferred to the Neuro ICU. But we were nowhere near prepared for what was about to unfold. My manager had left for vacation, and I was ready to take on the challenge of leading the unit for the next two weeks. By the end of the first week, we transformed our eight-bed unit into a COVID GPU, requiring a whole new medical team that what we were not used to. The patient population was also much different. The staff was learning about COVID, proper PPE, and working with new physicians. It was an adjustment, but the unit was up for the challenge. After a week, we seemed to be getting the flow down. Everyone was well-versed in proper donning and doffing of PPE. It seemed like we were ready to fight the strong fight.
About 10 days later, after learning my manager would not be returning for an additional two weeks due to quarantining, I received the meeting invitation in my email titled, “I6 ICU.” They had mentioned the possibility of utilizing our 18-bed unit as an ICU. I truthfully thought it would not come to that. I sat in the boardroom waiting for the meeting, with my manager and educator on the phone. I remember when my administrator came with the news: “We will be turning your unit into an ICU by tomorrow morning.” So many emotions flooded in. “What staff are going to work there? What supplies do we need? How are we going to do this?” I felt sick and scared. I have an extensive ICU background, but nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. That day we hit the ground running. I had the best team behind me to get everything in place. Phone call after phone call for supplies, respiratory, clinical engineering, pharmacy, the ICU physician needs; it seemed like a never-ending list of preparation. I held a huddle with both shifts that evening before leaving. I made the announcement about the ICU opening the next day, I offered reassurance that support would be provided, and the neuro ICU nurses would be there to help as well. I looked around at them and many of their faces turned pale. I promised them I would do whatever was in my power to make sure that they were supported. I went home scared and nervous for the next day. As I walked on the unit the next day, I felt optimistic. The night shift nurses helped get the stock together; all the PPE was stocked up and ready to go. People kept showing up to help, and I felt like the unit ready to go. Then we heard the code blue called overhead for the floor below us. The ICU nurses jumped into action, training the step-down nurses along the way. The patient was on the cusp of needing life support. What felt like moments later, the next code blue came overhead. We took that patient as well. The nurses were having to learn about vents, drips, and running their own codes, things we never had to do before. Not only were we turning into an ICU, but with some of the sickest patients ever. Emotions were high, stress levels were rising, but we made it through the first day. When I left that evening, we had admitted six patients. I went home ready for the next day to come. I thought, “We can do this!” The next day will last in my memories forever.
We admitted around 10 patients, intubated eight, and placed lines on almost all of them. I looked around at the faces of my nurses and saw tears. They all were completely terrified and stepping out to cry in between care. I didn’t know what to do, it was one of the most challenging times in leadership I have ever faced and will ever face. I walked up and down the halls all day, jumping in to help, offering reassurance and emotional support, and helping educate the staff. Then an employee was admitted. Three nurses came into my office and cried. One of our own was slowly making their way to needing life support. I remember looking at my educator and saying, “It’s like a nightmare I can’t wake up from.” After looking around, and seeing some of the sickest patients I had ever seen in my career, I called my husband and mom. We had to make the difficult decision for my son to live with my mom until everything settled down, I was scared; I was scared for anyone to be around me. What if I brought COVID home? I couldn’t risk my son or my mom’s health. Later that day, the staff physician approached me about proning patients. We had to start proning. Thinking back on my career in MICU I can only remember a few times having to do this. I remember being nervous about it then, and that was with a lot of experienced ICU staff around to help and support me. Now I was expecting my nurses to help facilitate this when they had never even seen this done before! But they amazed me. We were able to prone six patients by the next day! When I finally convinced myself it was time to go home that evening, I remember walking through the hospital feeling horribly defeated. I told myself, “Don’t cry until you get to your car.” I didn’t want the staff to see me cry. I knew they were barely holding it together and I needed to stay strong for them. When I got to my car the tears started flowing. I cried until I just decided I cried enough, I was going to stay strong. Crying was replaced with a constant knot in my stomach. Always wondering what would happen next. I didn’t cry again. These patients needed us more than anything right now, and I had to stay strong for them and the staff.
Over the next several weeks, it became easier and easier. The staff became more confident, my manager returned, and the hospital did a tremendous job. We never ran out of PPE. We were able to get ICU nurses redeployed to us to help. The nurses began learning a new skill set. It felt like the new norm for our unit. This experience will live with me forever. It helped me grow as a nurse and a leader. I am forever grateful for all that helped and supported through that difficult time. I could not have asked for a better team than my unit – they were courageous and amazing.
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
My Deployment Journey
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Michelle Churches, MSN, RN, Staff Nurse — Kellogg Eye Center PACU
Crisis: “A stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events is determined; a turning point”
2020, the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. It has been an incredible journey so far.
I currently work as a PACU staff nurse at the Kellogg Eye Center (KEC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan (Michigan Medicine).
My 41-year hospital career is broad: ED Clerk, Phlebotomist, Pediatric ED RN, Pediatric Trauma Nurse Coordinator, ED Phone Triage, Adult Pulmonary ICU, Accreditation and Regulatory Readiness Staff Specialist, Expert Witness/Legal Nurse Consultant, Pediatric PACU Nurse, Adult PACU Nurse, Ophthalmic PACU Nurse. All of these honed skills would be reactivated during this deployment.
March 26, 2020, I volunteered to be deployed from the Kellogg Eye Center PACU (ASC) to help “on the hill” at the main hospital(s) covering 21 COVID ICUs/departments. Michigan Medicine (MM) has three hospitals: University Hospital (UH), The Cardiovascular Center (CVC), and Mott Children’s Hospital.
My deployment assignment: Team Coordinator, Safety Monitor Team…a team that never existed before the pandemic. Michigan Medicine’s in-house bio-containment unit was created from the ashes. Our role as Safety Monitors (SMs) was to keep MM’s staff and faculty safe by monitoring donning and doffing of PPE “in the moment” (like during codes when teams instinctually rush in to help save the patient, emergency tracheostomies, multiple codes on the same unit at the same time, etc.)
I would be responsible to train, orient, answer questions from staff and ICU Leadership, resource policies (ever-changing), schedule the continual onboarding and offboarding staff, and handle personnel issues (call-ins, emergencies, etc.) that arise with the daily functions of any hospital unit and any other issue from anyone that had my email, pager or mobile phone number.
My direct reports for deployment: UH OR Education Supervisor Valerie Marsh, DNP, MSN, RN. I would be working under Val and also taking lead from Gretchen Pagac, MSN, RN, Senior Director of Nursing and Associate Chief Operating Officer, University of Michigan Medical Group. I would work in the “old” Mott Children’s Hospital (near and dear to my heart) and repurpose someone’s abandoned desk and computer (furloughed employee) (ahem…I took over their office).
My past ED triage skills would quickly be put to use.
The challenge: We had no central meeting place (unit) (we were to cover 21 units in three hospitals 24/7). There was no central means of communication. Staff came from several of our off-site and main OR/PACUs/Procedural Areas—many of whom I had never met before.
In our home units (ASC) most of us work eight-hour day shifts, M–F. With the C-19 crisis, our CNE shifted nursing to work 12-hour shifts covering 24/7. Some would be assigned to work the 12-hour midnight shifts (many had not worked midnights in over 20 years) to cover the ICU needs (you know where I am going with this…).
I am glad there was no popularity poll sent out during this time.
I kept reminding myself that the focus of my role was to staff the units to support MM nursing and faculty, keeping MM employees and our community safe from the spread of C-19, and proceeded with daily operations. I would demonstrate compassion to my team of SM by allowing them to self-schedule as much of their work-life as possible during this crisis. I was also here to support them during this pandemic, too.
I knew this was not going to be a one-woman job. With Val’s approval, I quickly recruited help from a few of my KEC colleagues I knew I could trust and rely on. I quickly learned from Val that I had her full support. We knew we could trust each other’s decisions. We had each other’s back. This is imperative in a leadership role.
Kevin Dombrowski, RN (KEC OR), and Shelly Robbins, RN (KEC PACU), became the SM Team Charge Nurses. I was able to utilize the talents of Jillian Bowers, BSN, RN (ASC), OR Educator, to assist us in training the Safety Monitors. The amazing fact: We, the four of us, “stood up” 92 SMs (trained and oriented, staffed) covering 21 ICUs in less than 14 days. We worked closely with the Safety Management Team and the Infection Prevention Department. Collaboration was key to daily operations.
On New Team Development
Tuckman’s stages of group development: forming, storming, norming and performing. All necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, face challenges (there were many), tackle problems, find solutions, plan work and, most importantly, deliver results.
Forming: Team meets and learns about opportunities and agrees on goals; acts independently.
Storming: Group sorts itself out; members gain each other’s trust. This stage often starts when they voice their opinions and, as a result, conflicts may arise between members as power and status are assigned. It identifies a different hierarchy of status positions in the group.
Norming: Resolved disagreements and personality clashes result in greater intimacy and a spirit of cooperation. This happens when the team is aware of the competition and they share a common goal. In this stage, all team members take on the responsibility and have the ambition to work for the success and goals of the team. They tolerate the whims and fancy of other team members. The danger here is that team members may be so focused on preventing conflict that they are reluctant to share controversial ideas.
Performing: With group norms and roles established, members focus on achieving common goals, often reaching an unexpectedly high level of success. By this time, team members are motivated and knowledgeable. Supervisors of the team during this phase are almost always participating. The team will make most of the decisions. A change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming, as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team.
Adjourning: Completing the task and breaking up the team.
Communication
As with any crisis, clear, concise, sustained, up-to-date communication is of utmost importance. I created a new email group (central) communication (PPE-Safety-Monitor) including both Safety Management and Infection Prevention/Epidemiology Leadership, to keep all of the team informed. This email group allowed us to close the loop on many issues in a short amount of time. Our findings (safety breaches) were immediately communicated by the Director of Safety Management to the Command Center, the top leadership at MM.
Jillian, our Nurse Educator, quickly taught me how to navigate Google Docs to create live, online scheduling for the SM Team to view from their smartphones (remember, we did not have a brick-and-mortar SM unit). All of us extended ourselves to levels we never thought possible.
In turn, we were teaching the SMs how to access Google Docs from their phones to view their schedule. We were building the plane as we were flying!
Kevin and Shelly (charge nurses) created online assignment sheets so staff would know which ICU to report to. They emailed the assignment sheets out 24 hours prior (mostly…) to the next shift to keep staff informed and tame any anxieties. We frequently had to shift staff to various units based on the ever-changing hospital bed census. Constant flux. Rolling with it!
Hindsight: The disease process itself is just as stated on World News Tonight and every bit of what you may have read in your local paper. Same struggles, different places and faces. The pandemic exposed our vulnerabilities (globally/local) and the lens is focused on leadership and change.
Pandemic Leadership Perspectives
Leadership, Communication and Relationships
The C-19 pandemic has instilled lessons from the federal level all the way down to local levels. The highest leadership decisions are felt globally but were/are palpable at a granular level (in the ICUs and in public health—our communities). Some federal and global leadership decisions became painfully prominent during the pandemic (global PPE/C-19 spread). There was real hubris on the part of public health officials from the very start. The lack of federal leadership meant that states lacked a unified approach.
In the days and weeks that followed, politicians, public health officials and rival academics disparaged or ignored their colleagues. Some even worked to undermine the warnings at crucial moments, as the disease spread unnoticed.
Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice….
I would listen to NPR radio on my commute before and after my shifts, watched World News Tonight, and read anything I could get my hands on pertaining to the pandemic world events. I was trying to make sense of what I heard in the various forms of media and what I was observing clinically in the ICUs….
We live in a world that we cannot control. People defy our plans and let us down. Circumstances bring us to our knees. Planes fly into buildings. And it all happens without our permission.
Once we learn to bring all of that misdirected energy to what we can control, and learn to respond to both the good and the bad in a way that serves us, the meaning of our lives is enhanced and we find greater power, peace and success in our lives.
I have learned that most people believe learning and growth come from looking at something new and finding the familiar in it, but it is the opposite that is actually true. When we see the familiar world differently, we will behave differently in it, because it simply is not possible to respond in a way that is not congruent with what we see and still remain sane. If you have tried to change your behavior without first changing your perspective, you have probably met some form of failure.
We live in an out-of-control world, and there is nothing we can do to change that fact. But the success and happiness we all seek is not out of our control. And the key to finding it lies in our ability to know how to accept what we cannot control and bring all of our energy to what we can. This is when our energy turns to power. It is in the power of losing control.
On Trust
Working together more effectively requires trust. It is not usually long until you hear someone say “Trust…has to be earned!”
Trust cannot exist until it is given. Trust is born of giving, not of earning. And the giving requires a leap of faith. Both faith and trust derive their ultimate power from the giving, not from the earning.
Historical Perspective and Fun Fact
(Because I Love Trivia!)
At home, to gain a better understanding of the pandemic, I began to read historical medical books. I love to read. My favorite medical history book was Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney.
Much like COVID-19, the Spanish Flu exposed mankind’s vulnerability and put our ingenuity to the test. This overlooked catastrophe forever changed humanity.
Interesting Historical Facts: The Spanish Flu of 1918
In the global reshuffle post–Spanish Flu of 1918, many dependents found themselves deprived of their breadwinners. Many families went to the poorhouse.
However, among them were some lucky beneficiaries of life insurance policies: The U.S. life insurance industry paid out nearly $100 million in claims after the 1918 pandemic—the equivalent of $20 billion today.
Upon his death from the Spanish Flu of 1918, one German immigrant to America left his widow and son a sum of insurance money. They invested it in property, and today the immigrant’s grandson is a property magnate, purportedly worth billions. His name is Donald Trump.
Self-Reflection
Attaining wisdom is an ongoing process, one that will never be concluded so long as we live and grow. Both you and I will always live in a world that is beyond our control. That is the way things are—and the way they are supposed to be. Our power lies in recognizing how much of life is constructed of the choices we make, one moment, one thought and one response at a time.
That is all the power any of us has. It is all the power we need.
Accept, adjust, advance.
#StaySafe!
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
The Early Days of a Pandemic
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Belinda Myers, RN, BSN – Jefferson Health, Cherry Hill, NJ
In early March of 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a message was sent out to all the nursing staff asking if anyone would be willing to help out in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) due to the surge of critically ill patients. The surge of patients and the need for increased support on the unit was truly a tragedy that was hitting hospitals across the nation, with the New York and New Jersey areas suffering the worst. At a time when most people were learning to wear personal protective equipment and being urged to stay inside and reduce unnecessary exposure, the doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff were ramping up and working harder to meet the increasing need for the critical care of those infected.
The rate of infection was so high, that hospitals were having difficulty keeping up with the need. As a nurse of 20+ years, I knew in my heart that I could not ignore this call for help and I willingly stepped up and volunteered. My nursing career has primarily been in behavioral health, but I was willing to step out of my comfort zone to assist whenever and wherever I could. In anticipation of increased infections, the hospital was preparing and pulling staff from all areas of nursing to support the ICU.
On my first day pulled to the unit, I was greeted by the Acting Manager and the Charge Nurse. Not only did they make me feel welcome, but they also made sure that I had an N-95 mask and a face shield, and that I understood how to wear and safely remove my gown. It was obvious from the start that they worked together as a team and that their safety and mine was the priority. I wanted to help in any way I could, so I jumped right in to assist with routinely cleaning, organizing, and backfilling supplies. I watched and listened to each nurse give a report and the more I watched, the more I learned and recognized the doctors, nurses, and techs as dedicated, courageous, and strong professionals—true frontline heroes. They faced numerous challenges and they had to be creative with the deployment of the IV pumps, the ventilator alarms, and the numerous connections, recognizing that this equipment had to remain outside the room to reduce contamination and allow for easy monitoring. The IV pumps, ventilator alarms, and vital signs of each of the patients required constant attention. Alarms would sound and every nurse would quickly respond and assist as a team. At first, my contributions included assisting with ADL (activities of daily living) care, running to and from the lab and pharmacy, suctioning, finger-sticks, and IV medicines.
Before we could enter the room of a COVID patient, we would have to have our gowns, gloves, N95 masks with surgical masks as a covering, and face shields on, as well as any supplies we needed. Having to utilize PPE was a little concerning, even unnerving, due to the fear of making a mistake that could lead to your own infection and potentially serious illness. Early on, there was a belief that proning patients would assist in their recovery.
Two nurse educators led a team that managed the process of proning patients. As part of the team, we would place patients on their stomach for so many hours a day and then return them to their backs. For this to work, you had to have an entire team, including respiratory, to move and monitor the patient. I was fortunate to have been part of this team. They taught me how to place electrodes on a patient to monitor vitals and how to safely disconnect IVs and turn patients toward the ventilator.
The nurses and doctors would have rounds for each patient, each day. Pharmacists would have to evaluate the medications each day and make suggestions for the best treatment. The team worked endlessly from the moment they arrived on the unit until they clocked out. There were days when we knew we were losing a patient and the nurses would be right there, by their side, to comfort them and be with them. With the exposure concerns, family members were not permitted to visit, so the nurses would bring in their Rovers and FaceTime or call their loved ones to give them a chance to talk. The nurses went out of their way to comfort patients and try to keep them connected to their families. I know this gesture meant a great deal to the patients and their families.
The Security team members were also unsung heroes during this time because they had to be contacted to support the transport of deceased COVID patients to the morgue and, when the morgue was full, to the area designated. This required them to be gowned, masked, and gloved to ensure their safety, and I am certain the frequency of this task had to take a toll on them. Housekeeping, in gowns, masks, and gloves, would then have to sanitize the room in preparation for the next patient suffering from COVID.
The administration staff would also make rounds on the unit to thank the staff for everything we were doing and to let us know they were there to support us in any way. They did their best to ensure we had the PPE, guidance, supplies, and support we needed to keep going each day. The doctors and the acting manager would also show their support by ordering lunch for the unit, and there were many days when family members and loved ones of the COVID patients would donate food to the staff as a show of their support.
The only thing more compelling than the selflessness, drive, and dedication of the staff to be there for our patients and each other was the level of recognition and support we received from everyone—the hospital, the community, the media, and the public. The entire Jefferson hospital staff worked as a team, truly came together to answer this call for help, and did so in the face of great uncertainty, some fear, and unprecedented devastation—COVID-19. I am proud to be part of this team, who were on the frontlines of this battle and earned the title of “Frontline Heroes.”
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
Trailblazing on the COVID Unit
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Michelle Canonica, RN, CMSRN, OCN, Clinical Coordinator, MS2 – Jefferson Washington Township Hospital
This memory is burnt into my mind and feels like it happened just yesterday, even though it has been several months already. I remember coming into work one morning in mid-March. I looked at the board and our census was so low that the nurses had three to four patients apiece and I was a free charge. I had to look twice because I couldn’t believe it after being used to being so busy for months prior. There was news of a novel coronavirus outbreak that was finally setting in as being something serious to worry about. We were watching Italy and New York on the news in the days prior and fearing our own futures. To add insult to injury, we learned that there was a national shortage of PPE. I remember sitting at the nurses’ station talking to my coworkers and everyone was saying how they hoped we wouldn’t get any COVID patients on our floor. I remember talking about how we would keep ourselves safe by taking extra vitamins or wearing caps on our hair since we would not be using the full hazmat-like suits we saw healthcare workers wearing everywhere else in the world.
We went all day without having a patient admitted and our Nurse Manager and Educator said goodbye for the day and said to call if we needed anything. Then, as Murphy’s Law would have it, an admission dropped into our queue and it was a PUI (person under investigation). Our hearts sank as we all looked at the screen. The silence on the floor was deafening for that moment. I looked around and saw all of my junior coworkers with fear in their eyes. I knew they were all scared to death about this virus because of our conversations earlier that day. We were lucky though because behind the scenes our leadership team had been working together to create kits that had everything we needed to set up a COVID room. I called my Nurse Manager and Educator to let them know we were getting a PUI and, to my surprise, both of them turned around and came back to the hospital to help us set up the room and prepare for this patient to come to our unit.
Now came the time to assign the patient. After hearing everyone else’s fears all day, I couldn’t lose it now and I couldn’t give this patient to another nurse who already had an assignment. I felt a call to duty and I had the support behind me so I could feel confident that I was protected. The Nurse Manager, Educator and Corporate Director came to help me don my PPE. They went over the use of the iPad and we worked together to take care of this patient who needed our help. As the days followed, we saw more and more patients come to the floor. Before we knew it, we were the official COVID unit for the hospital. We ran like a well-oiled machine after that day and provided the care that so many needed. If it wasn’t for the leadership and education we had behind us, I don’t know if we would have been as prepared as we were for this crisis. I felt able to “take one for the team,” because of the leadership and education provided that day. We were on the frontlines of this battle, but if not for the support of all the people behind us, we never would have been able to accomplish what we did.
Nicole Ervin, RN, MSN, CMSRN, Nurse Manager – Jefferson Washington Township Hospital
Michelle was so calm and confident as we suited her up to go into the room. She was behind a large fire panel door with no windows, all alone. Feeling helpless, we stood outside the door for what seemed like an eternity. I felt like I had sent my firstborn off to war.
She not only showed courage and leadership that day, but it was a profound moment for every novice nurse who was on the floor that day. Fast-forward several days later, we would be a full COVID medical-surgical floor for several months. During this time, just nursing was permitted into the rooms, and the ancillary staff such as patient care techs would station themselves outside the rooms ready to pass in supplies to the nurses or whatever was needed. The unit secretaries would assist and man the call bell system, asking the patients what they would need when the nurses would come into the room to cluster care. The unit educator was the safety officer assisting staff to don and doff PPE properly and educate on the new medications that were given to COVID patients.
As a unit manager, my role had changed. I was to take care of my staff. I oversaw obtaining PPE supplies and other items such as headbands with buttons to take the mask strings pressure off the staff ears. I was in charge of checking on everyone’s mental and physical health. Making sure they got adequate breaks and a safe place to take off their masks and eat. The unit turned into more like a home. A dressing area to take off your hospital clothes before you left, we planted floors on our patio and furniture for staff to eat out there, and even a lounge area that served as a respite room for staff. Our team got through it and it made us even closer.
As a nurse manager, I felt like George Washington in that iconic scene, leading his team into battle across the Delaware. What a time to be a nurse!
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
Creative "No-Visitor" Policies
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Josie Adkins, RN, Cardiac Intermediate Unit at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center
Josie was caring for a patient who was having trouble coping with the no-visitor policy. The patient’s room had a view of the parking garage roof, so Josie worked with the patient’s son and developed a plan to surprise the patient with “visitors” he could see outside his window.
On a Sunday afternoon at the agreed-upon time, Josie had the patient look out his window. He was surprised by family and friends who brought signs with special messages and greetings.
Administrative nurse manager Bethany Kravitz, BSN, RN, Grant, talked with the patient after. He was moved to tears telling the story about how surprised and grateful he was for the team’s thoughtfulness.
Josie Adkins’ Perspective
I had the pleasure of caring for a patient during the start of COVID. With the visitor restrictions in place, my patient was feeling a little down because he was such a people person and extremely close with friends and church family.
As his son was leaving for the day, he mentioned bringing family and friends to the parking garage so the patient could at least see the support system he had. I told the son let’s keep it a surprise and to call the unit when they were ready. I informed my clinical lead Katie about the plan. When the whole crew arrived, Katie called to tell me everything was ready. I made a little makeshift sign so the family and friends could see/communicate with the patient. It couldn’t have been a more perfect moment. A helicopter was circling waiting to land. I asked the patient if they wanted to see the helicopter because it’s not something you get to see every day and usually everyone is fascinated by a helicopter. The patient did not even notice the top of the parking garage because he was too focused on the helicopter. When everyone was in place, I pointed and said something along the lines of, “Do you know those people?” I put the makeshift sign in the patient’s window so the family could quickly identify the patient’s room.
With the patient’s permission, Katie was able to take pictures and capture the memories. The patient was forever thankful and so touched.
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
What is Your Warm Blanket?
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Kari-Lynn Malec, RN, Interventional Radiology at Henry Ford Hospital
What is your warm blanket? A nurse collecting unemployment during a COVID crisis, a global healthcare pandemic? Who thought this could happen? An RN was redeployed from a navigator position to ED to home care and eventually to taking a personal leave and then a furlough. Wow! How did this happen? How come I couldn’t go? Every day upon arrival at work I asked to be redeployed. I was not sent. Thirty-one years of experience, a graduate degree, a national certification and a plethora of experience. Wanting to support the true hero—the nurse at the COVID patient’s bedside. The hero nurse—I sure didn’t feel like a hero. The media told me I was one. My neighbors dropped off gifts, leaving them on the front porch. They were supporting the hero. I was not. I was sitting home guilt-ridden because I was not at the bedside.
The development of a basic concept of nursing emerged. I could not find my warm blanket to hand out or a pillow to fluff. Reflecting on my position and wondering what the warm blanket I was providing was, as I was not supporting my colleagues, nor did I feel I was contributing like a hero. I was looking inward when I needed to be looking at finding a place back at the bedside where I could put a warm blanket on someone. I sunk to a dark place with no self-worth and felt for the first time in my career no one wanted me. I didn’t feel like a hero. I didn’t feel like a real nurse.
My colleagues were struggling around the country as I sat and did my office job. I didn’t know where my warm blanket was. Often, my thoughts would drift to bedside patient care. How could I change jobs in the midst of a crisis when nurses were furloughed? Knowing the crisis could come back in the fall and winter and being in the same position again but wondering whether I would be paid this time. It all came down to the general concept of the warm blanket. Maybe I couldn’t support my colleagues, but maybe I could go somewhere where I could be with the patient. I needed to change my focus on how or when to apply the blanket. I needed to suppress the guilt or release it. I always wanted to teach a class on giving love—fluffing a pillow, putting a warm blanket on a patient and tucking them in—not innate in some people.
People learning with the overwhelming nature of academia have a difficult time applying concepts and “giving love.” It is significant to look in a patient’s eyes and share the love. Supporting, guiding—and the true nature of our calling to nursing. The education to support the practice, and the love to help guide the patient through their journey. As an ED nurse for many years, recognizing that an injured toe or a GSW is still a journey for that patient. And everyone can close their eyes and feel the nurse through the application of a warm blanket. My thoughts continuously flowed to the bedside. Holding a hand, fluffing a pillow. Helping guide a patient through their journey while I am at the bedside. This is my true calling. This is where I belong and where I can support my colleagues. I don’t need to be a hero. I just need to hold the warm blanket for when it is ready to be applied.
What is your warm blanket?
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
Verses to Battle COVID-19
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Sophie Whitlock, Hospice and Palliative Care nurse at Bristol Home Care and Hospice, a part of Bristol Health
Sophie experienced firsthand the impact of COVID on our staff and patients. As an active member of the Bristol Health palliative care team, Sophie spent many long hours gowned and masked, meeting with patients and communicating with the families struggling with this pandemic. It took a toll on Sophie and the team as the numbers increased and there seemed to be no end in sight. Sophie is a poet and so she shared this poem with our Bristol Health team and brought many to tears.
Gowned and gloved, face shield in place
Only our eyes to represent our face
Dressed for an enemy we cannot see
We are nurses and we still will be
Your advocate and caregiver through the darkest of days
As the storm unfolds, we will help guide the way
We won’t turn away when you cry
We will be there with you to wipe your eyes
Even though the days are long
Don’t be afraid, we are Nurse Strong
—Sophie Whitlock, BSN, RN, CHPN (2020)
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
Being A Trauma Nurse In COVID-19
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Elden Cox, BSN, RN, CCRN, CNRN – TNCC Unit Supervisor at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center
What’s so weird for me being a Trauma Nurse is that I’ve seen everything. I can be neck-deep in blood working a trauma with our team and walk out to the next room and eat a full meal.
This is so different. I don’t know why. When I was giving a report to the day nurse and was instructing her on what to do (her first day at work since the apocalypse), she said, “Oh, no. That’s not how I nurse. I can’t do that. I’ve got to turn my patients every two hours, hold their hand and give them water.” I feel like what a soldier must feel like on the battlefield. Dodging “the virus.” Wondering if it’s creeping in somewhere through my PPE while touching the patient. When we go into a room the rule is to get in and out as fast as possible and go in very minimally. You have a buddy watching to see if you need anything handed to you through a crack in the door while you’re in there. Your buddy watches but then he may have to run check on a drip. You look out and bang on the window to get anyone’s attention. You very quickly open and close the door. We constantly watch each other to make sure under all the stress that no one breaks isolation protocol. We yell at each other across the unit if anything deviates from the norm. We’ve got each other’s backs—more than ever. When you go in, it feels like when you’re snorkeling, and you hold your breath to dive deep down to get a glimpse of the coral on the bottom. You try not to breathe too deep in fear of sucking in the virus through an unknown crack.
We’ve become engineers, fixing and creating new ways to get the job done, with safety being #1. Our IV pumps are now on the outside, so we don’t have to make unnecessary trips in to hang fluids, vasopressors and sedation. I saw nurses high-fiving last night because one of them came up with a brilliant idea by brainstorming.
At any one time, you may look across the unit and see the sudden motion of the team donning PPE to rush in to intubate. The unit is in constant motion. These patients crash faster than any I’ve ever seen. Ever. Our unit looks so different. So much equipment everywhere because we took our only two storage rooms for two more beds. We’ve sent equipment to other areas to share and we’ve literally built ICUs overnight out of scrap.
We got word last night that we had a patient coming from a unit down the hall. This is a unit where the more stable ones are. Our unit is the highest level of care and the most critical so when they tank, they come to us. I can’t get the image out of my mind seeing them rushing this woman in to be intubated. I was running across the unit as they wheeled her by me and I caught eyes with her while trying to concentrate on what I was doing and it was as if I was in a slow-motion movie watching the fear in her eyes. My eyes followed her. She was sitting high in the bed breathing rapidly and was FaceTiming her family because they cannot step foot in the hospital. This is horrific for my hospital because this isn’t what we do. We cater to the patient and their family, or at least try to. I watch these patients’ expressions and it must feel like they are being wheeled into a gas chamber, not knowing what’s next. The staff is running around, faceless. They see the constant rush as they pass by all of the equipment, which to them looks like the inside of a spaceship or a science-fiction movie set. The horror is unsettling. We can’t stay and hold their hand or wipe their forehead. We have to get them intubated, get a central line in, an arterial line in and a catheter in and get out, only to look at them through the window. I’m not used to not having 20 people around the patient working on them. Our amazing Trauma Team. Now it’s only one MD, one nurse and one respiratory therapist in the room at a time, or we try to keep it to two. This woman’s nurse told me she was giving as much comfort as she could in that short time while she was FaceTiming her family. I can’t imagine how that family felt. This is so barbaric but necessary for everyone’s safety in this time of disaster.
I can’t imagine how it feels when that phone goes blank on the family’s end. I can’t imagine how the patient feels when they say goodbye before being sedated and intubated not knowing if they will ever wake up. No matter how strong you are, it’s frightening. Very few of our patients are conscious, but the few that are, they helplessly look at you through the window when you walk by. In all this, which is now the “national or world norm,” and because we are operating in “disaster mode,” rest assured that this phenomenal team keeps your loved ones updated on the phone. The doctors and nurses make regular calls to keep your families updated in the most compassionate way possible.
Lastly, I’m so proud of my hospital and team. No hospital can be prepared for a catastrophe this large, but we were. I’ve never seen such precise execution of a disaster plan. Equipment and supplies appeared out of nowhere. I’ve never seen so many disciplines work so hard together in my life—the pharmacy, the lab, nursing, biomed, maintenance and housekeeping! Everyone has pulled together to pull this off and it’s amazing to see every department work so hard and be so kind and cooperative together. Emotions have run high, but everyone has been amazing and kind. Administration has held constant briefings around the clock to keep us informed. Our new Nurse Manager has been handed something many couldn’t handle, but she has been amazing, even though I’ve seen her cry a few times—but that just shows she is human. She has been such a pillar for us to lean on. I feel very safe. Our hospital stresses both patient and staff safety year-round. Throughout this disaster, they have catered to us. It has been amazing. I feel we have sufficient PPE at the moment. We are a very large hospital and normally stock large quantities of PPE, but come on, people, how can you expect a hospital that may normally have 20 or maybe even 50 isolation patients to be prepared for something of this magnitude? We can’t stock warehouses of PPE for hundreds of people. I can’t blame any hospital for this. One thing I can say is the staff has been amazing at conserving our PPE and other supplies. Everything we pull out of a kit, someone says something like, “Save those extra parts—we can make masks out of that if we have to!” I’ve seen nurses saving things we normally throw away.
I wish everyone could see what is going on behind the scenes. It’s nothing short of a miracle at my hospital. Our ICUs now look like an army battlefield ready for what comes our way.
I know this is so stressful, but we have to make the best of a catastrophic situation.
Rest assured, if you come our way you will be very well taken care of, both physically and emotionally. I’m so proud of everyone and the quick response with the swift adaptation to changing needs in this very trying time.
Stay safe and stay away!
Now it’s your turn! Click here to submit your COVID story!
Fall 2020 Loud and Clear
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A Communications Newsletter from Tipton Health
Welcome!
Thank you for reading the Fall 2020 edition of Loud and Clear — a communications newsletter from Tipton Health. This edition features recommendations on how to effectively navigate the workplace in the “new normal,” ensuring that employees are top-of-mind during a COVID open enrollment process, and other tips and insight from the experts at Tipton Health Communications.
Article Navigation
How to Navigate the Workplace in the ‘New Normal’
Q&A: How Hospitals Can Educate the Public in a Time of Health Information Saturation
Keep Employees Top-of-Mind During COVID Open Enrollment
Tipton Health Wins Hermes Awards for Benefits Communications and Leader Communications
Partner with Expert Communicators—and Keep Costs Down
Keys to Success
How to Navigate the Workplace in the ‘New Normal’
For Nikki Sumpter, senior vice president and chief human resource officer at Atlantic Health System, this is a time for organizations and individuals alike to reexamine their best practices. Some old habits and methods may have to be scrapped. At the same time, some new approaches should be adopted to ensure that both employers and employees are moving forward together in a safe, mutually beneficial way.
However, Nikki says long-term plans don’t have to be scrapped completely. But sometimes to move forward, you must first reposition yourself in the place where you are.
Achieving Harmony in a Time of Chaos
Atlantic Health System is a team of more than 17,000 members, and one of the primary topics that Nikki covered during a Facebook Live event is the phenomenal job everyone has done in the past months. “In caring for patients, families, and each other through COVID-19. This has been a trying time… and we have rallied together. We should all be proud of the work we’ve done.”
As organizations like Atlantic Health System look to the future, plans made before COVID-19 must be adjusted. “That doesn’t mean that everything’s off the table that we’d planned,” Nikki stressed. “We just have to nuance differently.” Public health must now be considered in new ways, in view of the ongoing pandemic.
In Nikki’s professional opinion, as organizations look to get back on track, among the most important processes they can employ is effective communication, which means listening. “Make sure,” Nikki said, “to create environments where team members have an opportunity to voice concerns. Address any fears that may be there.
“And then once back in the workplace, check to make sure that people have what they need,” Nikki said. Organizations need to provide teams with all the appropriate tools, “including personal protective equipment. Keep your team safe so that they can focus on the patient.
“Pay attention to the need for decompression,” Nikki continues, “and the need for folks to step away and get rejuvenated.” Especially in an industry such as health care, allowing team members to rest when they can helps prepare them for surges that may come later. “Try to be prepared, get ahead of it, and use your time right.”
Even at a time of absolute crisis and frequent chaos, Atlantic Health System’s 17,000 team members pulled together and were able to work in unison to provide the care and services needed by their community. In part, this was helped by Atlantic Health System’s culture of listening and of providing for both physical and emotional needs.
Reimagining Productivity
After methods are in place to ensure that time will be made for conversations, and that both physical and emotional needs are addressed, organizations must decide what’s important to their business. Focusing on those things, while keeping both customers and employees safe, is the path to success.
Redefine productivity and how it’s measured, and reimagine what work looks like. “Do you have an environment where team members can be equipped to work from another location?” Nikki asked. “And that doesn’t necessarily mean home.” Finding off-site locations – or even outdoor locations – that allow people to spread out or do their work differently are the kinds of strategies that organizations need to employ in a post-COVID-19 world.”
Supplying masks, sanitizer, and handwashing stations are necessary, but insufficient, steps. “Think about those precautions that have been drilled into us over the last few months, and incorporate them into the work environment … It’s not always natural for people to think, ‘Okay, we’re six feet apart.’” Barriers, signage, and other visual cues need to be included in the workspace to remind people of the new danger, and how they can avoid it.”
As the lockdowns end and the economy picks up, success for businesses and other organizations won’t look like a return to life before the novel coronavirus pandemic. Instead, Nikki said, “We have to think about what our next steps will be, and how we will move through that fluidly.” For organizations and people, the goals they’d set for themselves pre-COVID-19 “can still be achieved. But a new level of focus has to be there.”
COVID-19’s Effect on Career Placement
Nikki’s Community Conversation included many questions relating to finding work and career advancement, and one thing that she stressed is that not many things have changed in these regards.
One of the best ways to get noticed, Nikki said, is still to “create relationships. Reach out through LinkedIn … or stop by the human resources department and take your information directly” to the people who will ultimately make the decisions. “Call. Email. Visit their LinkedIn page. Send messages. Fill out applications online. Send your resume – and paper resumes still work! Send that information and continue to be in front of the talent acquisition consultant or recruiter.”
One thing to keep in mind is that many organizations now use technology to parse applications, so that the most experienced candidates are presented to recruiters. So, particularly for digital resumes, Nikki stressed the use of language that is appropriate to the field and the position, so that the algorithms measuring an application will rate it highly.
Among all the disruption COVID-19 has wrought, Nikki still finds some positives for prospective employees. “There’s a lot of free education out there from major universities,” Nikki said, “as well as tools such as LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, edX…”
To really take advantage of those opportunities, the first step Nikki advised is to discover “what your passion is. What is it that you enjoy doing? What do you value?” From there, look for online programs. Almost certainly, somewhere a university, technical school, or community college is offering courses on that subject for free.
Getting degrees, certificates, or even just being better informed in a subject is a great way for an applicant to stand out from the competition, or to advance in a current position.
But for Nikki, the most important aspect of career advancement is the culture of communication. “Leaders should always have conversations with their team members about what’s next,” she advised. “How can we cultivate your development?”
Those conversations can continue in the COVID-19 era. “That can be done virtually,” she emphasized. “But have the conversation.”
For individuals looking to do something different, Nikki recommended asking for special projects in an area that interests them. “Maybe you’re passionate about research. This is a time when many organizations are looking for other revenue sources. Offer to do some research. Offer up those skills that you have. Know where you want to go.” The key to getting where you want to be is working for it. Look for educational opportunities. Look for career opportunities. And if they don’t present themselves, reposition yourself so that you can move toward the place you want to be.
Health Care is Supporting Patients
Throughout the pandemic, Atlantic Health System didn’t stop needing staff, and continued to hire roughly 100 people each week.
One thing Nikki stressed is that health care means supporting patients. Doctors and nurses are, of course, a big part of that, but patients also need people working in food service, supply chain management, and therapies of all kinds. Hospitals need architects and engineers. They need people working in human resources and marketing. “It takes all this and more to make patient care possible,” Nikki said.
“I chose the right field,” Nikki said, “because I’m able to support people to live their dreams. I’m proud of the work that I’m able to engage in, and to work with all the team members at Atlantic Health System. I can’t say enough about how great this place is, and I really have to thank our community for supporting us.”
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Q&A: How Hospitals Can Educate the Public in a Time of Health Information Saturation
Megan Call, communications director at Main Line Health, shares her insight on the importance of developing effective external communications aimed at building health awareness and understanding with the general public. Main Line Health employs a strategy that not only educates the community about COVID-19, but also on how to maintain their general health and wellbeing.
Main Line Health’s blog (mainlinehealth.org/blog) offers a wealth of wellness information. What is your strategy for creating compelling, informational and wide-ranging content that all audiences can understand?
We are constantly discussing this issue: How do we promote our strategic priorities and service lines while also balancing the interests of our audience and giving them information they want to read? We’ve gotten creative: In addition to promoting our primary care physicians by developing blogs that feature their expertise on everything from preventive health care to fitness and nutrition, we also have a library of articles where they talk about “odd” or embarrassing health questions our patients have—things like, “Where did that mystery bruise come from?” “What causes ‘dad bod’?” and more. We also pay close attention to what’s performing well and try to deliver the content our audience is reading and has demonstrated an interest in.
How do you determine what type of content to create and post to the system’s different communication channels?
We get content submissions from many individuals and functions across our organization and—in most cases—we can find ways to share this with both internal and external audiences. Our philosophy is “Create once, publish everywhere!” Of course, content needs to be tailored to the audience it’s being shared with, but we are always evaluating how we can use content to inform and engage several different groups: patients, employees, donors, etc. There is rarely ever a piece of content that comes along that is only appropriate for one of these groups.
With COVID-19 being a large part of everyone’s daily life, how do you strike a balance of presenting pandemic-related health information and sharing insight on preventive care/overall well-being?
I think we are always trying to think a month or two ahead—as much as you can during an unforeseen pandemic, at least! People know to wear a mask and to wash their hands, but what they’re really wondering is, “How can I give my kids a normal Halloween?” “Is it safe for me to celebrate the holidays with my aging parent or grandparent?” “How will this affect flu season?” We try to look ahead at what’s coming and keep in mind the questions that are keeping our audiences up at night. In most cases, they’re the same questions we all have—not as MLH employees, but as people trying to make it through this time, too.
With news about patients delaying medical care because of coronavirus concerns, can you talk about the importance of sharing compelling health information that encourages the community to take action on their well-being?
We have seen a dip in the number of people visiting our emergency departments for issues like heart attack and stroke. These are really serious issues that require immediate medical care, and we are lucky that we have several partnerships that have allowed us to get the message out there about the importance of continuing to seek care in an emergency. We recently partnered with the American Heart Association and Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic on the Don’t Die of Doubt™ campaign, whose message was just that: If you’re not sure about your symptoms, if you’re not sure if you should visit the emergency room, don’t doubt yourself. Go. It could save your life. Even in the midst of a pandemic, hospitals are still the safest place to be in a medical emergency.
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Keep Employees Top-of-Mind During COVID Open Enrollment
Open Enrollment can be a challenge. This year, with COVID-19 forcing businesses to adapt to evolving workplace structures, the challenges are multiplied. But while you may have to reevaluate your Open Enrollment strategies, you also have a unique opportunity to reinforce your commitment to the well-being of your employees.
As you plan for your company’s Open Enrollment, keep your employees top of mind with these tips:
Consider the World Around You
Now more than ever, your employees are paying attention to their benefit options. The health and financial impacts of the pandemic have been tremendous, and people are eager to reassess their health insurance and financial options. They’ll need you to thoroughly explain this year’s health and financial well-being benefits―and the costs associated with each―so they can feel confident and secure with their selections moving into the year ahead.
Expect and Encourage Questions
In the absence of in-person benefits fairs and one-on-one meetings, your employees need a way to reach you with specific questions. Along with a heightened interest in benefits, employees may be dealing with unexpected COVID-related life changes that will affect their Open Enrollment selections. Help them with their selections by being ready to answer their questions and letting them know who to contact for more information.
Keep the Focus on People
During this time of isolation, you need to find ways to keep people connected. Identify “influencers” who are connected interdepartmentally to help share information about Open Enrollment and the value of your company benefits. To help employees understand the usefulness of the benefits, ask coworkers for testimonials about how they’ve implemented these benefits into their lives.
Involve Families
Benefits are a family decision. Your employees are likely spending more time at home, which means their spouses can play a greater role in selecting benefits. Help your employees continue the conversation around the kitchen table by tailoring webinars and information sessions to include spouses, or by providing a list of topics they can discuss with family members.
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Tipton Health Wins Hermes Awards for Benefits Communications and Leader Communications
Tipton Health Communications earned the 2020 Hermes Awards for communications excellence for open enrollment communications and leader communications.
The Tipton Team was recognized for its work to create a benefits guide for Augusta Health, in Fisherville, VA, and for creating a leader resource guide for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
The Tipton team—consisting of Nicole Fullerton, strategic communications manager, and Karen Zucca, creative director—partnered with Augusta Health to support its benefits guide and open enrollment efforts. To help Augusta Health employees understand and take advantage of the benefits available to them, Fullerton and Zucca used the organization’s brand in a visually appealing manner designed to make the benefit information more comprehensible.
“The annual open enrollment period is important for employees, but the benefits choices and programs can be overwhelming and difficult to understand,” Nicole said. “Together with the amazing benefits team at Augusta Health, we were able to create a comprehensive, easy-to-use guide that enabled employees to make the most appropriate benefits selections.”
The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center tapped the Tipton team—consisting of Phil Ellingsworth Jr., strategic communications manager, and Karen—to support its 2020 employee engagement survey. Tipton delivered a comprehensive branding campaign, including the award-winning leadership guide
The Hermes Creative Awards – administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) – is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, and design of traditional and emerging media. The Hermes Creative Awards has more than 300 categories and entrants are from across the globe.
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Partner with Expert Communicators—and Keep Costs Down
Here’s an understatement: 2020 has been an extremely challenging year and it’s not over. After scrambling to manage the COVID-19 crisis, hospitals and health systems around the country are now dealing with the economic aftermath.
Struggling to steady bottom lines ravaged by the pandemic, hospital administrators are being forced to make difficult financial decisions, including budget cuts and staff reductions. For many organizations, communications and marketing departments and their budgets have been downsized and reduced.
The reality is hospital marketing and communications teams must do more with less.
Imagine this: You receive a call at 8 a.m. on a Friday from your CEO saying that you need to overhaul your internal communications plan and present your updated strategy to the hospital leadership team at a 9 a.m. meeting on Monday.
Or this: Layoffs claimed a key member of your digital marketing team, but one of your service lines is still demanding an email marketing campaign and they want it to go out next week.
With fewer staff members to support these different initiatives, you may be asking yourself, “How am I even going to get this done in time?”
The answer is obvious at least to all of us at Tipton Health. We can help you. With our Communications Services Solutions, we can help you meet any project requests caused by staffing challenges.
Our expert team of creators, strategists and designers are ready to step in as a full-service extension of your team. We’ve worked with small and large organizations alike – both as in-house and agency professionals. We have the skill and expertise to help you leverage your voice and address your communication challenges head-on. With more than 190 hospital and health system clients around the country, we understand the complexities and nuances of the healthcare industry.
Tipton Health’s Communications Services Solutions can help you with a wide array of communications projects, including:
Internal and External Communications
Executive Communications and Strategic Advisement
Media Relations
Crisis Management
Copyediting
Brand Development and Management
Email Marketing
Web Content Development
Graphic Design
Illustration
2020 has taught all of us the importance of being flexible and adaptable. In these times of change, we work closely with you to tailor our services to meet your specific and unique needs.
Turn to Tipton as an Extension of Your Team
Don’t go in it alone – turn to Tipton as a trusted partner who will help you advance your goals and priorities in a budget-conscious way. If you would like to learn more about our Communications Services Solutions, call us at 302-454-7901, or send us an email at info@tiptonhealth.com.
Learn more about Tipton Health’s Communications Services Solutions.
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Keys to Success
Best Practice Recommendations from Tipton Health Communications
Use A/B Testing for Stellar Conversions
A/B testing in email marketing is the best way to ensure consistent clickable results. By creating different versions of an email and tracking their open and click-through rates, you can determine which version works best for your audience. Experiment with multiple elements in your email campaigns—visuals, subject lines and preheader text, and the call to action—but be sure to test each of these elements separately. You’ll be on your way to boosting audience engagement and garnering more website visits!
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Taking Care of Your Caregivers
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As the “new normal” created by COVID-19 becomes more and more entrenched, healthcare workers across the country are finding themselves in need of continuous support. While communities have stepped up to support their local nurses and physicians, organizations like the Cleveland Clinic have taken this type of care one step further by creating a role to address that specific need.
Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC, FAAN, is the Cleveland Clinic’s first-ever chief caregiver officer. In that role, Dr. Hancock has responsibility for leading the development and implementation of all aspects of caregiver engagement for Cleveland Clinic’s 70,000 caregivers.
Dr. Hancock spoke about her newly created role and offered advice for aspiring nurse leaders during Tipton Health’s October 6 webinar, “Caregiver Resiliency and Nursing Challenges in COVID-19.”
Dr. Hancock made it clear that organizations won’t find a one-size-fits-all approach to taking care of their caregivers. It requires trial and error, as well as consistent feedback—but it’s worth the effort. Engaged caregivers who feel supported provide higher-quality care, which leads to better patient outcomes and a stronger organizational culture.
Here are some of the strategies Dr. Hancock tested in her new role:
Where to start?
Revamp your onboarding. Instead of onboarding your employees based on their specialty or area of practice, onboard them all together. When taking this team approach, set clear expectations of what it means to be a caregiver at your organization, what leadership behaviors staff should be modeling, and outline your organization’s guiding values and principles.
Create shared ownership of care. Shared ownership is critical to the success of your interprofessional teams. Begin by clarifying the direction of your team, establishing priorities, and aligning those priorities with the team and your organization. This minimizes workplace politics, encourages diversity of thought and boosts your team’s capacity for innovation.
Value teamwork. Bring members of a care team together for problem-solving. Show that you value them for the skills and knowledge they bring to the table. Each caregiver will feel appreciated and respected for their individual contributions to the patient’s outcome.
Keeping momentum toward success
Create trust through empathy. Meet your caregivers’ needs inside and outside of the hospital with an empathetic perspective. Stay connected with caregivers who have contracted COVID-19 throughout their recovery; make sure they know that their colleagues and organization support them. The Cleveland Clinic also created a Caregiver Hardship Fund to support staff who were in financial need during the pandemic.
Knowledge is power. As COVID-19 continues to affect patients and caregivers across the nation, set up a hotline to answer questions and direct your staff to the right resources. Your staff will feel confident in the care they can provide if they are armed with the correct information. Effective and timely communication, especially in a crisis, is key.
Keep evaluating. Because you’re using multiple tactics to best help your caregivers, be sure to ask for their feedback. You can send out a quick pulse check survey to see how the changes are helping employees and if there’s anything else the organization can do for them.
Fostering new leaders
Current nurse leaders: Identify the talent within your organization and give them opportunities to shine. Help them identify their goals and craft ways to develop and support their professional growth aspirations.
Aspiring leaders: Seek out leadership responsibilities. This could be presenting to your unit on topics of interest, applying for a smaller leadership role like a shared governance council chair, unit champion or charge nurse, or taking on roles and responsibilities that others may not want. These are great opportunities to see if leadership is really something that you want to do.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Click here to view our on-demand webinar video featuring Dr. Hancock’s full interview.
Tipton’s next webinar, Every Nurse is a Palliative Nurse: Alleviating Serious Health-Related Suffering Worldwide, will be held October 20, 2020, 12:30–1 p.m. EDT.
Congratulations to Our Clients On Recent Magnet Success
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Tipton Health is pleased to congratulate Lehigh Valley Health Network, St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital on earning Magnet® recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
“Our team was thrilled to support each of these hospital’s talented nurses on their journey to Magnet designation,” said Dan Tipton, president and CEO of Tipton Health. “Receiving this accreditation in the midst of their heroic efforts against COVID-19 is a testament to their tireless dedication to their patients, as well as their commitment to excellence.”
This is the fifth consecutive designation for Allentown, PA-based Lehigh Valley Health Network, which includes 10 hospital campuses. This is the first designation for both St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, located in Newburgh, NY, and Houston-based Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital.
Magnet recognition is the gold standard for nursing excellence and the highest international recognition for quality patient care. To earn Magnet recognition, organizations must provide the ANCC with both qualitative and quantitative evidence of patient care strategies and outcomes. The process is lengthy and requires a concerted team effort.
More than 190 hospitals and health systems nationwide have partnered with Tipton Health to help them complete their Magnet journeys and attain similar certifications.
Included in Tipton’s array of Magnet consulting services are readiness assessments (Gap Analysis), nursing excellence consulting (closing the gaps and nurse leader mentoring), workshops, Magnet document review, mock site visits, and communications and marketing support.
To find out how Tipton can help your hospital get the recognition it deserves, email us at info@tiptonhealth.com.
Meet Dr. Kelly Hancock
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In our recent webinar Cleveland Clinic chief caregiver officer, Kelly Hancock, will speak about her unique role, as well as caregiver resiliency and nursing challenges in COVID-19.
Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC, FAAN
Kelly Hancock is Chief Caregiver Officer for Cleveland Clinic health system. She is responsible for leading the development and implementation of all aspects of caregiver engagement for Cleveland Clinic’s 70,000 caregivers. With a focus on enhancing the health system’s unique team-based culture, Dr. Hancock provides strategic direction and expertise for the organization’s human resources function, domestically and internationally. She consistently works to build and retain exceptional caregiver teams through the optimization of human resources policies and programs.
An innovative thought-leader, Dr. Hancock delivers advisory services in areas such as leadership, coaching, employee relations, talent acquisition, compensation, organizational design and change, performance management, learning and development, and more. She continuously collaborates with fellow executive leaders to ensure Cleveland Clinic caregivers embody the organization’s culture, vision and values. Additionally, she provides direct oversight of daily operations for the human resources and nursing teams.
For more than 25 years, Dr. Hancock has served Cleveland Clinic health system, its patients and communities. Most recently, she was Executive Chief Nursing Officer for the health system and Chief Nursing Officer for the main campus, a dual role she held for 9 years. Dr. Hancock is known for her dedication to excellence and professionalism. She provides a strong administrative and clinical atmosphere that promotes staff education, development, and cohesion between all disciplines, professional nursing care and world-class patient care.
Dr. Hancock obtained her DNP from Chamberlain College of Nursing and MSN from the Breen School of Nursing at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio. She is a board-certified Nurse Executive through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), a member of the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and the Honor Society of Nursing – Sigma Theta Tau International. Dr. Hancock became a member of the Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing in 2019, was awarded Crain’s Cleveland Business’ Notable Women in Healthcare in 2018, the Sones/Folvaro for Excellence in Nursing Collaboration in 2017, Distinguished Alumnae Award from Ursuline College in 2013, the ANCC Circle of Excellence Award in 2012, and the 2010 Maria and Sam Miller Professional Excellence Nurse of the Year Award. She is also a recipient of the “Bruce Hubbard Stewart Fellow Award” and received “The Abbie Porter Leadership Award” in 2002 and 2009, which highlights excellence in nursing leadership.
Click here to watch Dr. Hancock’s webinar!
Your Ambulatory Nurses Are More Vital than Ever
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Nurses have always been agents of change within their healthcare systems. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, they are even more vital, stepping in to fill gaps in patient care, process innovation and crisis management.
In Tipton Health’s September 8 webinar, Rachel Start, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, director of Ambulatory Nursing, Nursing Practice and Magnet Performance at Rush Oak Park Hospital, and Nancy May, DNP, RN-BC, NEA-BC, chief nurse executive at University of Michigan Medicine, shared their thoughts on the value of ambulatory nurses. Here are some highlights of the webinar to help you make the best use of your nurses’ talents during the next wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expand Your Virtual Care Efforts
Ambulatory nurses already have the core competencies related to telephonic and virtual care. The two leaders recommended drawing on ambulatory nurses’ multifaceted knowledge to implement and promote telehealth at your organization. At Michigan Medicine, ambulatory nurses played a key role in two virtual innovations:
The hospital established a 24/7 triage COVID-19 hotline, fully staffed by ambulatory nurses, as a central contact point for patients. Nurses were able to provide timely access to testing while keeping patients informed and monitored during the delay between testing and result delivery.
The patient monitoring at home program enabled patients to keep an eye on symptoms, such as their temperature, blood pressure, glucose levels and more from their own homes. This decreased readmission to the hospital, freeing up nurses to care for the most critical patients.
Gain Insight Into Health Equity and Care Coordination
Ambulatory nurses are the first to recognize which patient populations in their community are being underserved. During the first wave of COVID-19, these nurses played an important role in organizing testing sites and drive-throughs in the hot spots of their cities and providing access to care for the most vulnerable populations.
Continuing this practice during future waves and enlisting your nurses in this process will help you provide the highest level of care to all of the patients in your community.
Communication Is Vital
Interprofessional communication between physicians, nursing staff and nursing leadership is central to success. As a leader, you need to be open and transparent. Hold frequent huddles and run the command center to meet the needs of your patients. Use this break between surges to set up a shared governance structure that will support regular communication.
Rachel suggested grouping similar patient populations, such as oncology or surgery, into cohorts. Create committees based on these groupings to monitor practice trends in each specialty. Committee representatives can then sit on a department-level ambulatory committee to review unit trends. An oversight body for nursing shared governance, which will sit above these cascading committees, should include all settings in your healthcare system—your CNO, as well as representatives from all service lines and departments. This provides a direct line between your ambulatory nursing staff and your nursing leadership.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Click here to view our on-demand webinar video from this session.
Tipton’s next webinar, Every Nurse Is a Palliative Nurse: Alleviating Health-Related Suffering Worldwide, will be held on October 20, 2020, 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT.
COVID Takes Mental Toll on Caregivers—and They Need Your Support
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Healthcare workers, coping with overwhelming patient loads with insufficient time and inadequate resources as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, may experience sadness, distress, fear and anger more acutely than others, according to survey results.
More than 600 healthcare workers at NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center were surveyed during the early stages of that hospitals COVID-19 surge. The survey, administered by Dr. Marwah Abdalla, an attending physician at NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, found that more than half of the participating healthcare workers screened positive for acute stress and patient care PTSD, nearly 50% for depression, 33% for anxiety and nearly 75% for insomnia as a result of working with COVID-19 patients.
Courtney Vose, DNP, MBA, RN, APRN, NEA-BC, vice president and CNO of NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP)/Columbia/Allen, reported on the findings and additional insights into how to best support healthcare workers during Tipton Health’s August 24 webinar.
During the Surge
Physical and Mental Well-being: Offer adequate PPE and testing for staff, provide extra paid leave and waive co-pays. Consider arranging for crisis counseling, psychiatric assessment tracking, pastoral care, bereavement support and memorial services.
At Home: Accommodate staff with childcare, remote work options and additional financial support.
Facing the Frontline: Inform staff of hospital housing and hotel rooms they can stay in to avoid spreading the virus to family. Offer three free on-site meals a day and recharge rooms when they need a break. If you’re financially able, provide a bonus for those working on the frontlines.
Follow-up and Preparation for Future Cases
Host formal debrief sessions with all of your teams to reinforce trust and transparency. These sessions should include three key topics:
What they would like to let go of: NYP employees mentioned ICUs in the operating room, preferring them in the pop-up areas on medical-surgical units.
What they want to keep/enhance: Increase the number of negative pressure rooms available and prepare for any additional surges by stockpiling PPE.
Just do it: Provide nonnegotiable options to staff, such as three meals a day or alternative housing options.
The insights you glean during these debrief sessions should be the basis for a formal action plan. Present this plan to your staff each week to show them the progress you’re making together towards meeting their needs.
Also, consider adding one-to-one discussions around the health and well-being of each of your employees as a component of your annual or biannual evaluations.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar video on the why and how of nursing recognition.
Tipton’s next webinar, Ambulatory Nurses: Uniquely Positioned to Lead Through a Pandemic, will be held on September 8, 2020, 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT.
Nurses Are the Key to the Pandemic Response – Leverage Their Expertise Now
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COVID-19 has overwhelmed our healthcare system, causing resource shortages, harmful shifts in social cohesion, increased exposure to suffering and death for healthcare workers, and economic strain.
Throughout the pandemic, healthcare organizations have raised awareness and acknowledgment of the heroic actions of nurses to an all-time high. Now it’s time to turn that acknowledgment into sustained, real-time support to achieve measurable and ever-improving outcomes—through the remainder of the pandemic and beyond.
Billy Rosa, PhD, MBE, ACHPN, FAANP, FAAN, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psycho-Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, drew on his latest editorial to offer strategies for investing in nursing and leveraging the skills of the healthcare workforce during Tipton Health’s August 19 webinar, “Invest in Nurses NOW to Strengthen the Global COVID-19 Response.”
Nurses deliver up to 90% of primary healthcare services globally and are usually the first—and in many cases the only—health professionals most people encounter. Several reports, such as the WISH Nursing and UHC Forum report, have called for increased autonomy and empowerment of nurses through expanded scope of practice and leveraging nursing expertise.
Dr. Rosa and a team of experts* put together an editorial applying key takeaways from the WISH report to the global COVID-19 response. Here’s what you can do to apply these takeaways in your organization:
Redesign existing services and introduce new and innovative services
Adopt nurse-led testing, triage and management. This provides an extra layer of support, while freeing up specialists for more critical consultations.
Create nurse-managed clinics and nurse-led models of training. Nurses are uniquely positioned to contribute to public health awareness, specifically on topics like social distancing, hand-washing and quarantine best practices.
Remove practice barriers that prevent nurses from working at the full scope of their licensure. This will support optimized disease management beyond COVID-19, as well as health literacy, disease prevention and early detection in case of future health crises.
Develop a comprehensive workforce strategy that maximizes the contributions of all healthcare workers
Strategize fiscal investment across all aspects of nursing. For example, investing in nursing schools and educational programs is needed to prepare the next group of frontline advocates.
Maximize nursing student contributions. Prepare nursing students to work in testing, telemedicine and patient education through providing just-in-time training and appropriate supervision.
Help realize the full potential of nurse practitioners. Educate policymakers, stakeholders and health systems about the roles that APRNs and NPs fill. Their ability to diagnose, treat and prescribe is critical to filling the current gap in available healthcare workers.
Enact supportive legislation and regulation to empower nurses
Strategize policies to increase tasks and roles of nurses. By allowing nurses more responsibility, you increase palliative care access for patients.
Include professional associations in response task force planning.
Nursing schools should reaffirm commitment to community and public health through a curricular emphasis on health emergency preparedness. They should also ensure that leadership and management training is available for all students so that they can be present at the response table as well as the policy-making table.
Raise the profile and status of nursing
Continue to encourage nurses to take on leadership roles in all settings.
Ensure honest communication of who nurses are and what they contribute. Increase their representation in the media, encourage them to participate in interviews, promote their writing and publishing, and support them in sharing the heart and soul of what they do.
Align with global initiatives, such as Nursing Now, to ensure that your local actions are as powerful as possible.
Promote nursing as a desirable profession now and in the future. There will be a need for 9 million nurses by 2030 globally. Be proactive in filling that gap.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar video on the why and how of nursing recognition.
Tipton’s next webinar, Building Nurse Resilience to Battle COVID-19 Stress, Depression and Anxiety, will be held August 24, 2020, 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT.
*Co-authors of the editorial include Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PhD; Howard Catton, MA, BScEcon (Hons), RN; Sheila Davis, DNP, ANP-BC, FAAN; Paul E. Farmer, MD, PhD; Elizabeth Iro, MHSc, MBA, RN, RM; Viola Karanja, BSN, RN; Judy Khanyola, MSc, RCHN; Patricia J. Moreland, PhD, CPNP, FAAN; John C. Welch, DNP, MS, CRNA; and Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN.
Meet Dr. Betty Ferrell, Director of Nursing Research & Education at the City of Hope Medical Center
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In our upcoming webinar, Every Nurse is a Palliative Nurse: Alleviating Serious Health-Related Suffering Worldwide, Dr. Betty Ferrell will join Dr. Billy Rosa to addresses how to integrate palliative care throughout nursing specialties in the context of COVID-19 and at the end of life with considerations for nurses, advanced practice nurses, and nurse leaders.
Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, MA, FAAN, FPCN, CHPN
Betty has been in nursing for 42 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life, and palliative care. Dr. Ferrell is the Director of Nursing Research & Education and a Professor at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and she has over 450 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts. She is Principal Investigator of a Research Project funded by the National Cancer Institute on “Palliative Care for Patients with Solid Tumors on Phase 1 Clinical Trials” and Principal Investigator of the “End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)” project. She directs several other funded projects related to palliative care in cancer centers and QOL issues.
Dr. Ferrell was Co-Chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care. She completed a Master’s degree in Theology, Ethics and Culture from Claremont Graduate University in 2007. She has authored eleven books including the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing (5th Edition, 2019) published by Oxford University Press. She is co-author of the text, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing published in 2008 by Oxford University Press and Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care (Templeton Press, 2010). In 2013 Dr. Ferrell was named one of the 30 Visionaries in the field by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In 2019 she was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Click here to register for Every Nurse is a Palliative Nurse: Alleviating Serious Health-Related Suffering Worldwide.
10 Principles of Caring All Nurses Should Use During Desperate Times
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Now more than ever, the ways that nurses attend to the circle of life and death are crucial.
Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, LL–AAN, the founder of the Watson Caring Science Institute and developer of the “Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring” or “Caring Science,” offered ten principles nurses should focus on during the COVID-19 pandemic, during a recent Tipton Health Communications webinar.
Jean Watson, Principles of Caring Webinar
Embrace the practice of kindness and compassion toward yourself and toward patients, their families and your community. By embracing human suffering as part of the circle of life and death, you can find new meaning and remember your purpose.
Inspire faith and hope. Go beyond the fear that you and your patients experience to allow for prayers, rituals, ceremonies, indigenous practices and more that can inspire patients, their families and their loved ones.
Trust yourself and create trust. Offer a sense of trust to patients by appealing to their frame of reference for experiences and meaning. Establish a trusting relationship through a comforting look or touch, nonverbal communication, a soothing voice, or a calming spirit.
Nurture authentic compassion. Attend to your patient by providing comfort, fulfilling simple requests and responding to what is needed in the moment.
Forgive yourself and allow the expression of positive and negative feelings––from yourself and others—without judgment. Allow a safe space for silence and for positivity in your hospital. As a nurse, you may be the only one there to listen to a patient’s story, so this may be the finest healing gift you can offer. You can calm their fear and unease by allowing them to express their feelings for an emotional and spiritual release.
Deepen your creative self. Now is the time for solution-seeking outside of conventional processes. For example, if your hospital should lack PPE, take it upon yourself and your team to innovate, improvise and find new ways to assist your patients while keeping yourself safe.
Balance teaching and learning. Especially now, when we are learning new information about COVID-19 every day, we must balance facts with fresh information, medical science, understanding and wisdom.
Co-create a healing environment at all levels. As a nurse, you can pattern and repattern the delivery of healthcare in a way that transcends traditional institutional constraints and outdated mindsets.
Minister by helping patients with basic needs. By doing so, you can sustain their human dignity and integrity and eliminate any vulnerability they may feel. Nurses normally do this through physical touch, but in times when skin-to-skin contact is not allowed, you can provide an energetic healing consciousness through compassion, eye contact and a soft voice.
Open yourself to new possibilities. This pandemic has changed our world forever. We must now allow for unknowns and accept events that we may have once thought impossible. As part of the mystery of life and human experience, we must be open to the comingling of spirituality, science and soul. Nurses have awakened the public and the healthcare profession to the risks of this pandemic, including death. Attending to the dying and their families is a sacred act of a nurse. In these circumstances, you must find the kindest, most loving and creative ways to sustain human dignity.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar video on the why and how of nursing recognition.
Tipton’s next webinar, Invest in Nurses NOW to Strengthen the Global COVID-19 Response, will be held August 18, 2020, 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT.
Learn about Rachel Start and Nancy May, Webinar Panelists
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In our recent webinar, Ambulatory Nurses: Uniquely Positioned to Lead Through A Pandemic, featured speakers Rachel Start and Nancy May will speak to how unique competencies and skills positioned ambulatory nurses to be well prepared for the rapid and effective change needed to meet the demands of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Rachel Start, MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Rachel Start is the director of Ambulatory Nursing, Nursing Practice and Magnet Performance at Rush Oak Park Hospital where she has worked to implement structural elements that produce exemplary clinical outcomes and top of license nursing practice. In her role, she was uniquely engaged in leading the implementation of a specialty role focused on best practice outcome achievement, care coordination and population health.
Rachel was co-chair of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) Nurse Sensitive Indicator Taskforce and the lead editor on the Ambulatory Care Nurse-Sensitive Indicator Industry Report: Meaningful Measurement of Nursing in the Ambulatory Patient Care Environment (May 2016). She is a member of the AAACN/CALNOC Collaborative Steering Group advance the science of nursing practice in the ambulatory setting. She has represented AAACN as an advocate for advancing nursing practice in ambulatory at the ANCC Magnet Commission, the National Alliance for Quality Care, Vizient, Press Ganey, AACN and other organizations. She is currently on the AONE Care Continuum Committee, AAACN Leadership Group as well as an appointee to the AAACN Care Coordination and Transitions Management Special Summit and AONE Day of Dialogue related to NSIs across the continuum.
Rachel also teaches yearly at the AONE Dynamic Leadership for Shared Governance Educational Conference. Rachel is newly appointed to the AACN Masters Essentials taskforce. She has published and presented extensively on the imperative for meaningful measurement and nursing practice advancement as related to the shifting healthcare landscape at numerous national venues. She has consulted with numerous organizations related to nursing practice, structural empowerment, Magnet principles and innovative emergent roles. She founded the Illinois Ambulatory Nurse Practice Consortium, a local networking group of AAACN, which serves as the ambulatory nursing voice in Illinois on such important state legislative topics as the nurse practice act.
Rachel is also currently working on her PhD at Loyola University, researching the role of the ambulatory nurse.
Nancy May, DNP, RN-BC, NEA-BC
Dr. May was appointed in 2019 as the Chief Nurse Executive (CNE) for the University of Michigan Health System, a Magnet organization in Ann Arbor, MI. As CNE she is responsible for nursing practice and regulatory standards for both University Hospital, Mott Children’s and Women’s hospital, OR nursing, ambulatory care clinics, advanced practice, homecare and dialysis in the community.
She began working at the University of Michigan in 2015 as the Chief Nursing Officer for ambulatory care. In that role, she was able to restructure nursing to support new care delivery models to impacting outcomes for Patient-Centered Medical Homes as well as strengthen the shared governance models.
Nancy became involved with nursing associations in the 90’s. As a member of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care (AAACN), she envisioned the need for Magnet standards to be embedded into the Magnet document to support the role and value of the registered nurse. Later Nancy was appointed on to the Board of Directors for AAACN where she later served as President. During that time Dr. May created an NSI Taskforce which developed an Industry Report and worked with CALNOC and later Press Ganey for data mining outcomes. During her presidency and board work, the Core Curriculum on Care Coordination and Transition Management (CCTM) was published, certification for CCTM developed, along with the Role of the Registered Nurse White paper and NSI Industry Report were published. In addition, a taskforce was started for a Nurse Residency for Ambulatory nurses.
Continuing to advocate for ambulatory care nursing, Dr. May accepted and sits in appointed positions on the Magnet Commission, as well as the American Organization of Nurse Leaders Board of Directors. Dr. May has also participated at a national level for ambulatory care with the Institute of Health Improvement on Medication Reconciliation, Telehealth, and Closing the Loop on referrals resulting in white papers on the topics. In addition, she has been a member of the Joint Commission Nursing Advisory Board, Press Ganey Chief Nursing Officers Council, committee work for AONL and AAACN.
Click to register for Ambulatory Nurses: Uniquely Positioned to Lead Through A Pandemic.
August 2020 Magnet Newsletter
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Thank you for reading the August 2020 edition of the Magnet® Newsletter from Tipton Health Communications. This edition features an interview with the panelists from the “A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing” webinar, details on our virtual workshops and Magnet site visits, and other tips and insight from the experts at Tipton Health Communications.
Article Navigation
Fighting Systemic Racism in Healthcare Requires Nurse Courage and Self-Examination, Panelists Say
Magnet® Site Visits Go Virtual During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Workshops Go Virtual
Tipton’s Nursing Leadership Webinar Series Offers Insights into Managing Critical Nursing Issues
A Spotlight on Learning Needs Assessments
Determining Your Path with a Gap Analysis
Fighting Systemic Racism in Healthcare Requires Nurse Courage and Self-Examination, Panelists Say
How can nurses get involved in social justice issues and how should they respond to racism in healthcare workplaces?
These were just a few of the questions posed to panelists by more than 200 nurse leaders from around the world during Tipton Health’s recent webinar, “A Continuation of a Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing.”
Not every question could be answered during the webinar. Two of the panelists on the July 28 webinar, Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of the American Nursing Association (ANA), and Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FACHE, president of the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA), graciously returned to share their insights on some of the most frequently asked questions.
Promoting Growth
Audience Question: How can we support minority nursing students and younger nurses with leadership aspirations when organizations aren’t providing opportunities for career growth?
Dr. Grant:Students and nurses should consider two things:1. Participate on hospital committees and garner leadership skills from those leading the group. Seek out a mentor both within and outside of your facility that you can depend on to give you good, sound advice. (The ANA offers a mentorship program that is accepting mentors and mentees until the end of September.)2. Look for leadership growth opportunities outside of your institution. If you’re not a member of your state nurses association, look into becoming one and joining a committee. Collaborating with others from your area and across your state is a great way to develop your leadership skills.
Dr. Dawson:Organizations that are committed to supporting young Black and Brown nurses who have leadership aspirations should encourage those individuals to become members of nursing and healthcare associations (professional homes) that support this career trajectory. I strongly encourage students and nurses to seek out and align with two or more professional homes that have a critical mass of leaders in their membership.
Organizations that do not have diverse leaders must commit to changing their landscape by including this in their strategic plans. Diversity goals should guide the nurse leaders to complete a succession plan assessment, develop measurable goals, change their internal promotion policies and expand their external acquisition strategies. They should also seek external consultation with minority nursing organizations, such as the NBNA, where 86.4% of our RNs have a graduate degree. We also have a large pool of chief nurse executives, chief nursing officers, deans and other leaders. Each nurse owns their career and it’s OK if they are the first in their organization.
Question: How can nurses get involved in social justice issues?
Dr. Grant:The first question I would ask is, “How involved would you like to become?” Once you have made that decision, you need to decide what activity may best fit your needs. For example, you could attend a march or rally, carry a few signs, or offer to assist at a first aid station. You could consider joining social organizations, such as the NAACP or Black Lives Matter, or nursing organizations that have a social justice campaign. You could use your expertise as a nurse when addressing social justice and healthcare issues to help explain how food deserts and the lack of healthcare in underserved areas perpetuate the cycle of poverty and inequity. You may also want to go to local meetings of the city or county government, point out areas in the community that are underserved, and demand that your representatives address these inequities. Point out that doing so will be beneficial for all, especially from a cost-savings perspective.
Dr. Dawson:It takes courage to develop a footprint in the social justice sphere because it starts with self-examination and answering crucial questions such as, “Do I truly believe ‘all men are created equal’?” “Do I understand and accept that structural racism is real and it needs to end?” “Do I believe healthcare is a right?” “Just how comfortable am I with adopting human caring and right approaches?”
After self-understanding, the next step is to connect and partner with like-minded people, both in and outside of the nursing profession, to lend your voice—and your hand—to the work.
Many professional associations advocate for social justice in the space of addressing healthcare determinants to end food insecurities, improve housing, address environmental concerns, and elevate education and economic changes to improve fairness.
Question: How do we start the mentoring process early—say, in high school—especially for students who are in poverty-stricken schools, to start preparing them for a career in nursing?
Dr. Grant:I think you need to start around the fourth or fifth grade. A nursing organization that I belong to has adopted a school in an underserved area. Several members of the organization go to the school at least two or three times a month to work with the young boys and girls. During these visits, they talk about health issues, such as hand-washing, proper meals and exercise. As the students get older, they start talking more about career possibilities and the courses they would need to excel in to become a nurse (or other member of a healthcare team).
I would consider asking a local school’s PTA to see if they would be willing to have a group of nurses come in on a regular basis to offer some mentoring. For high school students, if there is a health occupations program or class offered, offer to come in as a guest speaker and talk to the students and answer questions about what you do as a nurse.
Dr. Dawson:Of the 3.9 million nursing students in the U.S., only one million are Black and Brown. Diversity, based on race and ethnicity, is getting worse, not better. Nursing is a science-based profession and we must start our recruitment and education processes in elementary school. High school is too late to start reaching and recruiting students into the nursing profession.
The NBNA has a youth institute as part of our annual education conference to introduce students to nursing and health, and the highly structured mentorship program includes the development of the next generation of Black nurse leaders.
Question: As a nurse leader in a hospital serving a diverse community, I have tried to hire candidates who reflect that diversity. However, even though we’re in a 50% Hispanic community, we don’t see Hispanic nurses graduating and applying for positions. How do we change this?
Dr. Grant:Work with the local community college or university to get the word out that you’re seeking minority graduates. If local nursing programs have very few minority nursing students enrolled, ask them to step up their recruitment efforts. If you’re an employer, perhaps offer to assist them through funding or by providing some extra resources to get qualified minority students to apply for nursing programs. For example, if you have a Black or Hispanic nursing assistant who would be a good candidate to become an RN, consider offering a scholarship that would help them pursue studies to become an RN. The payoff would be that they would agree to work X number of years at your institution to repay the scholarship if it is not free.
Do whatever it takes to remove stumbling blocks, such as childcare and the cost of books. Offer a lighter work schedule, while still paying for 40 hours per week. Bring the course to the student—strike a deal with a local nursing program to offer courses in the evening at your hospital so that after work, a nurse can take one or two classes a semester toward completing their degree.
Dr. Dawson:As implied earlier, change in the nursing workforce requires deliberate, planned, action-oriented changes at the top. Nurse leaders must commit to recruiting diverse employees to work as nurses and healthcare support personnel. Then, they must partner with nursing schools to develop progression strategies to help nurses enter, matriculate and graduate from nursing programs. I have implemented such programs and experienced the return on investment, both as a C-suite leader and as a consultant. Healthcare recruiters must visit historically Black colleges and universities’ nursing programs that have students from multiple races and ethnicities, including Blacks and Hispanics. Hospital CEOs, the American Hospital Association and the National Association of Health Services Executives must commit to and invest in increasing the percentages of minority registered nurses.
Dealing with Racism in the Workplace
Question: With respect to racism from patients, nurses should critique their institution’s policies and values to make sure those values align with their own. But how do you handle patients and their families?
Dr. Grant:As we discussed in our seminar, everyone must know and honor the administration’s policy regarding respect and racism. When a patient or family member becomes disruptive, know how your administration would prefer that such situations be handled. Most policies point out that a caregiver cannot grant “special treatment” to someone who does not like the color or ethnicity of the caregiver. They also usually point out that when you sign the consent to treatment form, you are consenting to have care provided by any staff member regardless of color, sex, etc.
Dr. Dawson:Typically, leaders and those with “power” expect the target of racist behavior to solve the problem. Institutional and organizational leaders must own their environment and not only work to change it, but also embrace the fact they may be a part of the problem. They must be open to self-reflection and implementing demonstrable change in how they do business. If the top levels of an organization lack diversity, they send the message that they do not value diversity. The foundation supports the house, but when it comes to institutional racism, behaviors and actions must start at the top. Therefore, leaders have to design and build an organizational culture of inclusivity and equity so diverse people want to become a part of the organization. And, more importantly, these people should be able to thrive in the leadership space versus leaving the organization. Leaders have to demonstrate respect for diversity by what their C-suite looks like and avoid tokenism—because that is a sure plan for failure.
Question: What do you do when an organization allows disrespectful behavior? How do you address racism in an organization without fear of retaliation?
Dr. Grant:Begin by looking for a policy that addresses civility and bullying. If such a policy is in place, use that as a starting point, making certain that you document date, time, place, persons involved and other factors. Also, make sure to first speak with your immediate supervisor.
If you feel that you are not getting satisfaction or that the problem is not being addressed, there should be a policy that stipulates how the chain of command works and what rights you have as an employee. If you’ve exhausted all internal options, you can use your state and federal labor relations organizations to report or file an anonymous complaint. These complaints are taken seriously and are investigated. You can do so without the fear of retaliation or retribution.
Dr. Dawson:To say nothing is not an option. Step up and speak out. However, make sure you have at least six months’ salary saved up, so if you have to leave you can survive. I’m sure that if you’re brave enough to call out behavior, you have what it takes to land a better position in a better organization.
Question: As a minority in a leadership role, how do I adjust to/deal with microaggression from colleagues?
Dr. Grant:Never let the person think they’re getting under your skin. When they sense that, they begin to feel they have power over you. Continue to stand your ground, especially if you know what you are talking about is correct, and flip the script on them. Challenge them as to what they would do in the situation. You can say, “Let’s talk about why this may or may not work,” or, “This is where I am coming from on this issue. You seem to have a different opinion—would you like to share?”
Dr. Dawson:Microaggression can be intentional or unintentional insults, invalidation or assaults that hurt another person or group. I do not believe you adjust to any form of microaggression, because it transfers power and influence to the other person. You have to deal with it in a professional manner by calling it out, either at the moment it happens or later. However, you have to make sure you’re in control of your emotions so you can confront the person and teach them that their behavior is unacceptable, hateful, hurtful and insulting. It’s sad, but Blacks experience microaggression on a daily basis, many times from those in leadership roles. When you experience or even witness this type of destructive behavior, you should practice “if you see something, or hear something, say something.”
Watch the recordings of Part I and Part II of this series featuring Ena Williams, MBA, MSM, BSN, RN, CENP, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Yale New Haven Hospital; Dr. Grant; Dr. Dawson; and Alana Cueto, MSN, RN, CNL, president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) (Part II only). Visit TiptonHealth.com/webinars to register for our upcoming sessions.
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Magnet® Site Visits Go Virtual During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Despite the pandemic, you managed to successfully submit your Magnet® documents to the ANCC—and better yet, your documents passed rigorous analysis. It’s time to go to site visit!
But this site visit will be much different than in the past. Recognizing the challenges facing hospitals and appraisers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ANCC is now conducting virtual site visits. How should you get your team ready for these new virtual appraiser visits?
Tipton senior consultant, Kaye Hixon, who has led nearly 70 site visits and mock site visits, offers advice on how best to prepare.
Organizations that have cleared the final hurdle into Magnet® designation know how important the site visit is. For the appraiser, it’s about clarifying, verifying and amplifying what was submitted in the organization’s documents. But it’s also about getting a true feel for the hospital environment. Hixon says this will be one of the appraiser’s greatest challenges when moving online—gathering and verifying all of the data without feeling it.
“You can almost feel if an organization is Magnet by lunchtime on the first day of an actual site visit,” says Hixon, drawing on her experience as an appraiser. Appraisers will undoubtedly miss the opportunity to experience the enthusiasm and pride of their nurse colleagues during a site visit.
In a virtual visit, though, there are certain topics and narratives that are harder to confirm. For example, when looking at safety standards, appraisers would typically walk into the ER and scan for workplace safety and security measures and PPE. Now through a computer screen they may be a bit more challenged. The virtual format may also provide additional challenges for the nursing staff who are participating.
While appraisers will have a learning curve, your team will also have to consider some new factors in planning for your virtual site visit:
Partner with your IT department. Your site visit will now be dependent on technology. Work with your IT department to test all the equipment you’ll need for both audio and video quality, ensuring there’s no disruption or lags. This will be especially important when coordinating your community partners for special sessions. Due to hospital visiting limitations, you may need to connect up to 15 different people in your community, who are using their own equipment and assure connectivity with appraisers who are also using their own equipment. Partnering with IT in your preparations will ensure a smooth experience on both ends.
Engage your escorts. During a typical site visit, you’ll choose the best and brightest clinical nurses as escorts to guide the appraisers around the facility and promote special features and programs. Now that the visit will be virtual, you’ll need to strategize how to keep those nurses engaged in that role.
Enlist HR support. Normally, appraisers will visit the HR department and conduct an audit of randomly selected employee files. Now, you’ll need to prepare your HR staff to convert that random list of files into PDFs in a short amount of time.
Hixon stresses that the best way to get in great shape for the virtual visit is to practice, practice, practice. Run through several rehearsals to prepare your teams, your escorts, and any supporting departments so they are ready for any scenario. Be sure to check and recheck lighting, sound, and any other critical factors before the actual visit.
To get that practice, Tipton is now offering both onsite and offsite mock site visits to prepare your team for either a Virtual Site Visit or in-person Site visit. If you want an expert to ensure your team shines, contact Tipton today at info@tiptonhealth.com or 302-454-7901.
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Workshops Go Virtual
Tipton now offers an online, virtual alternative to its popular in-person Magnet and Pathway to Excellence workshops. Available online are the Writer’s Prep Workshops for both Magnet and Pathway to Excellence, as well as the Applying Magnet to Your Service Line workshop. Additional workshops will follow.
Tipton’s Director of Hospital Certification Michelle Beuscher shared some of the challenges with taking the sessions online.
How did you transform the existing Tipton Workshops to an online format?
We started our traditional Writers’ Prep Workshop and reimagined the content for the virtual environment. Our team evaluated the tools that were available for online learning to create an optimal experience for participants. By spreading out our original content, we’re allowing time for the information to sink in, while still incorporating our live personal touch.
How will the virtual workshops be structured?
Our in-person Writers’ Prep Workshop is a one-day onsite workshop that typically started at 8 a.m. and didn’t end until 5 p.m. When we moved online, it gave us the opportunity to break up the workshop into multiple sessions to make it easier for participants to schedule, as well as to absorb the information. We kick off the online workshop with a live, personalized session, and throughout the week participants work through The Wonderful World of Magnet, an EO Survival Guide and the Writing Process Breakdown. The workshop is capped by another live session with a Q&A.
What do the participants take away from this experience?
Other than the eLearning sessions, all participants will have a physical workbook to use as a guide through the entire process! This includes pulse checks for each session and exercises to reinforce the learning concepts throughout the workshop. These workshops will also include Contact Hour (CH) credits with participation.
To learn more about our online workshops or request a workshop for your organization, contact us at info@tiptonhealth.com or 302-454-7901.
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Tipton’s Nursing Leadership Webinar Series Offers Insights into Managing Critical Nursing Issues
Some of the nation’s leading nursing experts shared insights and personal experiences on how to manage some of the toughest issues facing nurse leaders today during Tipton’s free summer Nursing Leadership Webinar series. The experts tackled everything from fighting systemic racism in nursing to building the “new normal” of a post-pandemic world.
Recordings of the sessions are available online and will soon allow viewers to earn Contact Hours through Walden University.
Employee Communications Essentials in the “New Normal” Hospital Environment
In these uncertain times, nursing leaders need to serve as a voice of reason and stability, guiding their teams into the “new normal.” Phil Ellingsworth Jr., strategic communications manager at Tipton, and Erin DiGirolamo, senior manager for internal communications and digital workforce strategy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), outlined three straightforward ways to make sure your communications are strong, relevant and effective.
Click here to read more. Click here to watch the webinar.
How Nurse Autonomy Helped Hospitals Manage the Crisis (and Will Help Build the New Normal)
Three months since initial COVID-19 restrictions were put into place, we’re certain of this: Things will never be the same. The healthcare industry, along with the rest of the country, is slowly transitioning into what will be the “new normal.” Judith Hahn, director of professional practice and nursing education at Yale New Haven Hospital, led a webinar on how vital nurse autonomy has been during the COVID-19 crisis—and how vital it will be in creating the future of healthcare. Learn how to create opportunities during this transition period to improve nursing at your organization.
Click here to read more. Click here to watch the webinar.
Driving Nursing Excellence and Maintaining Magnet Momentum in the Pandemic and the “New Normal”
The pursuit of excellence helped nurses save the day for hospitals inundated with patients during the scariest days of the pandemic early on. Now, as hospitals face intense budget challenges, nurses need to maintain their drive. The pandemic has clearly shown us the benefits of empowering nurses, and nurses are enjoying strong, well-deserved community support. It’s a good time to reinforce the foundational elements of nursing excellence.
Margarita de la Fuente, associate chief nursing officer, professional practice and Magnet, Duke University Health System; Jeff Doucette, senior vice president and chief nursing officer, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals; and Deborah Piehl, executive director, professional, compliance and nursing programs accreditation, University of Miami Health System, discussed how important nursing excellence has been in responding to the pandemic.
Click here to read more. Click here to watch the webinar.
Nursing Leadership’s Role in Emergency Response Planning: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Crisis
Within the span of two weeks, hospitals in New York City went from normal operations to patients flooding their ICUs—with COVID-19 setting up camp for the next three months. New York City was soon reporting the highest number of confirmed cases, leaving nursing leaders to wonder how they could respond efficiently and keep up with the rising number of patients. They turned to their emergency response plans. During a Tipton Health webinar, Courtney Vose, VP and CNO of NewYork–Presbyterian/Columbia/Allen, shared how the hospital’s planning provided a foundation for its response to the pandemic, along with lessons learned from the unprecedented uphill battle against COVID-19.
Click here to read more. Click here to watch the webinar.
A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing Part I and Part II
We associate the word pandemic with the COVID-19 cases that have been wreaking havoc in our country for months. But another pandemic has been destroying our nation for centuries: systemic racism and inequality. Dialogue around systemic racism, bias and promoting inclusion is critically important in all facets of life, including the workplace.
In a two-part webinar event, Ena Williams, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of the American Nurses Association, and Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FACHE, president of the National Black Nurses Association, shared their views on race in the nursing profession and reflected on their personal encounters with racism. Alana Cueto, MSN, RN, CNL, president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN), will join these experts in Part II.
In part one, the panelists emphasized the need to recognize implicit and direct bias in the workplace, acknowledge structural/institutional racism, promote diversity and inclusion in the C-Suite, and work for change.
In part two, the panelists tackled questions asked as a result of the first session, focusing on combatting these issues from the perspective of nursing leaders, as well as nurses on the unit.
Five Steps to Lead Your Nursing Team into the Future
Healthcare professionals have learned some hard lessons in the past few months: how to lead in a crisis, how to take care of not only their patients but themselves, and how to persevere under extremely difficult circumstances. Now it’s time to build on those lessons and plan for what lies ahead. Mary Del Guidice, Tipton Health Consultant, recently hosted a webinar to help guide the way to the “new normal.”
Click here to read more. Click here to watch the webinar.
The Why and How of Nurse Recognition During the Pandemic from the DAISY Foundation
As your nurses ride the highs and lows of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re courageously facing more challenges than ever. There are increasing demands for care, PPE shortages, concerns about their physical and psychological safety, and managing a work-life balance. And even as they confront all of these obstacles, they remain the essential human connection for their patients. How do you reward your nurses for their steadfastness?
In this webinar, Bonnie Barnes, DAISY Foundation co-founder; Tena Barnes Carraher, DAISY Foundation vice president of marketing and communications; and Cynthia Sweeney, DNP, MSN, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC, FAAN, CAPT, USNR, NC, Ret, DAISY Foundation Vice President of Nursing, explain how to operationalize meaningful recognition during the pandemic.
Click here to read more. Click here to watch the webinar.
Learn More About Tipton’s Nursing Leadership Webinar Series
To learn more about future sessions and register for upcoming webinars, click here.
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A Spotlight on Learning Needs Assessments
Clinical nurses are the backbone of every organization. Their skills, compassion and dedication keep hospitals running and patient care up to standards. That’s why it’s crucial to invest in their continued education and development. By fostering your nursing team’s growth, you’re securing the future of your organization.
The Tipton Learning Needs Assessment (LNA) tool can provide actionable insights to help nurse educators develop targeted education for nurses at all levels in all practice settings.
The survey takes less than 15 minutes to complete and covers topics that align with Magnet® and Pathway to Excellence® requirements. It’s easy to read and understand. After completion, clients receive an executive summary that provides big-picture information like cohort strengths, knowledge opportunities and recommendations for growth.
Melissa Box, chief nursing officer, and Elizabeth Berrier, manager of professional practice at WellStar Douglas Hospital have grand plans for their LNA results after COVID-19 subsides.
Elizabeth:It was helpful for leadership to see where staff self-assessed their gaps to be. That information will definitely help as we look at the new Pathway manual requirements and how our staff fits into them. We plan to use this information to prepare for leadership retention.
Melissa:Although COVID-19 has slowed us down, we plan to ramp back up our leader education department and develop classes that cover all of the areas identified in the LNA. We will also be redoing our new leader orientation to make sure incoming leadership is as prepared as possible.
Both executives emphasized that they were pleasantly surprised by the results. Nurses identified areas they were “weak” in that educators never would’ve guessed at. On the other hand, staff indicated they were very confident in many more areas than expected.
To learn more or to set up an LNA at your organization, please reach out to michelle@tiptonhealth.com.
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Determining Your Path with a Gap Analysis
Are you thinking about applying for Pathway to Excellence® designation but don’t know if your organization is ready? Is a positive practice environment part of your organizational culture? We can help you answer these questions and more with a gap analysis.
A gap analysis will help your leadership team understand how your organization measures up when compared to the Pathway requirements. During the gap analysis a review will be conducted of your hospital’s practice standards, procedures, and management infrastructure to determine your organization’s readiness to apply for Pathway to Excellence®.
When you begin your Pathway journey with a gap analysis, even before you decide on your potential submission date, you are able to proactively identify and establish a solid base for your hospital to proceed on your Pathway journey. By being proactive, you avoid all the stress of searching for policies and processes at your hospital and trying to fit them into the Pathway standards. Instead, you have the opportunity to develop those policies, procedures and a shared governance infrastructure that fosters a positive practice environment.
After assessing nurse leaders’ two-way communication systems, shared decision-making structures, resources for and commitment to nurse professional development, evidence-based practice at the point of care, successful performance improvement initiatives, and your interprofessional collaborative culture for care delivery, it’s time to take action!
We coach your team about the importance of: interprofessional collaboration, a positive practice environment, using data to demonstrate the value of nursing and effective documentation to showcase your accomplishments. Additionally, we emphasize the paramount importance of direct care nurse inclusion in your cultural transition as they are the “voice of the workforce” in the nurse survey component of Pathway designation.
We work with your nursing leadership team to identify an organization-specific targeted timeline to address your most crucial gaps, and then set up an action plan that covers goals, next steps, and point people for each area of focus. This proactive plan gives busy nurse leaders a sense of security as they map out the rest of their Pathway journey.
As you tackle your action plan, our consultants will be there each step of the way. We will check in periodically to ensure you stay on target and provide innovative solutions we have garnered through years of experience.
To learn more about our gap analysis services for Pathway and Magnet®, contact us at info@tiptonheath.com, or 302-454-7901
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You Can Be the Change: Race and Diversity in Nursing
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How do you battle systemic racism in nursing; what should a nurse do when faced with racism at work; and what can nonminority nurses do to support their minority peers?
These were just a few of the questions facing the national nursing leaders who served as panelists during Tipton Health’s June 28 webinar, “A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing.”
Ena Williams, MBA, MSM, BSN, RN, CENP, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, returned to moderate the discussion.
Williams was joined by Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of the American Nursing Association (ANA), and Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FACHE, president of the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) and Alana Cueto, MSN, RN, CNL, president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN).
Following are the panelists’ responses to a few of the many questions posed by the more than 200 nurse leaders from the world who attended the webinar.
How do we foster diversity within the ranks of leadership? What can the audience do to make a difference?
Dr. Grant: There are five key strategies to cultivate diversity:
Review workplace policies. Take a deep dive and ask whether they’re addressing diverse employees in your organization. Create or amend policies that would work across the system. An example would be the paid holidays your organization offers—do they apply to someone from a Jewish or a Muslim background?
Establish diverse mentorship programs. Identify employees who are invested in your organization to mentor. You can send them to a leadership academy, you can direct them to webinars and leadership conferences to help them progress.
Capitalize on employee-led task forces. Listening to your employees is key. Take what your staff has to say and put it into action—show them you are listening
Provide diversity training for managers. This will be crucial for situations like interviewing prospective employees. They will now be able to recognize what candidates can bring to the organization because of their diverse background or their representation of the population the facility serves.
Develop a relationship with your local minority community. If you’re having an event, hire minority-owned businesses. Ensure that you’re offering healthcare services in those communities.
Dr. Dawson: Sponsorship for future leaders is crucial. When senior-level people see potential in novice staff, they should take them under their wing. Help them develop their skillset, take them to meetings they wouldn’t typically have the chance to attend, send them to workshops and put them into fellowships. Help them navigate their careers to grow as a potential future leader.
Cueto: Offer avenues for discussion. At my organization, we offered a series of seminars to allow for difficult conversations in a safe environment. Topics included coping with collective trauma and health equity. They’ve also launched a Center for Heath Justice that centers around addressing employee health disparities so that they can better take care of patients and the community.
Williams: Leaders have the power in their hands. You can be the change, whether you’re a CNO or the manager of a unit. These experiences may be uncomfortable, but you have to lean in and change the healthcare profession.
As a minority nurse, how do I respond to racial bias constructively within the moment and afterward?
Dr. Dawson: The best way to respond constructively is to know yourself–understand how you’re going to control and react to a situation. In situations where I’ve been called a slur or discriminated against, I had to take the power back and decide not to let them influence my emotions. I respond by saying, “Thank you. So many of my ancestors and forefathers gave up their lives for me not to have to respond to you. I want you to know that I’m very proud of that.”
Cueto: Always take the high road. I like to employ the three Ds:
Direct—Directly intervene by calling out inappropriate behaviors or comments. Use “I” statements like, “I heard you say…” or “I saw you do….”
Distract—If you overhear something, interrupt the conversation and move the behavior away from the event. Delay intervention surrounding the perpetrator’s behavior until after the event and take the time to make sure the victim is OK.
Delegate—If you’re not the manager or the supervisor, but you see or hear something taking place, you have a responsibility to report that event to either a workplace diversity officer, a supervisor or human resources.
Dr. Grant: Make sure you know what your hospital policy is. When you choose to take the higher ground and address racial bias, you want to know your institution will back you up. If you’re a manager, how you treat one incident sends a signal across the organization about how all incidents will be handled. As a leader, practice and live your policies, procedures and core values.
How can I be part of the solution as a nonminority nurse?
Dr. Grant: You say a lot when you remain silent. You may be the first ripple of change among your nonminority colleagues. Continue to bring up issues you notice again and again until you are heard. Secondly, we’ve talked about active listening, but now it’s time to take that one step further. Make the move to say, “I hear you, now how can we solve this together?” Form partnerships with your peers and work on how you can solve problems and open the eyes of others together. Ensure that your plans and solutions involve everyone in the institution, from housekeeping to bedside nurses to C-suite executives.
Cueto: Challenge yourself to acknowledge your privilege and how you benefit from it. I recognize and acknowledge that I don’t fit the stereotype of a Latina, and because of that, I experience white privilege. Recognize the benefits of the privilege you hold and recognize “tokenism.” Many times I’ve been invited to “sit at the table” because I represent a minority while still managing to look white. I use my privilege and sit at that table to amplify the voices of underrepresented groups and work to make room at the table for them.
Dr. Dawson: Take off your blinders. When you take a step back to look at your organization, it may not be as perfect as you think. As a nonminority nurse, you may not notice that, as a novice nurse, you got promoted to charge nurse within two years, while a minority nurse who had been there for five years before you arrived has still not been promoted past the entry-level position. Once you can recognize these inequities, you’ll be ready to begin to make a difference at your hospital.
Learn more from our speakers
Visit TiptonHealth.com/webinars to hear more about the experiences of our panelists and strategies to combat racism in your organization.
Sign up for next week’s webinar:
Dr. Jean Watson Discusses Caring Relationships During Desperate Times (Tuesday, August 4, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Reward Your Nurses with Meaningful Recognition
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As your nurses ride the highs and lows of the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re courageously facing more challenges than ever. There are increasing demands for care, PPE shortages, concerns about their physical and psychological safety, and managing a work-life balance. And even as they confront all of these obstacles, they remain the essential human connection for their patients. How do you reward your nurses for their steadfastness? Meaningful recognition. It’s a powerful way to let your staff know they make a difference.
Tipton Health Communications recently hosted a webinar focused on how to operationalize meaningful recognition during the pandemic. The Why and How of Nurse Recognition During the Pandemic from the DAISY Foundation offered expert insight from Bonnie Barnes, DAISY Foundation co-founder; Tena Barnes Carraher, DAISY Foundation vice president of marketing and communications; and Cynthia Sweeney, DNP, MSN, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC, FAAN, CAPT, USNR, NC, Ret, DAISY Foundation Vice President of Nursing.
Options for Recognition
Formal: You can pursue external awards through foundations or annual awards that your organization has established.
Informal: A good way to keep the appreciation flowing is to give weekly shout-outs, appreciation awards and the occasional thank-you notes.
During the webinar, The DAISY Foundation leadership referenced a study conducted by Cindy Lefton, PhD, RN, CPXP, which examined the effect of critical care nurses’ compassion fatigue. She says that meaningful recognition helps reduce burnout and increase compassion satisfaction as it mitigates compassion fatigue.
“[It] acknowledges how a person’s actions affect the life of another, is relevant to the recipient and is equivalent to his or her contribution,” Dr. Lefton added.
Digitally Collect Nominations
Whether you’re submitting applicants for a recognition award like a DAISY award or looking to acknowledge your nurses through an organization-specific award, be sure to make the nomination process easy and quick. Set up an online form for staff, as well as family and patients, to capture the extraordinary experiences that are currently happening within the organization.
Additionally, ask unit managers to submit at least one story each month of an extraordinary nurse or nurse-led team.
Setting Up a Virtual Review Process
It’s time to select your winning staff from the flood of nominations. Create a scoring system based on your organization’s core values and use Survey Monkey to have your selection committee vote on the best nominations. Then set up a conference or video call for a final committee discussion.
Celebrating Your Nurses
Award Presentation: Use Skype/Teams/Facetime or Zoom to invite a bigger audience to “attend.” Make sure to record the celebration and share it on one of your patient channels, your website and your social media. Plan an event to bring all the nurses recognized during these modified presentations back together at a later date for a larger reception and acknowledgment.
A Token of Appreciation: Consider investing in a banner that celebrates your recipients, and hang in a central location. Or purchase a pin they can wear at work as a badge of honor!
Learn More from Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view our on-demand webinar video on the why and how of nursing recognition.
Tipton’s next webinar, A Continuation of the Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing, will be held July 28, 2020, 12:30–1:30 p.m. EDT.
Alana Cueto Joins Former Panelists in Upcoming Webinar
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Learn more about Alana Cueto, a nurse fellow at the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and the President of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN), who will be joining our previous panelists for the second installment of our Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing webinar.
Alana Cueto MSN, RN, CNL
Alana has spent her professional career improving the health and well-being of vulnerable children and families living in distressed urban neighborhoods through service, scholarship, education and advocacy. Alana is a registered professional nurse, certified clinical nurse leader, educator and Fellow at the New York Academy of Medicine. Elected as President of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) for biennium 2020 to 2022.
Alana combined purpose and passion as Founding President of the NAHN Garden State Chapter having led the chapter in cultivating healthier communities for all residents in the state of New Jersey. She also served on Governor Phil Murphy’s Healthcare Transition Advisory Board in the State of New Jersey.
As a nurse member of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH) she contributed to the survey for the development of the Sustainable Development Goals used at the United Nations (UN). She presented at the 2018 UN 62nd Commission on the Status of Women, Empowering Girls and Women through Innovative Nursing and Midwifery Interventions, and as a speaker panelist at national prominent conferences that include the 2019 League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) State of LatinX Health in America Summit, and the 2019 Jonas Scholars Leadership Conference.
Alana has been honored for her leadership, health advocacy, and volunteerism. Recognitions include 2019 NJSNA/Institute for Nursing Dons & Divas Award, NAHN National Henrietta Villaescusa Community Service Award (2016), NAHN Ambassador Award (2016), Seton Hall University College of Nursing Elizabeth Ann Seton Young Alumni Award (2015), and the Hispanic Leadership of New Jersey Health Advocate Award (2015)–a three-part award that includes a Bronze Medal of Honor and Special Recognition from both the United States Congress and the State of New Jersey Joint Legislature.
On September 28, 2019, the Alana Cueto Nursing Scholarship was established by The Wilson Initiative for Health & Social Equity, Inc. Scholarship funds will help pave the way for minority students pursuing careers in nursing. In addition, Alana was honored as an “Unsung Hero” for her advocacy in addressing the social determinants of health and for working to create a more diverse workforce.
Alana resides in the City of Perth Amboy, New Jersey where, in 2018, she demonstrated her commitment to servant leadership by running against the incumbent for a City Council position. Despite not being elected into the role she continues her commitment to the community through civic engagement as a member of the City’s Planning Board and through collaboration with community leaders and stakeholders in an effort to actively engage residents on initiatives related to quality of life, sustainable solutions related to equity and social justice, health and well-being.
Alana is proud to share that of all her achievements– the greatest one has been to be the mother of her two children; Wesley and Caryn.
Register now for Part Two of A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing.
Dive Into Dr. Watson's Accomplishments
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In an upcoming webinar, Caring Relationships During Desperate Times, featured speaker Dr. Jean Watson will lead a conversation on the importance of fostering caring relationships and practices within your organization during stressful times.
Dr. Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, (LL-AAN)
Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, (LL-AAN), is the founder and director of the Watson Caring Science Institute, a nonprofit organization that advances the philosophies, theories and practices of Human Caring. Before founding the institute, Dr. Watson had an impressive career highlighted by distinguished awards and positions.
She resided as distinguished professor emerita and dean emerita at the University of Colorado Denver, College of Nursing, where she held the nation’s first endowed Chair in Caring Science for 16 years. She is the founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and currently serves as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Watson went on to become a founding member of the International Association for Human Caring and International Caritas Consortium. She also served as past president of the National League for Nursing.
Along with her impressive work furthering the application of caring science in nursing, Dr. Watson has received several awards, 15 honorary doctorates and 12 international honorary doctorates. She is a widely published author, with clinical nurses and academic programs all over the world using her published work.
Dr. Watson earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master’s degree in psychiatric mental-health nursing with a minor in psychology at the University of Colorado, Denver. Dr. Watson completed a graduate study on social and clinical psychology and earned her PhD in educational psychology and counseling at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Click to register for Caring Relationships During Desperate Times.
Learn About Panelist Dr. Billy Rosa
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In our upcoming webinar, Invest in Nurses NOW to Strengthen the Global COVID-19 Response, Dr. Billy Rosa will address a recent call to action on reshaping existing services and introducing new initiatives to enable our nurses to work at the top of their game.
Billy Rosa, PhD, MBE, NP-BC, FAANP, FAAN
Billy Rosa, PhD, MBE, NP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, is an author, researcher, speaker and nurse practitioner. Most recently, Dr. Rosa served as a palliative care nurse practitioner at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, palliative care being just one of his specialties. His next position will be as a postdoctoral research fellow in psycho-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Dr. Rosa has built a solid foundation of experiences to further his reach in his field of specialties. He spent a year with the Human Resources for Health program in Rwanda, East Africa, helping build the curriculum for the country’s first master’s-prepared nursing cohort. He is the editor of three books on leadership, global health and theory-guided practice and has contributed more than 150 publications in a host of diverse forums. Dr. Rosa is also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar.
Dr. Rosa earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing at New York University and a master’s degree in nursing at Hunter College at the City University of New York. He also received a master’s degree in bioethics and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.
Click here to register for Invest in Nurses NOW to Strengthen the Global COVID-19 Response.
Learn About The Leaders of the DAISY Foundation
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In the latest installment in Tipton’s webinar series, The Why and How of Nurse Recognition During the Pandemic from the DAISY Foundation, panelists from The DAISY Foundation will share their thoughts on the importance of nurse recognition during this pandemic and how nursing leaders can continually support their teams.
Bonnie Barnes, DAISY Foundation Co-Founder
Shortly after the passing of their son, Bonnie and husband Mark Barnes founded The DAISY Foundation. Its mission is to recognize nurses across the country by funding nursing scholarships and awarding nurses who demonstrate outstanding service. Mark and Bonnie’s motivation to give back came from their gratitude for the extraordinary nurses who took care of their son, Patrick, who died from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura. After witnessing their care and compassion, the couple wanted to create a foundation that honored nurses around the world.
Tena Barnes Carraher, Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Tena Carraher, wife of Patrick, is a co-founder of The DAISY Foundation and serves as its vice president of marketing and communications. In this role, she provides strategic direction over the foundation’s resource development, marketing materials, and internal and external communications. With more than 25 years of experience in marketing, Tena leads the marketing efforts with skill and expertise. She received her bachelor’s degree in communications from Arizona State University.
Cynthia Sweeney, DNP, MSN, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC, FAAN, CAPT, USNR, NC, Ret, Vice President of Nursing
In her role as vice president of nursing, Cynthia Sweeney provides the “nurse perspective” for The DAISY Foundation and is heavily involved in program development. Before joining the foundation, she spent 40 years in nursing. Cynthia served in the Navy Nurse Corps, where she retired with the rank of captain. Cynthia also worked with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), where she oversaw the development of educational products and services that support nursing certification. In 2019, she was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Recently, she received the Outstanding Achievement in Perioperative Nursing Research or Evidence-Based Practice Award from the Association of periOperative Nurses (AORN). She currently volunteers her time serving on a variety of boards. Cynthia earned her doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Click here to register for The Why and How of Nurse Recognition During the Pandemic from the DAISY Foundation.
July 2020 Loud and Clear
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A Communications Newsletter from Tipton Health
Welcome!
Thank you for reading the July 2020 edition of Loud and Clear — a communications newsletter from Tipton Health. This inaugural edition features advice on how to make open enrollment communications simpler, insights on how to communicate with employees in the new normal, and tips from the experts at Tipton Health Communications.
Article Navigation
A Note from Dan Tipton
COVID-19 Communication Lessons Learned at NewYork–Presbyterian
Strategies for Communicating in the “New Normal”
Make Open Enrollment Easy-to-Understand for Your Employees
Six Tactics to Calm and Engage Employees During Uncertainty
Keys to Success
Tipton Awards Spotlight
A Note from Dan Tipton
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Tipton Health’s quarterly communications newsletter, Loud and Clear. We are excited to share expert perspectives and strategies from our communication strategists, consultants and clients. Use the best practices in each issue to engage and educate your internal and external stakeholders.
We are launching the newsletter now, because effective and clear communications are more important than ever. Your employees and stakeholders need to know what is happening within the organization.
We hope you enjoy this first edition of the newsletter. Like all good communications, two-way feedback is integral. Feel free to send a note with ideas and topics you would like to see covered in future editions of the newsletter.
Best,
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COVID-19 Communication Lessons Learned at NewYork–Presbyterian
Within the span of two weeks, hospitals in New York City went from normal operations to patients flooding their ICUs—with COVID-19 setting up camp for the next three months. New York City was soon reporting the highest number of confirmed cases, leaving nursing leaders to wonder how they could respond efficiently and keep up with rising numbers of patients. They turned to their emergency response plans, which included communication best practices during a disaster.
Courtney Vose, VP and CNO of NewYork–Presbyterian/Columbia/Allen, shares how making communications a part of the emergency planning process helped to keep nurses and internal stakeholders informed and engaged during the unprecedented uphill battle against COVID-19.
Listen and Respond
The key during any situation is to listen to your teams. How? Always be rounding. Leadership rounding at the unit and department level will help them better understand what teams throughout the organization are experiencing, what they may need and how they can respond to those needs in a timely manner.
Communicate More
During the first wave of the pandemic, hospitals and health systems everywhere better understood the importance of communicating with every level of the organization. Successful communication plans are key to navigating a pandemic. Knowing what to say, when to say it and who to say it to are key to ensuring your messages are heard and understood. NewYork–Presbyterian found success communicating with its staff by:
• Holding daily virtual briefings for all, including frontline staff
• Ensuring leaders are visible on all shifts, not just first and second
• Holding daily online meetings with team leaders to ensure there is two-way communications and questions are answered right away
Encourage Recognition
In a profession dedicated to helping others, it can be difficult to pause and acknowledge all the good being accomplished. Encourage your leaders to give recognition to their teams and to initiate self-recognition. Your staff needs to know their hard work is appreciated, and when they do, they’ll find it a little easier to handle the burdens they face throughout the day.
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Strategies for Communicating in the “New Normal”
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused anxiety around the unknown for many employees across the country. To ease this anxiety, leaders need to serve as a voice of reason and stability, guiding their teams into the “new normal.”
Phil Ellingsworth Jr., strategic communications manager at Tipton, and Erin DiGirolamo, senior manager of internal communications and digital workforce strategy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), share three straightforward ways to make sure your communications are strong, relevant and effective.
Communication is a Two-Way Street
Consistently sending out messages is a step in the right direction. But to communicate effectively, you need to listen to the feedback you receive and address it in your next directive.
Continually encourage your staff to share their questions, concerns and suggestions. Emphasize how it is important for them to speak up and provide open, honest input during COVID-19 and beyond.
Make it easy for staff to give feedback. Offer multiple channels to submit comments. These channels can be anything from town halls to departmental rounding.
Acknowledge the feedback you receive. Let your staff know you’re listening to them and considering their ideas. Follow up with action and information to ensure your internal audiences know their leaders hear them, empower them and care about them.
One Size Does Not Fit All
Change up how you’re talking with your employees through different channels. Your staff might miss one singular email about a new masking policy or other important organizational change. But if you accompany that email with a post on your organization’s intranet, and leaders cover the topic while rounding, there’s a much better chance your internal stakeholders will get the message.
It’s also important to remember that we all learn in different ways, so use all your communication channels to put out multiple versions of the same message. This way, all staff can receive the information in the way that makes the most sense to them. Here are examples of channels you can use:
• Employee information center
• Messages from leadership
• Virtual and in-person departmental rounding
• Town halls
• Intranet posting
• Digital signage
An Open Book is Easier to Read
In times like these, your best bet is to be transparent, timely and brief. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to every question that comes up. Just be honest about what you do know, what you don’t know, what factors leadership is considering when making their decisions and what staff can do to help in that process.
It can be uncomfortable at times not knowing the answers. But by being honest and open, you’re showing staff you care about them and their needs— and you’ll address those needs in your decision-making process. This will build trust, maintain morale and engagement, and lower the stress and anxiety of your staff.
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Make Open Enrollment Easy-to-Understand for Your Employees
Open enrollment can be a tricky time for your employees. Understandably, they may have a hard time fully grasping the complicated details of their benefits. To make the process seamless for you and your employees, we offer these three tips for avoiding confusion and ensuring clear communications.
Generating Interest in Benefits
Even if your organization makes a serious investment in benefits, if your employees don’t understand the value of their benefits and don’t know how to take advantage of them, your efforts may be in vain. A solid strategy for making benefits more appealing to your employees is making them interesting, making them connect with your employees. How?
Strive to make communications between you and your employees as open and clear as possible. A great way to do this is by developing a cohesive, themed open enrollment campaign that’s aimed at generating interest and understanding. Continue to use the theme to brand benefits communications throughout the year when providing updates to your employees.
Reduce Confusing Benefits Language
You may find that your employees don’t understand half of what is being laid out for them because of the jargon. How many people know the difference between a copay and co-insurance, or between an HSA, HRA and FSA?
The best way to minimize confusion is to provide information clearly and accurately, minimize jargon, explain the “why” whenever possible, evaluate change from employees’ point of view and provide decision tools.
Keep Home Decision-Makers in Mind
There’s a good chance your employees are not making their open enrollment decisions alone. Spouses and home decision-makers also need access to information so they can play an active role. It’s important to remember when you lay out the benefits and resources available for your employees, you’re not only informing them, but their families as well.
Create more content for spouses, home decision-makers and new recruits. Provide interesting content (for example, a benefits overview video) that home decision-makers can access so they understand their options.
Open enrollment doesn’t have to be difficult to navigate. With these three strategies, you and your employees can embark on a successful open enrollment journey.
We’re Here to Help Make Open Enrollment Communications Simple and Easy
For more information on how Tipton can take the stress out of open enrollment communications, call 302-454-7901 or email info@tiptonhealth.com.
Learn more about Tipton Health’s limited time offer on its open enrollment communications support product.
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Six Tactics to Calm and Engage Employees During Uncertainty
Leaders lead during times of uncertainty—and we’re now facing uncertainty like never before. The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered many businesses, abruptly halted projects, made a shambles of business development and marketing plans, and plunged people all over the world into profound anxiety over their overall well-being.
It is important for department directors and managers be consistent in all they say and do, proactive in their communications and compassionate in addressing team members’ needs. The following are six tactics you can use to keep employees engaged and informed during uncertain times.
Communicate Consistently, Openly, Honestly and Frequently
It’s important to establish a cadence—keep communication with your team as constant and routine as you can. If you haven’t already, set up weekly check-ins or meetings via video chats or phone calls. This will keep you up-to-date not only on any projects team members are working on, but also on their potential struggles adjusting to the current events. Be transparent and open with your employees. By building an honest rapport and trust between you and your team, you’re building a solid foundation for a strong work ethic and willingness to work through tough times.
Be as Present as Possible
Be available to your employees in any way you can—keep your chats open on whatever platform you and your teams use, but also be available to video-chat or hop on a phone call, even if it’s just for a short one-on-one. You can even substitute an email for a phone call. Your employees will appreciate the extra level of support or just knowing you’re there.
Don’t Overpromise—Say Only What You Know
In times like these, organizations want to assure employees that everything will be OK and there’s no need to worry. While this may be true for some companies, don’t promise a sense of security that won’t hold up. Make sure everyone knows what you know—things are changing, and that might mean changes for them in the near future.
Give Your Team Members Multiple Opportunities to Ask Questions
While you may not have all of the answers at the moment, everyone is going to have a lot of questions and concerns. You want staff members to bring feedback and questions to you as soon as possible – and that means you need to respond quickly and honestly. Depending on the size of your team and organization, you can create a Google Forms that your employees can access to submit questions to you. Make it a goal to answer everyone’s questions by the end of each week. You can also have an open channel of communication where employees can always reach you with questions—email, chat room, phone call and video conferencing If the same question comes up repeatedly or is particularly relevant to the situation, feel free to put your answer out to your entire team or company through a memo or video.
Ask About Their Families
It’s important to be there for your employees in a professional capacity during a crisis, but don’t forget that you can reach out to them personally as well. Ask how their families are doing, if they need anything and if there’s any way you can help. Sometimes just offering support is enough, and it reinforces that you care.
Be Understanding, Approachable and Personable
Being understanding can go a long way. These are difficult times for every family and every person in different ways, and we’re all continually making adjustments to our daily lives. Recognizing that people are having a hard time, and that they might need to take time for themselves sometimes to help them cope, is another meaningful way to support your team.
As a leader, you need to show your employees that you support them and that you’re staying strong in these uncertain times. It is your job is to be there for them by showing compassion and encouraging open, honest communications.
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Keys to Success
Best Practice Recommendations from Tipton Health Communications
Know Your Audience to Maximize Content Engagement on Social Media
Knowing and understanding the audiences that use your different social media platforms is important for several reasons.
Using data provided within the reporting tools of the different sites, you can:
• Determine what channels fit their age demographic best
• How often new content should be posted
• When you should post
To maximize your views, consider when your audience would be most likely to be online. If you are targeting corporate executives on LinkedIn, they will be on the site first thing in the morning or before dinner. If you are targeting shift workers, you need to adjust when you post new content, so it fits when they may be online.
By posting while they are online your posts will be one of the first on their feed.
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Tipton Awards Spotlight
When you turn to Tipton for support with a project, you are in the hands of experts committed to delivering high-quality, thoughtful and strategic results. This is a summary of the awards the Tipton team has earned so far in 2020.
Award of Distinction2020 Communicator AwardsforSight Lions Eye Bank ofDelaware Valley Newsletter,Nicole Fullerton and Karen ZuccaHermes Gold AwardAugusta Health Benefits Guide,Nicole Fullerton and Karen ZuccaFIRST PLACE2020 Delaware Press Association Communications ContestAtlantic Health SystemNavigating Rewards Infographic,Phil Ellingsworth Jr. andKaren ZuccaSECOND PLACENational Federation of Press Women 2020 National Communications ContestAtlantic Health System Navigating Rewards Infographic,Phil Ellingsworth Jr. andKaren Zucca
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Leading Your Nurses into the Future
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In the months since the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting hospitals and health systems around the country, many organizations have gotten tougher, wiser and more resilient. Healthcare professionals have learned some hard lessons: how to lead in a crisis, how to take care of not only their patients but themselves, and how to persevere under extremely difficult circumstances. Now it’s time to build on those lessons and plan for what lies ahead.
To help guide the way, Tipton Health Communications recently hosted a webinar, “Five Steps to Lead Your Nursing Team into the Future.” The webinar was led by Mary Del Guidice, Senior Fellow for the Center of Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Mary offers nursing leaders five guiding principles to better prepare their teams for the post-pandemic world.
Click to request the Tipton Health Whitepaper: Five Steps to Lead Your Nursing Team into the Future.
Stabilize
The first goal is to establish your new normal. This is best done with an air of calm, which will show your team that they can feel calm as well, and that everything is going to be OK.
Strengthen
After stabilizing your team and their functions, you’ll want to focus on workforce healing, engagement and resilience to minimize burnout and turnover. Taking time to think about your team’s well-being will help ensure success as you continue your journey to nursing excellence.
Strategize
Now is the time to look forward. There are a few ways you can begin to reenvision the future state of your organization and move forward toward success:
Shape
You’ve made your plans—now take action. Develop and distribute leadership structures, learning opportunities, and workforce and economic planning. Plans are only as good as the subsequent action that follows. Take an active role in ensuring the plans are successfully acted upon.
Sustain
In this final step, you’ll work on how to sustain your new implementations long-term. This is centered on your team’s ability to take in information, analyze it and build on it.
Develop communication plans so everyone is up to speed on where you are, what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and where you see it going. You can even establish an outcomes dashboard that provides a consistent form of assessing your team. The key to sustaining your new methods is consistent, team-wide communication.
Learn More from Our Speakers
Visit Tiptonhealth.com/webinars/ to view Mary’s on-demand webinar video on how you can lead your nursing team into the future.
Tipton’s next webinar, How to Recognize Your Nurses During the Pandemic, will be held July 21, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT.
Creating Change to Foster an Inclusive, Equal Workplace
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In Tipton Health’s latest webinar, Ena Williams, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Yale New Haven Hospital, led a conversation about how these topics apply to nursing. Joining Williams were Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of the American Nurses Association, and Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FACHE, president of the National Black Nurses Association.
During the insightful webinar, panelists shared their views on race in the nursing profession and reflected on their personal encounters with racism. The panelists encouraged webinar participants to take action.
Recognize Implicit and Direct Bias in the Workplace
When a patient questioned the credentials of a panelist and wanted a different nurse, it was clear he was being a racist. But racism isn’t always so overt. Sometimes people exhibit biased behaviors without consciously trying to do so. Nurses should examine their own biases and how they affect others. Any instances of racism and bias must be challenged.
Acknowledge Structural/Institutional Racism
Meeting the definition of a “diverse” institution isn’t enough to dismantle structural racism.
To be truly inclusive, you need to do more:
Identify policies and procedures that maintain institutional racism by consistently favoring one racial group and putting others at a disadvantage.
Be aware that even if your policies are correct, your practices may not support diversity, equity and equality.
Determine how institutional racism affects the health of your community. Consider the locations of clinics and their accessibility to all members of the community. Also take into account the funding and recognition given to illnesses that affect large numbers of black and brown people, like hypertension or diabetes, compared to that given to cardiac disease or cancer, which affect large numbers of white people.
Recognize Diversity and Inclusion in the C-Suite
Only 8 to 10% of executive positions are held by minorities. Nurse leaders can do more to create executive opportunities for minorities.
Consider a sponsorship program for minority employees. Sponsorship enables candidates to stretch and grow into the next level of performance. Give them the resources to learn and introduce them to influential people; open the door to more opportunities.
Many states have nurses associations that offer programs to promote leadership and growth. The North Carolina Nurses Association Leadership Academy, for example, enables younger or less experienced nurses to network and upskill.
If you have a seat at the executive table, invite minority employees to join the conversation.
Promote Change
Use your power of influence. Hospitals are typically the biggest employers in their communities. Make changes within your facility through rounding and town halls, but take those changes a step further: Go to your local better business bureau and let them know the changes you want to see in the community. Offer to collaborate with local businesses to create more diversity and opportunities for growth.
Address racism in your organization head-on. People may continue to perpetuate racist behavior within your organization. You can’t ignore them. Instead, teach them what they’re doing wrong and let them know, in no uncertain terms, that racism won’t be tolerated. This conversation may be uncomfortable, but that may be a good thing. Stay calm and keep talking with them about their behavior or comment until you get to the root of the issue. They need to understand the gravity—and the consequences—of what they’re saying and doing.
Work within the system. Look at policies, procedures and practices, and call your organization on them. Send questions to upper management that address the issues you’re facing—as many times as necessary.
Learn more from our speakers.
Visit TiptonHealth.com/webinars to hear more on the experiences of our panelists and strategies to combat racism in your organization.
Sign up for our remaining June webinar:
Five Steps to Lead Your Nursing Team into the Future (Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Emergency Response Planning Key to NYC Response to COVID-19
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Within the span of two weeks, hospitals in New York City went from normal operations to patients flooding their ICUs—with COVID-19 setting up camp for the next three months.
New York City was soon reporting the highest number of confirmed cases, leaving nursing leaders to wonder how they could respond efficiently and keep up with rising numbers of patients. They turned to their emergency response plans.
During a recent Tipton Health webinar, Courtney Vose, VP and CNO of NewYork–Presbyterian/Columbia/Allen, shared how the hospital’s planning provided a foundation for its response to the pandemic as well as lessons learned from the unprecedented uphill battle against COVID-19. Here are some key takeaways:
Create structure and infrastructures.
Establishing structure is crucial to maintaining a sense of order during an emergency.
Create teams that meet every day to make sure all needs are being met across the board. Then ensure the minutes are dispersed to leaders and their teams so that everyone has access to all information.
Build additional infrastructures to allow more room for your staff to accommodate the influx of patients—put up tents, convert fieldhouses into field hospitals, etc.
Listen and respond.
The key during any situation is to listen to your teams. How? Always be rounding.
This will keep your leaders up to speed on what their teams are experiencing, what they may need and how they can respond to those needs.
Communicate more.
During the first wave of the pandemic, hospitals everywhere were finding that the important conversations included everyone at every level.
Successful communication plans are key to navigating a pandemic. Here are some ways to adjust your communication plans with your staff:
Hold daily virtual briefings for all, including frontline staff.
Ensure higher leader visibility on all shifts.
Hold daily online meetings with team leaders and include clinical nurses on the call. The goal is to answer specific questions right away.
Encourage recognition.
In a profession dedicated to helping others, it can be difficult to pause and acknowledge all the good being accomplished. Encourage your leaders to give recognition to their teams, and to initiate self-recognition as well. Your staff needs to know their hard work is appreciated, and when they do, they’ll find it a little easier to handle the burdens they face throughout the day.
Learn More from our Speakers
Visit TiptonHealth.com/webinars to hear more on emergency response planning from our speaker Courtney Vose.
Sign up for our remaining June webinars:
Five Steps to Lead Your Nursing Team into the Future (Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Meet the Experts Participating In "A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing"
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In our upcoming webinar, A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing, nationally recognized nursing leaders will discuss the aforementioned topics during this crucial time of important public debate on systemic racism.
Ena Williams, MBA, MSM, BSN, RN, CENP
Ena Williams currently serves as Chief Nursing Officer at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), a 1,541-bed, Magnet®-designated, Level I trauma, academic medical center
Williams began her nursing career in Jamaica where she served in numerous staff and leadership roles. After migrating to the US, she joined the team at Yale New Haven Hospital as a staff nurse and has progressively advanced to her current role. She has served as a coordinator, an educator, manager and ultimately the Nursing Director of Perioperative Services. She was promoted to VP and Associated Chief Nurse in 2012 and assumed the current role of Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at YNHH.
Williams earned her diploma in nursing from the University Hospital of the West Indies, her BSN from Western Governors University and her MSM/MBA from Albertus Magnus College. She is currently enrolled in a PhD program. Williams is a graduate of the GE Health Management Nurse Executive Fellowship and is board-certified in executive nursing practice by the Association of Nurse Executives. She has published several journal and book chapters and is a frequent speaker at local/national nursing conferences.
Williams currently serves on the board of the Connecticut Hospital Association, the Gateway Community College Foundation, The Whitney Center, the nominating committee for the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). She is a member of the AONL, ANA, and a lifetime member of the National Black Nurses Association. Williams has been recognized with numerous awards: the Trailblazer Award from the National Black Nurses Association (2017), the Cornell Scott Health Leadership Award from the NAACP of Greater New Haven (2015). In 2012 she was recognized by the West Indian Social Club of Hartford as an outstanding Jamaican in the field of healthcare (2010) and in 2012 as an outstanding Jamaican in America in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence.
Ernest J. Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN
Dr. Ernest J. Grant is the 36th president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the nation’s largest nurses organization representing the interests of the nation’s 4 million registered nurses.
A distinguished leader, Dr. Grant has more than 30 years of nursing experience and is an internationally recognized burn-care and fire-safety expert. He previously served as the burn outreach coordinator for the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals in Chapel Hill. In this role, Dr. Grant oversaw burn education for physicians, nurses and other allied healthcare personnel and ran the center’s nationally acclaimed burn prevention program, which promotes safety and works to reduce burn-related injuries through public education and the legislative process. He also serves as adjunct faculty for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where he works with undergraduate and graduate nursing students in the classroom and clinical settings.
Dr. Grant is frequently sought out for his expertise as a clinician and educator. In addition to being a prolific speaker, he has conducted numerous burn-education courses with various branches of the U.S. military in preparation for troops’ deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented him with a Nurse of the Year Award for his work treating burn victims from the World Trade Center site. In 2013, he received the B.T. Fowler Lifetime Achievement Award from the North Carolina Fire and Life Safety Education Council for making a difference in preventing the devastating effects of fire and burn injuries and deaths within the state.
An active participant in professional organizations, Dr. Grant is a past chair of the National Fire Protection Association board of directors and served as second vice president of the American Burn Association board of trustees. He is also a member of Sigma Theta Tau and Chi Eta Phi. Dr. Grant served as president of the North Carolina Nurses Association from 2009 to 2011. In 2002, the ANA honored him with the Honorary Nursing Practice Award for his contributions to the advancement of nursing practice through strength of character, commitment and competence.
Dr. Grant holds a BSN degree from North Carolina Central University and MSN and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2014. He is the first man to be elected to the office of president of the ANA in its 122 years of existence.
Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FACHE
Dr. Dawson is the 13th President of the National Black Nurses Associates, Inc. In 1976, Dr. Dawson earned her bachelor’s degree and in 1984, she earned her master’s degree, both from UABSON. In 2010, she earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton, School of Nursing (FPBSON). In 1984, Dr. Dawson completed her hospital administration residency at Gaston Memorial Hospital, NC. She has experience in academic medical centers, community hospitals, and academia. She served in senior-level positions such as, Vice President of Clinical Operations (2000-2006), Chief Nurse Executive (1997-2006), Associate Chief Operating Officer (1993-1997), Nursing Director (1989-1993) assistant to VP of Nursing (1984-1989), and nurse manager (1979-1983). She managed her own healthcare consultant business.
In 2019, Dr. Dawson was inducted into the Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame Nurse. She is a Scholar in the Sparkman Global Health Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2017), Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (2007), Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellow (2000 Alumni), and Johnson & Johnson Wharton Nurse Administrative Fellow (1999 Alumni).
Dr. Dawson is active in 15 local, state, regional and national professional organizations. She has served as the President for Birmingham Regional Organization of Nurse Leaders., and President for the Alabama Organization of Nurse Executives. She is active on many local, state and national boards.
Dr. Dawson has served as principal investigator, project director and coordinator on HRSA and foundation grants and as a grant consultant and program evaluator. Her translational research and scholarship focus are on career barriers and mobility, management development, succession planning, career progression, and workforce diversity and planning. She has publications in books, journals, newsletters, and podcasts. She was a contributing author in the Drive-Thru Flu Shots: A model for mass immunization that was adopted the CDC as their model that is being used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Dawson is an experienced, dynamic health care leader and a sought-after lecturer, workshop and seminar leader focusing on leadership, workflow design, organizational systems assessment, succession planning, workforce development, community health, strategic planning, health careers, program planning, and system-wide assessment and leadership development.
Click to register for A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing.
Nurses Save the Day: Nursing Excellence Provides the Foundation for Pandemic Response
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Now isn’t the time to relax the drive for nurses to control their practice, even as hospitals face intense budget challenges. The foundational elements of nursing excellence should actually be reinforced and strengthened since the benefits of empowering nurses were clearly shown during the pandemic and nurses enjoy well-earned, strong community support.
Margarita de la Fuente, Associate Chief Nursing Officer, Professional Practice and Magnet, Duke University Health System; Jeff Doucette, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals; and Deborah Piehl, Executive Director, Professional, Compliance and Nursing Programs Accreditation, University of Miami Health System, discussed the importance of nursing excellence to the pandemic response during a recent Tipton Health Nursing Leadership webinar.
LISTEN TO THE WEBINAR.
Each speaker shared strategies their organizations used to continue the pursuit of nursing excellence even during a pandemic.
Developmental Programs Are Essential to Effective Nursing
Nurse leaders should strongly advocate for developmental programs.
Your organization’s ability to react and adapt to a crisis depends on training and development programs dedicated to nursing excellence.
Encourage Collaboration and Mentoring Among Staff
Interprofessional collaboration was critical to the successful response to the pandemic. Those relationships should be nurtured and not allowed to fail. Foster innovative and collaborative strategies to make change happen. Your nursing staff may find themselves in situations they’re not specifically trained to manage. Nurses and physicians with certain specialties can train and mentor nurses who are being pulled into new areas to ensure the best possible care is provided.
Physicians may also want to step in and help nurses with the amount of work they are taking on. With a limited number of people being allowed in rooms with patients, nurses are being tasked with heavy workloads. Encourage and enable your physicians to learn what they need to do in order to be in the rooms—they want to help, they want to assist your nurses.
Implement Strategies to Keep Your Nurses Sharp
There are a few strategies you can employ as a nursing leader to keep your nurses engaged and ready to continue the pursuit of nursing excellence:
Designate an associate chief nurse executive to help you and your team create strategies for your nurses to continue learning and growing.
Focus on developing your nursing leaders, especially on the manager level. They, in turn, will give this attention to the rest of their teams, ensuring that all the nurses in your organization learn and grow.
Build communication strategies that are constant. The upcoming months will be a time of uncertainty, and the best way to keep your nurses engaged is keeping them in the loop. Communicate every day!
Learn more from our speakers.
Visit TiptonHealth.com/webinars to hear more from our panelists and their experiences on supporting nursing excellence during a pandemic.
Sign up for our remaining June webinars:
Nursing Leadership’s Role in Emergency Response Planning: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Crisis (Tuesday, June 23, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
A Discussion on Race, Inclusive Practices and Nursing (Special Webinar—Wednesday, June 24, 2020, 12:30–1:15 p.m. EDT)
Five Steps to Lead Your Nursing Team into the Future (Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Creating Opportunities Within Our New Normal
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The COVID-19 pandemic brought about widespread disruption and uncertainty. Now, three months since initial restrictions were put into place, we’re certain of this: Things will never be the same. Our industry, along with the rest of the country, is slowly transitioning into what will be the “new normal.”
Tipton Health Communications hosted a Nursing Leadership webinar on June 9, led by Judith Hahn, director of Professional Practice and Nursing Education at Yale New Haven Hospital. This session focused on how vital nurse autonomy has been during the COVID-19 crisis—and how vital it will be in creating the future of healthcare. Judi gave insight on creating opportunities during this transition period to improve nursing.
Strengthen Yourself as a Leader
The first step in being a strong leader is trusting your team. Yale New Haven leaders were able to keep their head above water during COVID-19 because they trusted in their nurses—they had confidence nurses knew what was best for their patients and could handle any situation that came their way.
When you step aside and let your nurses do what they do best, it not only allows them to thrive and succeed, but also gives them the space to think creatively. Your staff is capable of developing amazing ideas and techniques, and the best way to benefit from their resourcefulness is to give your nurses the autonomy to innovate.
Learn How to Truly Engage With Your Nurses
During a crisis, it’s crucial to communicate with not only the public, but your own staff. Another lesson health systems are learning during COVID-19 is how to communicate more efficiently with their teams.
Big decisions require input from all sides. In a crisis, countless meetings are held and rapid-fire decisions are made that affect a multitude of people. Make sure your nurses are present for this decision-making. They have vital input and deserve a seat at the table.
Create spaces for input. Design a platform to enable your nurses to share their perspective. What’s on their minds? What are they worried about? Do they have any ideas to share or insights to offer? Creating spaces for you and other leaders to engage with your nurses—and for them to engage with each other—encourages open and productive communications across the board.
Relearn the Basics
In the heat of a crisis, the fundamental rules of leadership and training might get lost in the shuffle. The future of healthcare demands changes: to structure, to training and to leadership. But while you’re designing new tactics for the new normal, don’t lose sight of the basics. Make sure to keep these simple rules in mind as things begin to settle:
Maintain constant, open lines of communication.
Trust your staff’s knowhow and ability to handle situations.
Recognize that your most valued sources are your teams, on every level, from cleaning staff to respiratory specialists.
Navigating the new normal may be overwhelming at first. We’re all faced with a new set of circumstances. But now is the perfect time to take a closer look at things we may have taken for granted before. Look for opportunities within your organization to grow and become a stronger leader! Together we’re creating the future of healthcare.
Learn more from our speakers
Visit TiptonHealth.com/webinars to hear more of Judi’s experiences during COVID-19 and how her organization is implementing new processes to create a better future.
Sign up for our remaining June webinars:
Driving Nursing Excellence and Maintaining Magnet Momentum in the Pandemic and the “New Normal” (Tuesday, June 16, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Nursing Leadership’s Role in Emergency Response Planning: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Crisis (Tuesday, June 23, 2020, 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Executives Weigh In On Driving Nursing Excellence and Maintaining Magnet Momentum During COVID-19
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In our upcoming webinar, Driving Nursing Excellence and Maintaining Magnet Momentum in the Pandemic and the “New Normal”, a panel of nursing leaders will be weighing in. They are experts who run Magnet® programs at their respective organizations. These executives will talk about maintaining Magnet training and success throughout the pandemic, and transitioning into the “new normal.”
Margarita de la Fuente, DNP, RN, RN-BC, NE-BC, LSSBB
Margarita de la Fuente is the associate chief nursing officer for professional practice and Magnet for Duke University Health System. In this role, she oversees clinical practice, nursing research, professional governance and Magnet.
Margarita has held various leadership positions focusing on nursing quality and process improvement and is certified as a nurse executive and a black belt in Lean Six Sigma. She earned a graduate degree in nursing administration from New York University and a DNP at Duke University School of Nursing.
Jeffrey Doucette, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN
Jeffrey Doucette is senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia. Before joining Jefferson Health, Jeff served as vice president of the Magnet Recognition Program® and Pathway to Excellence® at the American Nurses Credentialing Center. In addition, he speaks extensively throughout the world on topics of interest to nursing leaders.
Jeff is a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow, a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, and a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. He received a master of science degree in healthcare administration and a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Marymount University, and a doctorate in nursing practice from Old Dominion University.
Deborah A. Piehl, MSN-Adm/Ed, BSN, RN
Deborah Piehl serves as the executive director of nursing professional practice, compliance and nursing accreditation programs as well as the Magnet program director at UHealth Miami. In her role as executive director, Deb oversees the Nursing Professional Practice within the UHealth system on all levels: inpatient services, critical care, emergency services, surgical services, ambulatory services, pediatrics, infusion services and procedural areas.
Deb is a seasoned leader with years of extensive knowledge and experience to shape the next generation of nurses. She received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Florida International University and her master of science degree in nursing from University of Phoenix.
Click here to register for Driving Nursing Excellence and Maintaining Magnet Momentum in the Pandemic and the “New Normal.”
Making A Contribution To The Future Of Nursing
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In honor of nursing teams around the country that selflessly give their all each day, Tipton Health Communications has donated nearly $10,000 to nursing charity funds and scholarships aimed at developing the next generation of nurse leaders.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Tipton has provided expert resources and insight to support its more than 175 hospital/health system clients and those in the broader healthcare community. During this time, Tipton launched a webinar series led by experienced nursing leaders focused on overcoming the multiple challenges the COVID crisis presented to the nation’s healthcare system.
Following each webinar, Tipton makes a donation in the presenter’s name to a nursing charity of their choice. To date, these charities include:
Wellstar Foundation
Phelps Hospital
Huntington Nursing Scholarship
Beaumont Foundation
Atlantic Health System
CHOP Employees in Need
As the webinar series continues, Tipton will continue to contribute to nursing charity funds and scholarships.
To learn more on how nursing leaders can navigate the challenges of COVID-19, register for Tipton’s nursing webinars at tiptonhealth.com/webinars/
Strategies for Communicating in the “New Normal”
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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused anxiety around the unknown for many nursing teams across the country. To ease this anxiety, nursing leaders need to serve as a voice of reason and stability, guiding their teams into the “new normal.”
Tipton Health Communications held a Nursing Leadership Webinar on June 2 to offer nursing leaders some help. Phil Ellingsworth Jr., strategic communications manager at Tipton, and Erin DiGirolamo, senior manager of internal communications and digital workforce strategy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), outlined three straightforward ways to make sure your communications are strong, relevant and effective.
Communication is a two-way street.
Consistently sending out messages is a step in the right direction. But to communicate effectively, you need to listen to the feedback you receive and address it in your next directive.
Continually encourage your nurses to share their questions, concerns and suggestions. Emphasize how it is important for them to speak up and provide open, honest input during COVID-19 and beyond.
Make it easy for nurses to give feedback. Offer multiple channels to submit comments. These channels can be anything from town halls to rounding.
Acknowledge the feedback you receive. Let your staff know you’re listening to them and considering their ideas. Follow up with action and information to ensure your nurses know their leaders hear them, empower them and care about them.
One size does not fit all.
Change up how you’re talking with your nurses through different channels. Your staff might miss one singular email about a new masking policy. But if you accompany that email with a post on your organization’s intranet, and leaders cover the topic while rounding, there’s a much better chance your nurses will get the message.
It’s also important to remember that we all learn in different ways, so use all your communication channels to put out multiple versions of the same message. This way, each nurse can receive the information in the way that makes the most sense to them. Here are examples of channels you can use:
Nurse information center
Messages from the CNO/CNE
Virtual and in-person rounding
Town halls
Intranet posting
Digital signage
An open book is easier to read.
In times like these, your best bet is to be transparent, timely and brief. It’s okay if you don’t know the answer to every question that comes up. Just be honest about what you do know, what you don’t know, what factors leadership is considering when making their decisions and what staff can do to help in that process.
It can be uncomfortable at times not knowing the answers. But by being honest and open, you’re showing staff you care about them and their needs— and you’ll address those needs in your decision-making process. This will build trust, maintain morale and engagement, and lower the stress and anxiety of your nurses.
Learn more from our expert speakers.
Visit TiptonHealth.com/webinars to learn more about all the strategies presented in our webinar, Employee Communications Essentials in the “New Normal” Hospital. Following the session, Tipton offered attendees a free tip sheet on how to create a meaningful manager message map. If you would like a free download of this resource, send an email to webinars@tiptonhealth.com.
Be sure to join us for our upcoming June sessions:
How Nurse Autonomy Helped Hospitals Manage the Crisis (and Will Help Build the New Normal) (Tuesday, June 9, 2020 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Driving Nursing Excellence and Maintaining Magnet Momentum in the Pandemic and the “New Normal” (Tuesday, June 16, 2020 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Nursing Leadership’s Role in Emergency Response Planning: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Crisis. (Tuesday, June 23, 2020 12:30–1:00 p.m. EDT)
Click here to learn more or to register.
June 2020 Magnet Newsletter
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Thank you for reading the June 2020 edition of the Magnet® Newsletter from Tipton Health Communications. This edition features information on how to drive nursing excellence amid COVID-19, insights from our webinar series speakers, and tips from the experts at Tipton Health Communications.
Article Navigation
Q&A: How to Drive Nursing Excellence in the COVID-19 Environment
Five Ways to Help Your Nurses Navigate COVID-19 PTSD and TSI
Strategies for Leading from the Front Lines during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Keeping Your Nurses Engaged Amid Layoffs or Furloughs
Congratulations to Our Recent Magnet-Designated Clients
For Us It’s Personal
How to Drive Nursing Excellence in the COVID-19 Environment
A Q&A with Nursing Leaders at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Deaconess Health System
During the COVID-19 crisis, it can be hard to keep your shared governance councils focused on your journey to nursing excellence and Magnet® designation. These concerns can seem less important than the patients pouring through hospital doors. But nursing excellence is the foundation that many organizations are built on and the goal that drives nurses to deliver stellar patient care.
- Jill Buttry, Director Patient Care Services at Deaconess Gateway Hospital and Chief Nursing Officer at Deaconess Gateway and Midtown Hospital
- Kathy Reddy, Nurse Manager and Magnet Program Manager at Northwell Health – Long Island Jewish Medical Center
- Linda Vassallo, Senior Administrative Director Patient Care Services and Magnet Program Director at Northwell Health – Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Jill Buttry, Director Patient Care Services at Deaconess Gateway Hospital and Chief Nursing Officer at Deaconess Gateway and Midtown Hospital; Kathy Reddy, Nurse Manager and Magnet Program Manager at Northwell Health – Long Island Jewish Medical Center; and Linda Vassallo, Senior Administrative Director Patient Care Services and Magnet Program Director at Northwell Health – Long Island Jewish Medical Center, weigh in on their strategies for keeping the focus on nursing excellence, even now.
What role has your shared governance councils played in your hospital’s response to COVID-19?
Jill: Shared governance councils have been instrumental in helping us develop protocols and guidelines. They have attended daily staffing forums through our Incident Command structure and taken information back to their units for education and communication. Councils have disseminated appropriate guidelines and garnered feedback from the nurses, ensuring the practices within the guidelines are correct and realistic when applied to COVID-19 patient care.
Kathy and Linda: Our Safe Patient Handling (SPH) Committee coordinated two major initiatives. They formed proning teams, especially useful for the night shift, to support the nurses in proning their patients and caring for their patients in prone position, and they taught SPH and assisted the morgue with SPH equipment due to the overwhelming volume of expired patients that needed to be lifted and moved.
Our Skin Care Council stepped in to share protocols with staff on how to care for themselves while using N95 masks. They were the driving force behind ordering cleansing cloths for staff, created handouts to share with staff focusing on assessment and documentation of pressure injuries, and created supportive skincare supply packets for proned patients.
Were you able to use the structure you have in place for mentoring new nurses to help your experienced nurses transition into new practice environments such as the ICU or ED? Can you give an example?
Jill: New graduate nurses have been a part of the COVID-19 experience and environment at Deaconess, caring for patients in the ICU as well as the emergency department. They’ve found this to be very rewarding. The more experienced colleagues mentored the new nurses, who have come up with very innovative ideas around care for COVID patients. The mentorship has allowed staff to establish evidence-based practice within these units, as they have networked with other organizations throughout the state to ensure readiness for an influx at Deaconess or in the Midwest.
Kathy and Linda: We had numerous staff that were redeployed. Our perioperative staff needed to become critical care nurses, as all surgeries were postponed. We had a tremendous amount of supplemental staff from travel agencies and other hospitals—especially Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, and Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City, Utah—as we had a great need for nurses to care for the volume of critical COVID patients. We would first screen their existing clinical expertise and then provide education and shadow opportunities. We spread out our own established critical care staff into the new surge critical care units so that travelers and those redeployed were supported by our veteran critical care staff.
Can you think of an example where clinical nurses demonstrated autonomy in a new or different way as a result of the COVID crisis? Something your nurses are doing now as part of their practice that they didn’t use to do autonomously?
Jill: In the COVID units, our clinical nurses have established a practice where the IV poles are outside of the COVID patient rooms with extension tubing to ensure decreased exposure for staff, as well as conservation of PPE. We have ensured medication administration practice remains safe, since the Five Rights of Medication Administration continue to be part of this process. We have also collaborated with Pharmacy for bundled delivery of medications to the patient to ensure that we, again, can decrease exposure and the number of times staff must go into the rooms. Deaconess respiratory therapists and nursing worked together to assemble ventilators that would ventilate four patients at one time and designed unit layouts to safely accommodate this. With this, they demonstrated several scenarios of workflow and created a triad team approach to patient care. Each triad consisted of one ICU RN, one medical/surgical RN and one PCT to oversee the care of five patients.
Kathy and Linda: A critical care clinical nurse suggested to our senior administrative director of patient- and family-centered care that we give patients iPads to communicate with their families during this time when no visitors are allowed. LIJMC then purchased 20 iPads, and many more were donated. We developed an iPad communication team, as patients and families needed assistance in making this connection, and a centralized team provided additional support to the nurses on the units.
Can you think of an innovative approach to care that nurses helped implement in response to COVID? How was this approach developed?
Jill: Our nurses designed our COVID unit to ensure safe practices; for example, taping off pathways for ancillary staff to arrive on and depart the unit. A team of nurses and ancillary services (Laboratory, Radiology and Pharmacy) was developed to create safe practices and decrease exposure on these units.
Centralized COVID units were created that supported care for all levels—ICU, Medical/Surgical, Stepdown, Telemetry, etc. A core group of staff was dedicated to these units that were educated differently to ensure safe practices. We did extensive communication and education for medical/surgical nurses so they could care for ICU patients, in the event there was an influx in that patient population. The core group of nurses developed guidelines quickly and helped organize an infrastructure of communication though our intranet process to share guidelines not only with Deaconess employees, but with other organizations throughout the state as well.
Kathy and Linda: Our clinical nurses found a way to improve the experience of their fellow nurses by seeing a need to celebrate our successes during such a busy, sad time. They suggested celebrating each COVID-19 discharge patient through what we are now calling “Team Home.” When a patient is getting ready to be discharged, the nurse notifies his/her manager who reaches out to our Department of Patient- and Family-Centered Care. That department sends out an email to tell the entire hospital we will soon have another discharge. At the exact time, bells are rung overhead, and any available staff go down to our lobby to line the discharged patient’s path and clap in celebration of the patient and of our success. This led to also celebrating every extubation of a patient off a ventilator by playing the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” overhead.
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Five Ways to Help Your Nurses Navigate COVID-19 PTSD and TSI
The COVID-19 crisis has taken a significant toll on healthcare providers across the country. For hospital staff already reeling from burn out, PTSD and other mental health conditions, the magnitude of the pandemic helped to exacerbate these serious issues.
Chrys Parker, EdD, JD, ECA-LM
To help educate healthcare leaders and bring further awareness around the effects of the COVID crisis, Tipton Health Communications hosted a webinar on the issue, S.O.S. Response: Solid Operational Strategies to Help Your Nurses Manage Traumatic Stress. Chrys Parker, EdD, JD, ECA-LM, a medical traumatologist, shed some light on how to understand trauma on a deeper, biological level and how healthcare leaders need to support nurses’ emotional wellbeing.
Nurses repeatedly exposed to stressful, emotionally draining situations – like caring for COVID-19 patients – are susceptible to traumatic stress injury (TSI) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Dr. Parker shared five ways you can save your nursing staff from the devastating effects of COVID-19 related PTSD and TSI:
Tip One: Take the problem seriously
Your nursing staff are so focused on caring for others that often times they forget to care for themselves. This means that nurses place their own wellbeing secondary – not only to their patients, but also their loved ones at home. As healthcare leaders, it is your job to take this problem seriously and take proactive measures to help them address any issues they may be facing.
Tip Two: Reduce factors that intensify TSI
The best way to reduce TSI-inducing factors is by enforcing an open and structured system with your nurses. This includes:
Ensure your nurses are constantly supported and aware of your open door policy if they begin to experience TSI
Insist that nurses develop a daily self-care plan tailored to their specific traumatic stress topology
Invest in different resources to help them monitor their physical health, such as blood pressure cuffs
A key part of understanding the emotional stress your nursing staff deals with is to remember there may be past or present traumatic events impacting their daily lives. These steps can help you assist your nurses in their time of need.
Tip Three: Provide resources and referrals
Providing easily available, on-site access to an Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) accredited staff chaplain or EAP counselor are resources that can help staff struggling with workplace and personal stress. Nurses are typically unable to step away from units during their shifts, now more than ever, so the inability to briefly escape from daily stress may be alleviated by having a trained professional to talk to whenever it is needed.
Tip Four: Employ simple but useful tools
There are easy ways to give your staff the tools they need to destress over the course of the day. Section off some space for a work out/cool off center that can help your nurses release their built up anxiety or stress from their shift. Sometimes there is not enough time in the day for nurses to go to the gym or mediate before heading home. Offering a space for them solely focused on reflection, relaxation and rejuvenation is a way to help nurses support themselves.
Tip Five: Ensure COVID is a turning point
Even though the pandemic has caused widespread chaos and fear, let the crisis serve as the turning point for your organization and staff to better recognize and address PTSD and TSI. Use the lessons learned over this time as an opportunity to focus on how you can help your nurses overcome traumatic events they may experience on the job. Dr. Parker explains that showing nurses they can better serve patients and the community, simply by supporting themselves, may help nurses to take steps to address their workplace stress.
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Strategies for Leading from the Front Lines during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Nurse leaders on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic shared their experiences during Tipton Health’s May 12 Nursing Leadership webinar. The nursing leaders from around the country discussed the overwhelming nature of COVID-19, and credited nurses and staff for working collaboratively and nimbly to develop solutions that would have taken weeks or months to implement in normal situations. Panelists shared how the pandemic has likely forever changed the way healthcare is delivered.
The webinar panelists were:
- Jill Case-Wirth, Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive at Wellstar Health
- Brad Lukas, Chief Nursing Officer at Beaumont Grosse Pointe
- Kimberly Guesman, Chief Nursing Officer at Beaumont Farmington Hills
- Susan Knoepffler, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President for Nursing at Huntington Hospital
- Mary McDermott, Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Phelps Hospital
How to Support Your Nurses Through the Chaos of COVID-19
Nurses were, and still are, overwhelmed by the realities of responding to the crisis. They’ve found themselves as surrogates for patient families, who were not allowed to visit their loved ones. Nurses with little ICU experience were working in the units with very little training, having to adjust quickly and think on their feet. Incredible stress and anxiety on nursing teams resulted. The panelists described some of the tactics they used that could help lower stress levels:
Create a designated relaxation room or tranquility tent where nurses can escape for a moment and find information about self-care.
Help your staff with daily chores, like grocery shopping. Phelps Hospital designated an area where staff members could access essential food and products they couldn’t get otherwise because of their shifts.
Reach out to the community for support. The Phelps community set up a meal train, where community members and even staff members would donate meals for nurses to eat during shifts.
Launch a confidential and anonymous outreach frontline call system. At Wellstar, nurses who were not on the frontlines were trained to take calls from their colleagues, partnering with internal behavioral health team members to ensure all needs were being met.
Technology and the New Normal
The nurse leaders provided some key takeaways as healthcare transitions to a new normal. A major point was the larger role technology has played in doctor-patient interactions. According to Jill Case-Wirth, over 50% of users for online doctors’ visits during COVID-19 were in their 70s. Now that we have seen the success of telehealth and how patients of any age can adapt, nurses should plan to see a shift from in-person appointments to seeing patients online. Implementing telehealth will change care models for good. Staff in the ambulatory setting should be prepared that moving forward they’ll be there in-person only for patients who need the most acute care, as well as for chronic disease management and preventative care.
In addition to telemedicine’s role in doctor-patient relations, Brad Lukas explained that telemedicine also opened the door for creative solutions to work around visitation restrictions and keep family and patient-centered care at the core of their work. His nurses turned to telehealth appointments to keep families informed of their loved ones’ conditions and give them the chance to visit when they weren’t allowed to be there physically.
Preparing for Our Next Crisis
Two critical aspects the five panelists mentioned while discussing how to prepare for another potential wave of COVID-19 were communication and training.
Transparency with your teams and open communication is how you can ensure everyone is on the same page, which is incredibly vital during a crisis. Kim Guesman also mentioned that giving your nursing teams the why is key – she found her team responded best when she was transparent about why she was making a decision. During a crisis, sometimes you may have to make decisions extremely fast and you won’t have the time you normally do to involve everyone on your team or discuss all of the options fully. But if you take your team on the decision making journey with you, even after the fact, it helps them understand your why.
Visibility and feedback are also two critical components of communication during a crisis. By being seen as a leader on the frontlines you are showing your nursing staff that you’re there to support them and help in any way you can. Asking your staff members what they need and seeing for yourself what their environment is like is critical to supporting them. Getting feedback after the worst has passed is also a great strategy for preparing to tackle crises better the next time around. The staff members at Grosse Pointe are taking part in multiple debriefing sessions to discuss the processes that worked well during the height of COVID-19 and what they can improve upon the next time they face a similar situation. Being open and honest about successes and failures, as well as making sure your nurses feel that their voices are heard, sets the foundations to make your organization even stronger.
Be Proactive Rather Than Reactive
Being proactive is an essential part of getting ahead of the worst of a pandemic. At Wellstar, they turned to case studies of SARS and MERS to understand what processes they could implement early before they reached peak capacity. Looking at other organizations that were hit earlier or harder can also give you a good idea of how to begin to plan for the next change in patient condition, resource shortage or staffing challenge.
Lukas also noted that training was a key factor in their preparation for COVID-19 and would be in the case of a re-surge. “You practice how you play,” he said. He encouraged redesigning your tabletop training based on what you have experienced, and don’t hesitate to throw in some curveballs. By learning from areas that were affected earlier on, like Wuhan and Italy, Lukas was able to prepare his team instead of having to rely only on coaching on the job. All of the leaders agreed that having crash course training prepared is important in the event of a crisis as well. Many of the organizations implemented bedside-to-bedside instruction on “how to become an ICU nurse in 20 minutes,” which included information on drips, proning and anything else that might apply to the patients they were expecting due to COVID-19.
The incident command training some of these leaders had taken through FEMA was another invaluable resource as they faced the brunt of the virus. Lukas plans to make it a requirement in the future to create a more formalized incident command training for his leadership team, similar to the FEMA training he went through.
Communicate Often and Openly
Opening up communication channels that are out of the ordinary can also lead to better results. Mary McDermott stressed that system communication and local communication were equally important during this pandemic. While they had many reoccurring calls occurring with their system-level medical director group, nurse executive group and CEO, sometimes everyone was not getting the same information because there were so many different messages being emphasized. Taking the key points from local communication and translating them at a system level was crucial to get one message across.
Collaborative communication outside of your hospital or system can be a valuable resource and you may find allies you never knew you had. Early on, Case-Wirth called on fellow CNEs in Wellstar’s competitor organizations in Georgia and proposed a weekly call to talk about the situations they’re facing, how they’ve tackled them, what they should do differently and how they could learn from each other.
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Keeping Your Nurses Engaged Amid Layoffs or Furloughs
Nikki SumpterSenior Vice President and Chief Human Resources OfficerAtlantic Health System
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, furloughs and layoffs have been a concern for nurses and healthcare executives alike. During Tipton Health Communication’s May 19 Nursing Leadership Webinar, Nikki Sumpter, senior vice president and chief human resources officer of Atlantic Health System, weighed in on strategies for avoiding furloughs altogether and keeping your team members supported and engaged.
Strategies for Avoiding Furloughs at Your Organization
Before you choose to furlough members of your staff, first ask yourself, “why would we furlough a nurse?” There has been a shortage of skilled nurses for decades. For reference, before COVID-19, the Bureau of Labor Statistics cited there would be a gap of 20,000 nurses just in the New Jersey market, where Atlantic Health System is based. It’s likely the gap will only grow, so it’s time to get creative with maintaining the nursing workforce that is so vital to our care delivery systems.
Upskill and Retool: Take this time to train your nurses to provide care in a variety of settings. This not only helps support their professional growth but also helps your nursing teams become more agile. It’s critical to consider that there will always be retirees, even in a pandemic. Create programs to aid nurses in a smooth transition of knowledge as they move toward retirement. Retiring nurses can add value to their profession and organization in many ways, such as by delivering virtual education or precepting.
Offer Redeployment: As focus moved away from perioperative and ambulatory settings during COVID-19, the staff in these areas had few options for work within their specialty. Allowing them to move to vacancies within the organization can help keep them employed. Don’t let go of your most precious resources.
Don’t Contribute to Unemployment in Your Community: Nurses have the ability to adapt to several different roles, not just the specialty they were trained in. Offer opportunities in finance, recruitment, patient access or any job where they can still deliver and provide service to your organization.
Maintaining Team Member Engagement
Provide Open and Honest Communication: When explaining furloughs and layoffs, it’s important to make sure your employees understand the reason behind them. Share the financials in a way that connects with your staff through a thoughtful process, drawing a clear line of why executives are faced with such a tough decision. Exhaust your whys and cascade these messages down from the organization, to the department level and to all team members.
Engage with HR: Your Human Resources (HR) department should be able to partner with you to help share any important information clearly through message maps, leadership talking points, pre-planning communication, and creating visual cues to eliminate confusion and engage team members. Also, ask if they can reach out to organizations in the community who may be willing to donate and help support staff. Your community is invested in you and your workers now more than ever.
Take Your Team on the Journey With You: It is well understood that right now we will not see a return to the pre-COVID environment and we will experience the “new normal” of healthcare. It’s time to reposition how your nurses define their roles. They are no longer an endoscopic nurse or a critical care nurse. They are nurses who are able to tackle many different tasks and specialties within your organization. You can partner with HR to help you communicate this new perspective and keep your nurses invested and engaged.
Make Sure HR Is Supporting Your Nurse’s Environment
HR Can Support You in a Variety of Ways: Your HR department should be there to help you redesign roles, assisti with staffing support and benefit changes, and provide support as you have crucial conversations with other departments, such as finance. They can also assist with the redeployment process to make sure shifts are covered and work out how to offer hazard pay or “pandemic pay” for your staff.
Listen to Your Nurses’ Requests: To ensure you’re accurately providing the self-care your staff needs to boost their resilience, you can use this model. The model contains multiple ways to understand your nurse’s requests, such as protect me, hear me, see me, etc. The model can serve as a filter to help leadership make meaningful changes to support their staff.
Wrap Your Arms Around Your Team: Focus on the physical and mental health, as well as self-care, for your nurses. Also, continue to provide services to your team members who are exiting the organization at this time by giving them continued access to your EAP services. Losing your job or being furloughed, especially during this time, can be traumatic and it’s important to take care of your current and former staff. Remember that patients connect specifically with nurses, so when your nurses are healthy, happy and well cared for, so are your patients.
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Congratulations to Our Recent Magnet-Designated Clients
Tipton Health Communications is proud to congratulate and celebrate our clients that have received Magnet re-designation.
HonorHealth Deer Valley (First)
OhioHealth Riverside (Fourth)
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For Us It’s Personal
Katie Chan-BoeckhMagnet Program ManagerValley Children’s Healthcare
“I appreciated the dedication of the consultants, their honesty in communicating early and clearly when there were concerns, and their ability to instill confidence where appropriate. Being able to have an in-person connection with the team at the Magnet conference enhanced my experience even more because now I feel like we know you and you know us on a personal level, and that’s a great feeling to have.”
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Partnering with HR to Support Your Nurses During Changes Caused by COVID-19
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Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, furloughs and layoffs have been a concern for nurses and healthcare executives alike. Tipton Health Communication’s May 19 Nursing Leadership Webinar featured Nikki Sumpter, senior vice president and chief human resources officer of Atlantic Health System, an experienced HR executive.
The last of our three-part blog series focused on furloughs and layoffs gives insight on how nursing leaders can connect with their HR department to support their nurses. It also touches on the best ways to provide resources for struggling team members.
HR Can Support You in a Variety of Ways: Your HR department should be there to help you redesign roles, assisting with staffing support and benefit changes, and provide support as you have crucial conversations with other departments, such as finance. They can also assist with the redeployment process to make sure shifts are covered and work out how to offer hazard pay or “pandemic pay” for your staff.
Listen to Your Nurses’ Requests: To ensure you’re accurately providing the self-care your staff needs to boost their resilience, you can use this model. The model contains multiple ways to understand your nurse’s requests, such as protect me, hear me, see me, etc. The model can serve as a filter to help leadership make meaningful changes to support their staff.
Wrap Your Arms Around Your Team: Focus on the physical and mental health, as well as self-care, for your nurses. Also, continue to provide services to your team members who are exiting the organization at this time by giving them continued access to your EAP services. Losing your job or being furloughed, especially during this time, can be traumatic and it’s important to take care of your current and former staff. Remember that patients connect specifically with nurses, so when your nurses are healthy, happy and well cared for, so are your patients.
Learn More From Our Executive Consultants
You can learn more strategies presented in the webinar, Managing Nurse Expectations and Engagement During Layoffs or Furloughs, by visiting TiptonHealth.com/webinars.
Be sure to join us for our upcoming June sessions, Employee Communications Essentials in the “New Normal” Hospital Environment and How Nurse Autonomy Helped Hospitals Manage the Crisis (and Will Help Build the New Normal). Click here to learn more or register.
Learn About Courtney Vose, Featured Expert in an Upcoming Tipton Webinar
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Courtney Vose is the vice president and chief nursing officer of nursing and patient care services at NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP)/Columbia University Medical Center, NYP/Allen and the NYP/Ambulatory Care Network. She also holds the title of clinical instructor at the Columbia University School of Nursing. During her impressive career, Courtney has remained involved within her nursing community.
Currently, Courtney is an active member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society in Business Administration. She is the president ex-officio and past treasurer of the Pennsylvania Eastern Regional Organization of Nurse Leaders, and she completed a two-year term on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Organization of Nurse Leaders. Courtney recently served as the co-chair of the education committee for the New York Organization of Nurse Executives and Leaders, where she also served ex-officio on their board of directors.
Recently, she was elected to the Capital Blue Cross board of directors. She serves as a leadership and research preceptor to nurses at numerous universities including New York University and Columbia University. She has advanced nursing practice through numerous publications as well as oral and poster presentations at regional and national meetings.
Courtney received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She received her master of science degree in nursing and became a certified registered nurse practitioner at Temple University. She has successfully completed the Penn State University Leadership Course and the Wharton Nursing Leaders Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Courtney earned her master of business administration degree at DeSales University, where she also obtained her doctor of nursing practice in executive leadership in June 2016.
How to Maintain Team Member Engagement Amid Layoffs
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Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, furloughs and layoffs have been a concern for nurses and healthcare executives alike. Tipton Health Communication’s May 19 Nursing Leadership Webinar featured Nikki Sumpter, senior vice president and chief human resources officer of Atlantic Health System, an experienced HR executive.
In the second of our three-part blog series focused on furloughs and layoffs, Nikki weighs in on how to be transparent with your staff and keep them engaged and invested in your organization.
Provide Open and Honest Communication: When explaining furloughs and layoffs, it’s important to make sure your employees understand the reason behind them. Share the financials in a way that connects with your staff through a thoughtful process, drawing a clear line of why executives are faced with such a tough decision. Exhaust your whys and cascade these messages down from the organization, to the department level and to all team members.
Engage with HR: Your Human Resources (HR) department should be able to partner with you to help share any important information clearly through message maps, leadership talking points, pre-planning communication, and creating visual cues to eliminate confusion and engage team members. Also, ask if they can reach out to organizations in the community who may be willing to donate and help support staff. Your community is invested in you and your workers now more than ever.
Take Your Team on the Journey With You: It is well understood that right now we will not see a return to the pre-COVID environment and we will experience the “new normal” of healthcare. It’s time to reposition how your nurses define their roles. They are no longer an endoscopic nurse or a critical care nurse. They are nurses who are able to tackle many different tasks and specialties within your organization. You can partner with HR to help you communicate this new perspective and keep your nurses invested and engaged.
Learn More From Our Executive Consultants
You can learn more strategies presented in the webinar, Managing Nurse Expectations and Engagement During Layoffs or Furloughs, by visiting TiptonHealth.com/webinars.
Be sure to join us for our upcoming June sessions:
Employee Communications Essentials in the “New Normal” Hospital Environment on June 2.
How Nurse Autonomy Helped Hospitals Manage the Crisis (and Will Help Build the New Normal) on June 9.
Driving Nursing Excellence and Maintaining Magnet Momentum in the Pandemic and the “New Normal” on June 16.
Nursing Leadership’s Role in Emergency Response Planning: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Crisis on June 23.
Click here to learn more or register.
3 Strategies to Avoid Furloughs at Your Organization
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Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, furloughs and layoffs have been a concern for nurses and healthcare executives alike. Tipton Health Communication’s May 19 Nursing Leadership Webinar featured Nikki Sumpter, senior vice president and chief human resources officer of Atlantic Health System, an experienced HR executive.
In the first of our three-part blog series focused on furloughs and layoffs, Nikki shares her top three strategies for avoiding furloughs altogether and keeping your team members supported and engaged.
Before you choose to furlough members of your staff, first ask yourself, “why would we furlough a nurse?” There has been a shortage of skilled nurses for decades. For reference, before COVID-19, the Bureau of Labor Statistics cited there would be a gap of 20,000 nurses just in the New Jersey market, where Atlantic Health System is based. It’s likely the gap will only grow, so it’s time to get creative with maintaining the nursing workforce that is so vital to our care delivery systems.
Upskill and Retool: Take this time to train your nurses to provide care in a variety of settings. This not only helps support their professional growth but also helps your nursing teams become more agile. It’s critical to consider that there will always be retirees, even in a pandemic. Create programs to aid nurses in a smooth transition of knowledge as they move toward retirement. Retiring nurses can add value to their profession and organization in many ways, such as by delivering virtual education or precepting.
Offer Redeployment: As focus moved away from perioperative and ambulatory settings during COVID-19, the staff in these areas had few options for work within their specialty. Allowing them to move to vacancies within the organization can help keep them employed. Don’t let go of your most precious resources.
Don’t Contribute to Unemployment in Your Community: Nurses have the ability to adapt to several different roles, not just the specialty they were trained in. Offer opportunities in finance, recruitment, patient access or any job where they can still deliver and provide service to your organization.
Learn More From Our Executive Consultants
You can learn more strategies presented in the webinar, Managing Nurse Expectations and Engagement During Layoffs or Furloughs, by visiting TiptonHealth.com/webinars.
Be sure to join us for our upcoming June sessions, Employee Communications Essentials in the “New Normal” Hospital Environment and How Nurse Autonomy Helped Hospitals Manage the Crisis (and Will Help Build the New Normal). Click here to learn more or register.
Expert Perspectives from Phil Ellingsworth Jr. and Erin DiGirolamo
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Click here to register now.
Erin DiGirolamo, MPH
Erin DiGirolamo is the senior manager for Internal Communications and Digital Workforce Strategy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She’s built her career on healthcare communications, starting as a writer and editor for healthcare trade magazines before moving into the hospital environment. During her time at CHOP, Erin transformed the organization’s Internal Communications Department to function as an agency, leading enterprise-wide communication efforts and intranet platform migration. With a special interest in emerging infectious disease, Erin has covered and managed communications for SARS, H1N1, Ebola, and now, COVID-19.
Before leading her team at CHOP, Erin served in multiple leadership roles at Main Line Health. She boosted membership to the health and wellness affinity program, increased readership to the Women’s Health Program’s website, and drove the Magnet designation communication strategy for both internal and external audiences.
Erin earned her master’s degree in Public Health at Drexel University, where she deepened her knowledge of healthcare delivery systems to drive high quality, safe and effective care to the community. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communication at the University of Scranton. She is also a member of the Internal Association of Business Communicators and the Young Survival Coalition.
Phil Ellingsworth Jr.
Phil Ellingsworth Jr. serves as a strategic communications manager with Tipton Health Communications. Phil is an experienced public relations professional with a demonstrated record of developing and implementing internal and external communication strategies in the healthcare and life sciences sectors.
In his role at Tipton, Phil is responsible for the development and implementation of robust communication strategies, plans and campaigns for the firm’s healthcare and human resources/employee benefits clients. Phil has successfully steered his clients through several complex matters during his tenure with Tipton, including communication issues around corporate wellness programs, employee engagement surveys, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to joining Tipton Health Communications, Phil served as communications director for Hahnemann University Hospital where he oversaw internal and external communication strategies for the academic medical center. During his time at Hahnemann, Phil served as the communications adviser to the organization’s C-suite and managed a number of high-level public relations projects for the hospital, including the 2015 World Meeting of Families, HOPE Act organ transplantation approval, and expansion of clinical service lines.
Over the course of his career, Phil has worked with a number of healthcare organizations in the Philadelphia region, including Fox Chase Cancer Center, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Mercy Health System of Southeastern Pennsylvania (now known as Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic).
Phil has received several awards for his work throughout the years, including a 2018 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award for best single health story for a project completed by NBC10 Philadelphia.
Phil earned a bachelor’s degree in English/communications from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. He holds a certification in Risk, Crisis and Emergency Communication for Public Health and Health Care from Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health.
Introducing Nikki Sumpter, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Atlantic Health System
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Learn about Nikki Sumpter who will be leading Tipton’s Webinar, Managing Nurse Expectations and Engagement During Layoffs or Furloughs. Click here to register.
Nikki Sumpter, a leader celebrated for inspiring positive change and engagement across large healthcare systems, serves as senior vice president and chief human resources officer of Atlantic Health System (AHS). Under Nikki’s leadership, the integrated care delivery system—which includes 17,000 team members and more than 400 sites of care—was honored for the 12th consecutive year as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. Nikki was honored with the 2018 Great Place to Work For All™ Leadership Award, designed to recognize the integral strategic and cultural influence of talented women leaders from Fortune 100–recognized organizations.
Nikki and her team are committed to encouraging the development of AHS caregivers every day; promoting health and wellness; fostering diversity and inclusion; and extending system initiatives connected to sustainability, charitable giving and community involvement. Nikki propels the team with her fundamental belief in a life of service to others and in constantly striving to surpass one’s own expectations of what is possible when working together.
Before joining Atlantic Health, Nikki served as senior vice president of human resources and learning at JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, Texas. While there, she led enterprise-wide strategies founded on a commitment to excellent patient-centered care and a best-in-class workplace. With her successful redesign of employee recognition, benefit plans, and workforce and leadership development programs, JPS was honored with a Press Ganey Commitment to Excellence Award for Employee Engagement. While at JPS Health Network, Nikki was named a Most Powerful Businesswoman by the National Diversity Council and Texas Diversity Magazine, and JPS was recognized by the Dallas Morning News as a Top 100 employer.
Nikki holds a master’s in human resources development from Villanova University and a bachelor’s in business administration – management from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is a certified senior professional in human resources, and a graduate of the Corporate Leadership Council Human Resources Leadership Academy. Nikki is a member of the board of directors for the Morris-Sussex-Warren Workforce Development Board in New Jersey as well as Cornerstone Family Programs & Morristown Neighborhood House.
Learn About the Panelists Featured in Leading from the Front Lines—Nurse Executives Discuss the Challenges of Managing the COVID Crisis
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We’ve assembled a panel of senior nurse executives who have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis in different parts of the country. They’ll talk about the leadership strategies they’ve relied on and share the challenges faced, lessons learned and adjustments made as they continue to push forward with nurses and patients in mind.
Jill Case-Wirth, MHA, BSN, RN
Jill Case-Wirth is an accomplished nurse executive with a successful career leading teams to transform and create value in healthcare. In the five years that Jill has been with Wellstar Health System in Georgia, she has strengthened the role of nursing by leading a comprehensive nursing workforce plan for Wellstar and the State of Georgia. Jill worked with state legislators, the board of nursing, universities, technical colleges and high schools to create a career pathway program geared toward earning a bachelor of science degree in nursing. Jill is a transformational nursing leader who has operationalized lean management principles to advance clinical and process improvements in nursing practice, clinical quality, patient experience and workforce management.
As a senior executive of Wellstar, she led the clinical integration as Wellstar acquired six hospitals as well as ambulatory care and community-based care facilities in 2016, and achieved Pathway to Excellence® designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for Wellstar Douglas Hospital in April 2020. Wellstar Douglas is the first hospital in the Wellstar Health System, the fourth hospital in Georgia and one of only 187 hospitals across the country to achieve this designation.
Jill earned her master’s in healthcare administration from Cardinal Stritch University and her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She’s also a member of the American Nurses Association, the Georgia Organization of Nurse Leaders, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the Georgia Hospital Association, Sigma Theta Tau, Vizient MidSouth and the American College of Healthcare Executives. She serves on the AACN Essentials Task Force and National Commission on Work-Based Learning and is an emeritus member of Press Ganey’s CNO Council.
Kimberly Guesman, MSN, RN, NE-BC
Kimberly is a seasoned healthcare executive with more than 25 years of experience serving in various leadership roles. For the past three years, Kimberly has been the chief nursing officer at Beaumont, Farmington Hills, a 330-bed hospital in Michigan.
Before stepping into the CNO position, Kimberly served as director of nursing services for Beaumont Health. In this role, she was responsible for overseeing nursing leaders, with more than 350 full-time employees spread across four medical surgical units and a progressive care unit. During this time, Kimberly implemented initiatives that improved patient experience and safety throughout Beaumont.
Kimberly received her master of science degree in nursing at the University of Pittsburgh and her bachelor of science in nursing at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She is pursuing her doctorate of nursing practice degree at Madonna University. Kim was appointed the senior leader at her organization for the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. During the pandemic, her organization surged early; at one point, 90% of the patients were COVID patients.
Susan Knoepffler, MPH, BSN, RN
Susan Knoepffler is the chief nursing officer and vice president for nursing at Huntington Hospital, a four-time Magnet®-designated facility in Pasadena, California. She has served in this role for almost a decade.
Susan joined Huntington from Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJ), where she served as senior administrative director of the emergency department. Throughout her 30-year career, she has held various positions, beginning as a staff nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at North Shore University Hospital. Career highlights include leadership roles as administrative supervisor and nursing care coordinator at St. Francis Hospital before joining LIJ in 2008.
Susan earned her master’s in public health administration from Long Island University – C.W. Post and her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Delaware. She is a certified nurse executive and a member of the American Organization of Nurse Leaders and Sigma Theta Tau. She recently spearheaded Northwell Health System’s nursing strategic plan for Humanism. Susan was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the “Top 60 CNOs to Know” in 2017.
Brad Lukas, MBA, MSN, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE
Brad is the chief nursing officer of Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He is dedicated to engaging nursing staff and promoting shared governance to deliver high-quality patient- and family-centered care.
Brad serves as chairman of the Sterling Heights Regional Chamber of Commerce and board member of the Trinity Community Care Board, a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide free healthcare to the uninsured. Brad is a graduate of Leadership Macomb and has a passion for bringing community leaders together to tackle difficult issues. Brad was recognized in DBusiness Magazine’s “30 in Their Thirties” edition, as well as the Oakland County “Elite 40 Under 40” class of 2018.
Brad has a master’s degree in nursing administration from Western Governors University and one in business from Baker College, as well as a bachelor of science in nursing from Wayne State University. He is an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) board-certified nurse executive, advanced, as well as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE).
Mary McDermott, MSN, RN, APRN, NEA-BC
Mary currently serves as the senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Phelps Hospital in the Northwell Health System, Sleepy Hollow, New York. Her successful career spans nearly three decades in healthcare, and includes progressive roles in nursing leadership, as well as clinical and administrative roles within nursing services.
Mary has had extensive experience with Magnet® designation success, participating in three designations at the Hospital for Special Surgery, which is ranked #1 in orthopedics. While working at this organization as the assistant vice president of nursing, she also developed the Nursing Infomatics Council, whose goal is the automation of evidence-based nursing practice, improved patient outcomes, and service excellence through information technology and electronic solutions that enhance nursing documentation, communication and efficiency.
Mary earned her bachelor of science in nursing at Adelphi University, her master of science in nursing at the College of Mount Saint Vincent and her post-master’s certificate in nursing administration at Villanova University, and participated in the Wharton Nursing Leaders Program at The Wharton School. She also holds certifications in nursing administration and nurse executive, advanced from the American Nursing Credentialing Center (ANCC).
Click here to register for Leading from the Front Lines—Nurse Executives Discuss the Challenges of Managing the COVID Crisis.
Work From Home Like a Pro
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Staying focused and productive can be difficult under the best of circumstances. But now, when many of us are working from home, it can be nearly impossible.
The Tipton team has put together a few suggestions to help you get ready, get set and get to work:
Designate a workspace. Pick a place in your home to serve as your “office” and use it every day you work. Having a dedicated space for business can put you in the right frame of mind and make you feel more motivated—and once you’ve finished your productive day, you’ll feel just as good when you step away from that space.
Stick to a schedule and a routine. We all find ways to avoid work when we’re stuck in the house. But you’ll find it easier to get going and be productive if you maintain your normal schedule. Wake up on time, take a shower, and get dressed as if you’re still going into the office. You’ll feel like a professional, so you’ll act like a professional.
Get up and move. Being productive doesn’t mean being chained to your desk (or kitchen table) staring at a screen. Break up your workday by moving around every once in a while. Try taking stretch breaks every hour or so—your body and your brain will thank you for it.
Make your bed every morning. It may sound silly, but when you start your day by completing a simple chore, you reward yourself with a feeling of accomplishment. Maintaining order, even with little wins, helps put you in control—and that makes you feel prepared, focused and ready to work.
Don’t try to multitask. Multitasking is overrated. Frankly, it usually means you’re putting less effort than normal into at least one of the tasks you’re trying to accomplish. This is true whether you’re working in the office or at home, but while you’re at home, the temptation to multitask is much greater. For example, if you’re on a work call, it may seem logical to put yourself on mute and throw a load in the washer. But while you’re focusing on separating colors from whites, you’re only half-listening to your call. This ties in to designating a workspace—if you’re in your workspace, you should be focused on work, not what you could be doing on top of it.
Working from home doesn’t have to be challenging. Simply follow these commonsense tips and you’ll find yourself poised, professional and productive every day.
Six Tactics to Calm and Engage Employees During the COVID-19 Crisis
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Leaders lead during times of uncertainty—and we’re now facing uncertainty like never before. The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered many businesses, abruptly halted projects, made a shambles of business development and marketing plans, and plunged people all over the world into profound anxiety over their well-being and economic security.
This is your time to step up. You must be the solid, steady pillar your team members can rely on. Be consistent in all you say and do, proactive in your communications and compassionate in addressing your team members’ needs. By doing so, you’ll build trust and engagement.
The following are six tactics you can use to keep your employees engaged and informed during this crisis:
Communicate consistently, openly, honestly and frequently: It’s important to establish a cadence—keep communication with your team as constant and routine as you can. If you haven’t already, set up weekly check-ins or meetings via video chats or phone calls. This will keep you up-to-date not only on any projects team members are working on, but also on their potential struggles adjusting to the current events. Be transparent and open with your employees. By building an honest rapport and trust between you and your team, you’re building a solid foundation for a strong work ethic and willingness to work through tough times.
Be as present as possible: Most people are working from home for the time being, so it’s more important than ever that you remain present. Be available to your employees in any way you can—keep your chats open on whatever platform you and your teams use, but also be available to video-chat or hop on a phone call, even if it’s just for a short one-on-one. Your employees will appreciate the extra level of support or just knowing you’re there.
Don’t overpromise — say only what you know: In times like these, leaders want to assure employees that everything will be okay and there’s no need to worry. While this may be true for some companies, don’t promise a sense of security that won’t hold up. Make sure everyone knows what you know—things are changing, and that might mean changes for them in the near future.
Give your team members multiple opportunities to ask questions: While you may not have all of the answers at the moment, everyone is going to have a million and one questions. You want them to be able to bring those questions and concerns to you as conveniently as possible. And you need to respond quickly—this goes hand in hand with being present. Depending on the size of your team/company, you can set up a Google Form that your employees can access to submit questions to you. Make it a goal to answer everyone’s questions by the end of each week. Or, have an open channel of communication through which they can always reach you with questions—email, chat room, phone call, etc. If the same question comes up repeatedly or is particularly relevant to the situation, feel free to put your answer out to your entire team or company through a memo or video.
Ask about their families: It’s important to be there for your employees in a professional capacity during a crisis, but don’t forget that you can reach out to them personally as well. Ask how their families are doing, if they need anything and if there’s any way you can help. Sometimes just offering support is enough, and it reinforces that you care!
Be understanding, approachable and personable: Being understanding can go a long way. These are difficult times for every family and every person in different ways, and we’re all forced to make big adjustments. Working from home is just one such adjustment, and people may be experiencing different setbacks. Recognizing that people are having a hard time, and that they might need to take time for themselves sometimes to help them cope, is another meaningful way to support your team.
As a leader, you need to show your employees that you support them and that you’re staying strong in these uncertain, upsetting times. Everyone is going through a difficult adjustment, and your job is to be there for them, show them you understand what they’re going through, and encourage and maintain open, honest communications.
Meet Kimberly Nagy, A Consulting Expert Partnering With Tipton
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Tipton’s Executive Nursing Consultants are a group of experts who have decades of experience leading renowned hospitals and health systems across the country. Learn more about one of those consultants, Kimberly Nagy, MSN, RN, NEA-BC. Kim will be leading a session in our upcoming free webinar series, Strategic Leadership During a Crisis.
Kimberly Nagy, MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Kimberly Nagy is an accomplished healthcare executive with a career spanning more than 35 years. Kimberly currently serves as principal and founder of Kimberly Nagy Consulting LLC.
Prior to becoming a healthcare consultant, Kimberly served as Executive Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Nursing Office of Northwest Community Healthcare, a 500+ bed, Level II Trauma, Level III NICU, Acute Care Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois. During her tenure, she brought together individuals to forge high-functioning teams, established herself as an inspirational change agent, using her clinical and business acumen to identify necessary transformations in current strategies, designed and developed new processes to support continued growth of the organization. Her capability in achieving exemplary nursing and operational outcomes at all levels of operation is evident throughout her career, setting high standards of improvement and ensuring they are achieved. She also served as Chair of the Nursing Executive Council at Northwest Community to lead out on organizational imperatives to increase nurse board certification rates, reduce RN turnover, enhance care coordination, and advance knowledge in areas of professional development, service line standardization, workforce planning and strategic governance. Led out on the organizations 3rd Magnet® re-designation.
Earlier in her career, Kimberly served as Vice President of Operations and Chief Nursing Executive Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, a 200 bed, Level II Trauma, Acute Care Hospital, Lake Forest, Illinois. During her time at Lake Forest Hospital, Kimberly’s hands-on transformational leadership, vision and guidance assisted the organization to earn its initial Magnet® Designation.
Kimberly earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Nursing from Purdue University. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International, AONL, IONL, ANA, and ACHE. She earned Nurse Executive Advanced Board Certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), as well as Lean Six Sigma White Belt Certification.
Kimberly has served as the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Susan G. Komen Foundation in Chicago and a Member of the AONL Directors Fellowship Task Force.
Click here to register for Kim’s webinar, Authentic and Extraordinary Leadership for Achieving Success.
Meet Joan Shinkus Clark, Tipton Consultant and Healthcare Expert
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Tipton’s Executive Nursing Consultants are a group of experts who have decades of experience leading renowned hospitals and health systems across the country. Learn more about one of those consultants, Joan Shinkus Clark, DNP, RN, NE-BC, CENP, FACHE, FAAN, FAONL. Joan will be leading a session in our upcoming free webinar series, Strategic Leadership During a Crisis.
Joan Shinkus Clark, DNP, RN, NE-BC, CENP, FACHE, FAAN, FAONL
Joan is an accomplished healthcare executive with more than four decades of experience. During Joan’s career, she has served as a senior vice president and CNO/CNE for major health systems, Magnet® Appraiser for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and a commissioner on The Joint Commission Board of Directors.
As the CNO at Baptist Hospital of Miami, she led two successful Magnet re-designations (2002 and 2006), as well as reorganized their patient care delivery model to the Twelve Bed Hospital© concept. Joan implemented this same model while serving as CNO at Washington Hospital Center. As the EVP/ system CNE of Texas Health Resources (THR), she expanded on the Twelve Bed Hospital concept to 14 hospitals across the organization in all acute care patient areas. During her time at THR, she also was instrumental in creating systems and structures that brought nursing together as one nursing service across multiple sites.
Nursing continuing education has been integral part of Joan’s work throughout her expansive career. To ensure nurses had access to meaningful professional development opportunities, Joan created philanthropic scholarship funds, promoted on-site nursing education and created academic-service partnerships with local universities.
Joan was certified as a Doctor of Executive Nursing Practice at Texas Christian University, earned the Wharton Fellowship for Nurse Executives at the University of Pennsylvania, master’s in Nursing Administration at the University of Florida and bachelor’s in Health Care Administration at St. Joseph’s College.
Joan has extensive involvement with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (formerly AONE), chairing and serving on a number of committees and recently as President during AONL’s 50th anniversary year.
Click here to register for Joan’s webinar, Defining the Nurse Executive’s Critical Role in a Crisis.
Meet Dr. Rosemarie Aznavorian, Expert in Nursing
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Rosemarie Aznavorian, DNP, RN, CCWP, CCRN-K, CENP
Dr. Rosemarie Aznavorian is a seasoned healthcare professional with more than four decades of experience. Rosemarie currently serves as the Vice President of Client Services and Chief Clinical Officer for MedPro Healthcare Staffing. In this role, Rosemarie leads the Account Management, Clinical Credentialing and Joint Commission Certification Teams, as well as successfully turning around underperforming branches to profitability and consulting with a number of healthcare systems to insource their supplemental staffing programs.
Prior to joining MedPro Healthcare Staffing, Rosemarie served in a number of senior executive roles, including Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at Texas Health, Director of Pediatric Intensive Care Services at Miami Children’s Hospital, as well as service line leadership roles with Broward Health and Tenet Healthcare. Rosemarie also served as Area Manager for InteliStaf Healthcare staffing for 10 years, and has had over 20 years of staffing experience in both the staffing and hospital industries. While at Miami Children’s Hospital she helped establish new cardiac transplant protocols and assisted with their UNOS designated Cardiac Transplant Program.
Rosemarie earned her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Texas Christian University, her master’s in Nursing Administration and bachelor’s in Nursing both at Barry University in Miami.
She was selected as an inaugural cohort member to earn CCWP, Staffing Industry Analysts Board Certification and nominated as the Nurse Researcher of the Year at Miami Children’s Hospital.
She is board-certified in Executive Nursing Practice by the American Organization of Nurse Leaders (formerly AONE) and has held her CCRN certification for more than 30 years.
Click here to register for Rosemarie’s webinar, Successfully Deploy Your Most Valuable Resource – Staffing Implications and Prioritization During Crisis.
Meet Mary Del Guidice, A Tipton Consulting Expert
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Mary Del Guidice MSN, BS, RN, CENP
Having been with the University of Pennsylvania for over nine years, Mary currently serves as Tipton Health’s Chief Nursing Officer. She also serves as Senior Fellow for the Center of Health Outcomes and Policy Research, UPenn school of Nursing, the no.1 nursing school in the world (according to QS World University Rankings). She began her career at UPenn as Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) of Pennsylvania Hospital, a position she held for eight years. During her time as CNO, Mary led her team to achieve their first-ever ANCC Magnet designation as well as many other national accolades for quality, safety and patient satisfaction outcomes. During this time, Mary also received the UPENN Patient Advocacy Award, a first for an executive in the organization. Currently, Mary is also serving on the Magnet4Europe team, an international project funded by the European Union. The focus of this project is to bring together 60 US Magnet hospitals with 60 European hospitals for the purpose of redesigning hospital workplaces in order to improve the mental health and well-being of nurses and physicians, and to improve patient safety.
In 2018, Mary took her passion, experience, and dedication to healthcare and founded her own healthcare leadership consulting firm, Del Guidice Consulting. She also serves as the CEO, providing organizations support from leadership, mentoring and onboarding, to achieving ever increasing levels of excellence through leading change and cultural transformation. From 2008-2010 at Bon Secours Health System Mary first served as CNO for a single hospital and was quickly promoted to hold the first system CNO role for the Bon Secours Charity Health System in NY. She helped improve the system’s reputation of care in the community -“inpatient overall rating” rose from the 20th percentile to the 95th percentile, and inpatient “likelihood to recommend” rose from the 54th percentile to the 90th percentile. During Mary’s tenure at Lehigh Valley Health Network, she led the team to achieve their first ANCC Magnet re-designation. While at Hackensack University Medical Center, Mary was part of the team that earned the nation’s first ANCC Magnet Award (outside of a pilot program) and is the author of the “Magnet Champion” program, a methodology utilized internationally in preparation for Magnet Designation. During this time Mary also led her team to achieve the Press Ganey Client Success Story Award. In her role as a nursing consultant with Tipton, Mary works with departments of nursing on leading strategic initiatives such as developing shared leadership structures, establishing Centers for Nursing Excellence, and leading strategic planning processes.
Mary obtained her associate’s degree in nursing at Felician University, and her master’s and bachelor’s of science at Saint Peter’s College. She is a member of the American Nurses Association, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the New Jersey State Nurses Association. Mary has presented nationally and published on many topics such as RN satisfaction, Leadership, Staffing, Nursing Finance, and Patient Satisfaction.
Click to register for Mary’s webinars, The Nurse Leaders’ Crisis Toolkit – Strategies and Tactics to Lead Through a Crisis and Making Time for “Self-Care Moments” For You and Your Nursing Team.
April 2020 Magnet Newsletter
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Welcome!
Thank you for reading the April 2020 edition of the Magnet® Newsletter from Tipton Health Communications. This edition features information how being a Magnet Designated hospital helped to prepare nurses for the current healthcare crisis, techniques for leaders to effectively communicate with nurses, and tips and insight from the experts at Tipton Health Communications.
Article Navigation
How Magnet Excellence Prepares You to Combat a Crisis
A Message from Dan Tipton
How to Communicate With Your Nursing Team During a Crisis
Congratulations to Our Recent Magnet-Designated Clients
Magnet Team Editorial Tips: Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Breaking Down Non-EO Supporting Evidence
DATES, DATES and More DATES: Why They are Important in your EO Documents
How Magnet Excellence Prepares You to Combat a Crisis
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the nation, our national healthcare system is facing unprecedented challenges. Pursuing nursing excellence has created a strong foundation for nurses responding to the crisis, according to two Magnet Program Directors.
Madelyn Torakis, Henry Ford Health System
Madelyn TorakisDirector, Professional Practice and Magnet ProgramHenry Ford Health System
A unique attribute to Magnet hospitals is that they value, respect and support the autonomous practice of nurses at all levels to do what is best for patients and families. In a crisis situation where leadership may not be readily available, autonomy is crucial to provide the best and quickest care for our patients.
In such uncertain times trust is essential. Nurses at Magnet facilities know that their CNO, as well as the rest of their leadership team, will ensure that they have their staff’s best interests in mind in all that they do. This level of trust puts staff nurses’ minds at ease and frees them up to focus on the lifesaving work they’ll be doing.
Despite the current potential of working with rationed or greatly diminished supplies, Magnet hospitals know how to be resourceful and creative. They look to their nurses on the front lines to help solve these problems through fantastic interprofessional collaboration. This teamwork that is foundational in a Magnet facility is essential in a crisis like COVID-19.
Lastly the overall “can do” attitude that our nurses possess was solidified throughout the Magnet journey. During a crisis like this, our nurses maintain that disposition and face challenges with determination.
Lindsey Ford, Geisinger Health
Lindsey Ford, DNP, RN, NPD-BCDirector, Nursing Education and MagnetGeisinger Northeast
As a Magnet Hospital preparing our nurses to deal with the current healthcare crisis, leadership has been communicating frequently about any new updates or developments regarding COVID-19. Our leaders have also been visible, on the floor talking with staff about any concerns they may have as we move forward in this trying time. Transparency is crucial in avoiding any chaos and ensuring that our nurses are not only prepared for the immediate future but feel comfortable that we have their backs.
Educating our nurses about proper screening and care of a patient with the diagnosis of COVID-19 has also been a vital piece of the puzzle in tackling this crisis. It’s been so inspiring to watch the seamless orchestrating of processes around COVID-19 with our interdisciplinary teams.
As healthcare workers, it is all hands on deck to care for our patients, our families and our communities.
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A Message from Dan Tipton
Thank you! On behalf of all of us at Tipton Health, we extend to you our heartfelt gratitude and admiration for all that you and your extraordinary nursing teams are doing to keep our country safe, healthy and strong though the COVID-19 pandemic.
With much of your time and resources devoted to this ongoing and fluid situation, please know that we are here to support you in any way we can.
Here are a few updates about Tipton:
Everyone at Tipton is now working from home. (All are safe and healthy!)
We have suspended and will reschedule all client on-site services, including workshops, mock site visits, and gap analyses.
We stand committed to supporting our clients. We are working each day to help guide our clients to successful Magnet, PTAP and Pathway to Excellence designations.
As always, we are extending complete scheduling flexibility to our clients.
Our communications team is available to provide support with senior leader messaging and more. Please keep in mind that now is the time for your leaders to shine! We can help.
We’ve been busy sewing masks and spreading the word about the need for personal protection equipment for our nurses.
Keep an eye on our website and emails for more services for our nursing partners.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@tiptonhealth.com or 302-454-7901. Stay safe! We can’t thank you enough for what you are doing every day – serving patients with compassion and high-quality care.
All my best to you and your teams.
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How to Communicate With Your Nursing Team During a Crisis
As COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on hospitals and health systems across the United States, it is now more important than ever to clearly and effectively communicate with your nursing staff. In times of crisis and turmoil, frequent communication with frontline nurses from managers, directors and other leaders is crucial. A crisis of this magnitude can make or break the support and trust your nurses place in hospital leaders. Whether it is to convey support of their tireless efforts, provide organizational updates or share clinical guidance, ongoing communications are essential to ensure nurses remain engaged and in-the-know.
As healthcare communications experts, we suggest that you adopt the following strategies to guide your communications efforts.
Communicate proactively and in a timely fashion.
Nurses must learn about major announcements from leadership – not through the grapevine, news media or other external sources.
Be upfront, transparent and honest in all communications.
Nursing leadership should be actively involved and visible throughout every unit and during all shifts – not just first and second shifts and weekdays.
Use multiple forms and channels of communication to ensure each nurse hears your messages.
Communications must be two-way. Provide nurses with the ability to ask questions and voice concerns.
Strive to find answers to questions as soon as possible.
Reflect your mission, vision and values in all communications.
If you need support communicating with your nurses, Tipton Health Communications is here to help. Our core team of professional communicators are available to assist you with leadership messaging, communications plan review and more.
For more information on how Tipton can support your nurse communications efforts, call us at 302-454-7901 or email us at info@tiptonhealth.com to speak with one of our healthcare communications experts.
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Congratulations to Our Recent Magnet-Designated Clients
Tipton Health Communications is proud to congratulate and celebrate our clients that have received their initial Magnet designations and re-designations.
Celebrating Initial Designation
Maury Regional Medical Center
Wellspan York Surgery and Rehabilitation Hospital
Henry Ford Hospital
Celebrating Initial Re-Designation
Long Island Jewish Medical Center
The team at Wellspan York Surgery and Rehabilitation Hospital celebrates earning their first Magnet designation. The Maury Regional Medical Center Magnet Team celebrates their first designation. Henry Ford Hospital celebrates earning their first Magnet designation. Leaders at Long Island Jewish Medical Center celebrate their second Magnet designation while practicing social distancing. They participated in a remote conference call with 100 nurses to announce its success.
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Magnet Team Editorial Tips: Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Qualitative = Pertaining to or concerned with quality or qualities; subjective, cannot be definitively measured or quantified. Example: Problems of economic policy also involve political and ethical criteria that are essentially qualitative in nature.
Quantitative = Measurable; describing or measuring of quantity. Example: Show me the quantitative analysis of your data on the population census of 2010.
Request your copy of Tipton’s Magnet® Writer’s Style Guide by contacting our team at info@tiptonhealth.com.
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Breaking Down Non-EO Supporting Evidence
As you begin to dive into writing your Magnet documents, it can be difficult to sort out how to structure your stories or determine exactly what supporting evidence you need. Our team beaks down a few of the non-EO documents that clients frequently question below.
Non-EO
Question
Intent/Supporting Evidence
TL3a
Provide one example, with supporting evidence, of an assistant vice president’s/nurse director’s advocacy for resources to support an organizational goal.
Intent: To demonstrate that nurses’ actions are aligned with the hospital’s strategic initiatives and that they are willing to advocate to make them happen.
Required supporting evidence: 1
Hospital’s (not Nursing’s) strategic plan (the one in place when the story happened).
Rules regarding remaining supporting evidence: 2-4
Demonstrations of the nurse’s specific advocacy steps.
Note: We do not need to “prove” with supporting evidence that the resource was acquired, but the resource (acquired or not) does need to align with the strategic goal.
TL8
Provide one example, with supporting evidence, where a clinical nurse(s) utilized data to advocate for the acquisition of a resource, in support of the care delivery system(s).
Intent: To demonstrate that the organization has created a culture and an evidence-based environment in which nurses at all levels (in this case, clinical nurses) are prepared to conduct research and collect data to back up their concerns regarding their nursing care.
Required supporting evidence: 3
Raw data that the nurses (or someone else) collected (not a table or graph that was created for the narrative…and this should NOT be embedded in the narrative).
Proof that the clinical nurse shared the data with someone to analyze it or discuss its implications.
Proof that the resource was reallocated or acquired.
Rules regarding remaining supporting evidence: 2
Demonstrations of the nurse’s specific advocacy steps.
SE12a
Provide one example, with supporting evidence, of the organization’s recognition of a clinical nurse for their contribution(s) in addressing the strategic priorities of the organization.
Intent: To demonstrate that nurses’ actions are aligned with the hospital’s strategic initiatives and that the hospital has a system in place to recognize those actions.
Required supporting evidence: 2
Hospital’s (not Nursing’s) strategic plan (the one in place when the story happened).
Proof that the nurse’s actions took place.
Rules regarding remaining supporting evidence: 2-3
Demonstrations that the Hospital/Nursing dept. recognized the nurse.
EP9a
Provide an example, with supporting evidence, of a time when clinical nurses collaborated with an assistant vice president (AVP)/nurse director to evaluate data in order to address an identified unit-level staffing need.
Intent: To demonstrate that the organization has created a culture and an evidence-based environment in which nurses at all levels (in this case, clinical nurses) are prepared to conduct research and collect data to back up their concerns regarding staffing levels in their area.
Required supporting evidence: 3
Raw data that the nurses (or someone else) collected (not a table or graph that was created for the narrative…this should NOT be embedded in the narrative).
Proof that the clinical nurse shared the data with an AVP/director to analyze it or discuss its implications.
Proof that the staffing resource was reallocated or acquired.
Rules regarding remaining supporting evidence: 2
Demonstrations of the nurse’s specific advocacy steps.
Note: The resource needs to align with the data that was collected.
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DATES, DATES and More DATES: Why They are Important in your EO Documents
Empirical Outcome documents (EOs) share your performance improvement projects, from reducing the falls with injury rate to improving patient satisfaction. EOs include a narrative about your successful performance improvement projects along with outcome data and a graph that show an improvement in your process. One essential component of any EO document is the date. This doesn’t just mean the date in which you implemented your intervention(s) — it means the dates for ALL the steps of your interventions.
When starting to write your EO documents, be sure to include the date (month/year) when your project was started and include the date for each additional step in your team’s work. This includes:
The date when you formed the team
When you conducted a literature review
When you developed a new process
When you educated your team
When you implemented the new process
The Magnet ® appraiser wants to see the timeline of your interventions in chronological order. Including the dates for each step in your project can also help you write an even stronger EO document which clearly identifies the intervention time frame. A final tip before you get too deep into your EO is to make sure your initiative falls within your Magnet 48-month window.
Need help in determining your intervention time frame? Contact our team at info@tiptonhealth.com.
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Stay Safe and Healthy. Tipton Has Your Back
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As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to impact the United States and world, we recognize this is an extremely difficult and overwhelming time for hospitals and health systems trying to protect their employees while serving the public. With much of your time and resources devoted to this ongoing and fluid situation, please know that we are here to support you in any way we can. Our team of professional communicators and healthcare consultants is ready to step in as you need us to provide you with expert service and guidance.
Please be assured that Tipton Health Communications will continue to provide you with high-quality Magnet, Pathway to Excellence, PTAP, nursing excellence and communications consulting support.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@tiptonhealth or at 302-454-7901. Stay safe! We can’t thank you enough for what you are doing every day – serving patients with compassion and high-quality care.
COVID-19: How You Can Help Healthcare Organizations
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While we work with nurses every day, all of us at Tipton Health Communications wish we could do more to support their heroic daily care-giving efforts. A few of our team members found ways that we can all help to alleviate the desperate need for personal protection equipment. We will be updating this list through the weeks ahead:
Sew a mask or donate materials for masks. Here’s how!
Take it up a notch. Make your mask from high-end furnace filter material.
“Print” a mask using a 3D printer. Here’s information on how to get started! If you don’t have a 3D printer, contact your local university science, engineering or art department or any local businesses that have 3D printers to see if they can help. Be sure to check with your local hospital to make sure the masks can be used there.
20 Ways to Support Nurses from nurses.org.
Effective Nurse Communications During a Crisis
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As COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on hospitals and health systems across the United States, it is now more important than ever to clearly and effectively communicate with your nursing staff. In times of crisis and turmoil, frequent communication with frontline nurses from managers, directors and other leaders is crucial. A crisis of this magnitude can make or break the support and trust your nurses place in hospital leaders. Whether it is to convey support of their tireless efforts, provide organizational updates or share clinical guidance, ongoing communications are essential to ensure nurses remain engaged and in-the-know.
As healthcare communications experts, we suggest that you adopt the following strategies to guide your communications efforts:
Communicate proactively and in a timely fashion.
Nurses must learn about major announcements from leadership – not through the grapevine, news media or other external sources.
Be upfront, transparent and honest in all communications.
Nursing leadership should be actively involved and visible throughout every unit and during all shifts – not just first and second shifts and weekdays.
Use multiple forms and channels of communication to ensure each nurse hears your messages.
Communications must be two-way. Provide nurses with the ability to ask questions and voice concerns.
Strive to find answers to questions as soon as possible.
Reflect your mission, vision and values in all communications.
If you need support communicating with your nurses, Tipton Health Communications is here to help. Our core team of professional communicators are available to assist you with leadership messaging, communications plan review and more.
Learn More
For more information on how Tipton can support your nurse communications efforts, call us at 302-454-7901 or email us at info@tiptonhealth.com to speak with one of our healthcare communications experts.
7 Tips to Make Your Nurses Week Celebration Shine
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Comforting a patient, putting in long hours, bringing a smile to someone’s face—nurses always rise to the occasion and go the extra mile. During National Nurses Week, marked annually May 6 through 12, we celebrate their resiliency, strength and dedication to those they serve.
Here are seven ways to make your appreciation activities engaging, meaningful and memorable.
Nursing Annual Report – Celebrate your nursing staff by creating a nursing annual report that shows off their impressive accomplishments and commitment to the community. An annual report lets you tell the success story of your nurses and organization in a visually dynamic way.
Thank You Letter – A thoughtful note of thanks goes a long way. A letter from your organization’s senior leadership team shows nurses you recognize how much they do to support the hospital and how hard they work to care for your patients. Be sure to focus on wins and different ways your nurses have helped to move the organization forward over the past year, including the achievement of new awards and certifications.
Departmental and Hospital Awards – Nursing awards are a simple way to say thank you and show that you recognize their commitment to excellence. If your hospital honors nurses by giving out the DAISY Award, schedule the celebration event to coincide with Nurses Week. Think about other award opportunities that acknowledge departments and nursing teams for going above and beyond, such as accolades focused on quality and other clinical measurements. Make sure nurses and hospital leaders present the awards when the time comes.
Recognition Meal – As you know, nurses are busy and often skip meals to care for their patients. Having your hospital’s senior leaders and department managers/directors round on the different units with a food cart is sure to bring a big smile to your nurses’ faces. Whether you pass out snacks or a meal, your nurses will appreciate your thoughtful and generous gesture.
Giveaways – A hospital-branded giveaway will remind your nursing staff of the time you recognized them. They’ll get lots of use out of practical gifts like umbrellas, beach chairs and towels, travel mugs, and portable phone chargers. Branded gifts also tells others that your nurses are proud to be a part of your organization.
Rounding – Nurse leaders should round through every unit for every shift. It’s a grueling process but your nurses will appreciate the effort and your investment in your one on one time with them.
Social Media – When you post to your hospital’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, you not only show your nurses you care, you also show the community you recognize your staff for their commitment and service. Commemorate the entire week with daily posts, and create a unique hashtag that gets staff excited and engaged.
National Nurses Week is the perfect opportunity to show you care about your nurses and appreciate their hard work and compassion.
Learn More Today!
For more information on how Tipton can help you with nurse recognition, call us at 302-454-7901 or email us at info@tiptonhealth.com to speak with one of our healthcare communications experts.
Mary Del Guidice, Tipton Senior Nursing Excellence Consultant
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Tipton Health Communications, a leading provider of nursing excellence, Magnet®, Pathway to Excellence® and PTAP® consulting support welcomes Mary Del Guidice, MSN, BS, RN, CENP, as a senior nursing excellence consultant, serving hospital clients in a variety of capacities.
Mary joins Tipton’s growing team of highly experienced and well-respected executive nurse consultants. She will focus on helping Tipton’s clients to address unique structural and strategic challenges, including the following:
Creating an environment where nursing teams can efficiently provide the best care possible
Building the most effective structure to support nursing excellence
Improving engagement and satisfaction
Building leadership competencies
Enculturating nurses into systems of excellence (Magnet® and Pathway®)
Educating nurses and team members
Developing Nursing Strategic Plans
Mary comes to Tipton after an impressive nursing career, leading teams to Magnet designations, improving nursing programs, and effectively bettering patient care at numerous hospitals including the University of Pennsylvania, Bon Secours Health System, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Hackensack University Medical Center. Her passion for guiding hospitals to reach their full potential led to her establishing and becoming CEO of her own firm, Del Guidice Consulting, where she continues to mentor and lead organizations.
“We’re very excited to have Mary on our team,” said Tipton Health CEO Dan Tipton. “Her expertise and insights are already benefiting our clients on their Magnet journeys as well as in their day-to-day efforts to provide efficient, high-quality care to their patients.”
Mary is a Senior Fellow in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania and is a member of the American Nurses Association, American Organization of Nursing Excellence and the New Jersey State Nurses Association.
Tipton's Deep Dive Magnet Document Workshop to Help Organizations Develop Evidence-Based Magnet® Responses
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Tipton Health is now offering an on-site, customized Deep Dive Magnet Document Workshop to help hospital nursing teams clearly define the stories, data and evidence needed for a successful Magnet® application submission.
“The Deep Dive Workshop enables CNOs, Magnet Program Directors (MPDs) and writing teams to explore stories in depth for each source of evidence (SOE),” said Jason Long, Tipton’s Manager of Hospital Certifications. “We can tailor this workshop to meet the needs of each organization. The goal is to identify specific stories for each SOE and talk through them one by one.”
Tipton partners with the hospital MPD to identify top-priority source documents and set the workshop agenda. Tipton’s consultants then travel on-site to meet with Magnet writing teams. Together they evaluate the requirements of each document, find stories that work for each one and identify the best EO (Empirical Outcome) resources to help highlight the hospital’s biggest accomplishments.
Participants will come away from this intensive one-day workshop with a list of ideal stories for each document and a deep understanding of the necessities for Magnet documentation writing. Tipton’s consultants also host a Q&A at the end of the day to ensure participants feel confident and prepared to embark on their Magnet journey.
Deep Dive complements Tipton’s other on-site offerings: the Applying Magnet to Your Service Line Workshop (for organizations driving a culture of nursing excellence), the Process Improvement Project Workshop and the popular Writers’ Workshop for members of a hospital’s Magnet writing team.
“We specialize in delivering on-demand, high-value nursing excellence consulting services that are customized to each organization,” said Tipton Health President Dan Tipton.
Learn More
Organizations can schedule an onsite workshop by contacting our consultants at info@tiptonhealth.com or 302-454-7901.
Tipton Communications Welcomes Isabella Antignani as Communications and Marketing Intern
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Tipton Health Communications, a full-serviced healthcare consultancy and strategic communications agency, is happy to welcome Isabella Antignani this winter as its communications and marketing intern. In her new position, Isabella will help create strategic campaigns for clients, providing writing support and developing concepts for marketing and social media campaigns.
“We’re fortunate to have Isabella join us,” said Dan Tipton, president and CEO of Tipton Communications. “We’ve had great success hiring talented rising communications students from the University of Delaware. Isabella will be a great addition to our team.”
Isabella is a senior at the University of Delaware, where she is studying media communications with minors in advertising and writing. Along with her studies, she serves on the executive board of the university’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) as their meetings director. She acts as the liaison between the board and the professional speakers she recruits to speak with PRSSA members. Previously, Isabella interned with Student Media Group (SMG) as a proofreading intern and with bloom daily planners as a social media intern. She proofread advertisements before print for SMG and helped support bloom’s social platforms.
“I am thrilled to be working with and learning from Tipton, because everyone here puts so much care into the work they do for their clients,” Isabella said.