Celebrating Nurses

On May 2, three WellStar nurses were honored at The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s annual Celebrating Nurses: Nursing Excellence Awards event. Amy Tipton, RN, WellStar Paulding Hospital ICU and Acute Care; Cindy Bales, RN, WellStar Kennestone Hospital Women’s Unit; and Penninah (Penny) Ndungu, RN, Kennestone, Ortho/Neuro Telemetry, were chosen from more than 300 nominees as three of the top 10 nurses in Georgia. WellStar was the only health system with more than one honoree.

Whether it’s in a hospital, on a soccer field or in another continent, this year’s nominees share a commitment to helping others and making a difference in peoples’ lives. Their passion for nursing goes beyond their day-to-day responsibilities, as you will discover through their nomination stories.

WellStar Kennestone’s New Graduate Nurse Pipeline Program A Major Success

Nationally, turnover rates for nurses are high during their first year of work after graduating from nursing school – from 30 to 60 percent. As these numbers show, the transition from school to work is often challenging. WellStar Kennestone Hospital is successfully reversing that trend, thanks to its New Graduate Nurse Pipeline Program.

In August 2010, WellStar Kennestone implemented a structured orientation process, specific to specialty areas. The onboarding program varies in length (from 12 to 24 weeks) depending on specialty.

According to Lisa Pruner, Pipeline nurse practice specialist, and Donna Johnson, Pipeline assistant nurse manager, three new graduate cohorts have successfully been onboarded with retention rates from 93 to 98 percent.

“Orientation times have been reduced while protecting the quality of nursing bedside training,” said Pruner.

More than $1.2 million has been saved thanks to the reduced orientation times and low turnover rates.

“Most importantly, we’ve motivated our new graduate nurses, and formed collaborative relationships with unit managers, educators, preceptors, nursing leaders and clinical nurse/nurse practice specialists,” added Pruner and Johnson.

As a result of the program’s success, WellStar Kennestone is piloting an onboarding process for experienced RNs.

WellStar Launches Nursing Leader Program

In partnership with the University of West Georgia, WellStar is offering a new graduate-level, Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) program. CNLs mentor and guide other RNs and serve as patient advocates.
Eighteen WellStar RNs began the program in August and will finish in May 2013 with a master’s degree. Participants work full-time while pursuing this advanced degree; classes are primarily online, with periodic face-to-face classes held at WellStar Development Center. The program is offered through WellStar’s Organizational Learning Scholar’s Program, which covers tuition and books in return for a two-year work commitment.

“CNLs will be assigned strategically to select units throughout our System,” explained Chenille Jones, MSN, RN, CNL, director of Learning and Development. “They will ensure best practices are employed, and that patients receive timely, cost-effective care.”

Studies show that CNLs are having a measurable impact on the quality of nursing services by:

• Quickly making significant progress on raising patient, nurse and physician satisfaction.
• Improving care outcomes.
• Realizing sizable cost savings.
• Promoting critical thinking and innovation in nursing care.
• Constructively managing change and promoting a team-based approach to care.
• Understanding the bigger picture when considering next steps, needed changes and setting improvements.

WellStar Nurse Residency Program Welcomes RN Graduates

In October, the Organizational Learning Department welcomed 105 newly-graduated registered nurses to the WellStar Nurse Residency Program.

“The Nurse Residency Program is designed to support WellStar’s mission and vision by assisting new graduate nurses as they transition to professional practice and the delivery of world-class healthcare,” said Ruth Wingel, MSN, RN, residency coordinator, WellStar Organizational Learning.

WellStar has partnered with the University Health Consortium (UHC) /AACN Nurse Residency Program, which was developed by experts from medical centers and schools of nursing across the country. The one-year program is designed to effectively support new graduate nurses as they transition into their first professional roles as caregivers in the acute-care hospital setting. Upon completion, the new graduate nurse gains clinical autonomy at the point of patient care.

The program is built on an evidence-based curriculum that meets national residency accreditation standards. Its core content focuses on three critical areas: leadership, patient outcomes and professional role. Nurse residents complete evidence-based team projects that provide the impetus for practice changes to promote safe, high-quality nursing care. Each nurse resident also develops a career plan to establish future goals within the nursing profession.

In order to maximize the success of the program, Organizational Learning has partnered with Nursing Leadership, Human Resources and Nursing Clinical Practice. Unit educators serve as group facilitators at each residency session to bring bedside nursing expertise to discussions.

WellStar also has partnered with academic institutions, such as the University of West Georgia, Kennesaw State University and Georgia Highlands College, to share knowledge and resources that assist the nurse residents in making a seamless transition into the profession.

WellStar Kennestone Hospital Embarks on Journey Toward Improving Older Adult Care

WellStar Kennestone Hospital was recently designated as a Nurses Improving Care for Health System Elders (NICHE) Center. NICHE is a leading national organization designed to help healthcare professionals improve the quality of care for the rapidly expanding older adult patient population. 

As a center for collaborative learning, NICHE offers an extensive portfolio of resources and tools to help achieve our goal and responsibility of providing the highest quality of care for older adult patients and their families.

The NICHE designation was received after a select group of WellStar Kennestone Hospital nurses completed an eight-week online leadership program through the Hartford School of Nursing at New York University.

These nursing leaders will develop and mentor all members of the WellStar Kennestone Hospital healthcare team regarding this important initiative.

Plans are in place to expand the NICHE program to WellStar Cobb, Douglas, Paulding and Windy Hill Hospitals over the course of the next two years.

Service Excellence Commitment Pays Off

Far left, back row: Audrey Berry, nurse manager, 5 West Cardiac Telemetry with several team members of her team.

Our team members are working hard at WellStar Kennestone Hospital to provide our patients and their families with high-quality, compassionate care in support of the WellStar mission. These consistent and hardwired efforts are reflected in improved departmental patient satisfaction scores. The recent achievements of the teams on 5 West Cardiac Telemetry and 6 West Inpatient Rehabilitation are just two examples of this fact:  

Hourly rounding: Realizing that it takes 21 days of repetitive behavior to hardwire a personal habit, the dedicated team on 5 West Cardiac Telemetry recently made a 30-day commitment to ensure that the eight behaviors of hourly rounding were being done by every team member on every patient, correctly and consistently. At the end of the 30-day period, patient satisfaction scores rose dramatically, driving the mean unit score from 84.0 to 90.4 and the percentile ranking from the 18th  to the 91st  percentile.

Seeking patient feedback: To reverse an unusual dip in the unit’s normally high patient satisfaction scores several months ago, the 6 West - Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit team began refocusing on fundamental behaviors, such as bedside rounding, and began a practice of reviewing Press Ganey scores and discussing patient discharge call comments at team meetings. They also began a practice upon admission and discharge of letting patients know they will be asked to provide feedback by completing a patient satisfaction survey. As a result of these efforts, the unit’s fourth quarter satisfaction scores were in the 99th percentile. Consistent, hardwired service excellence efforts are how we demonstrate a high-quality care experience to our patients and their families. Congratulations to these teams for their success!

Redesign of Nursing Leadership

Mary Lou Wesley, RN, MSN, Chief Nursing Officer

The strength of nursing leadership is critical to patient care and safety and the satisfaction of both our patients and our nurses at the bedside.  Our nursing leadership structure must be designed to foster effective communication, to have clear accountability for outcomes, to provide appropriate support for our nursing staff and to offer opportunities for development of new leaders.

With the overall goal to strengthen the leadership roles closest to the bedside, we have identified three bedside leadership tracks: management, education and practice.