NURSING Transforming patient care through professional practice Vanderbilt University Medical Center January 2010 Marilyn Dubree, R.N., M.S.N. IN THIS ISSUE SICU wins prestigious Beacon Award A newsletter from the office of the Executive Chief Nursing Officer 2009 Staff/Faculty Community Survey results Welcome Nurse Residents EXECUTIVE NURSING LEADERSHIP UPDATE As we begin a new year, exciting changes are on the horizon for Executive Nursing Leadership at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. A new leadership position has been created for Pediatric Ambulatory Services and national searches are under way to fill Chief Nursing Officer vacancies at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children s Hospital at Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital. It is important to have the best possible leaders for nursing and patient care, said Marilyn Dubree, R.N., M.S.N., executive chief nursing officer. They are accountable for establishing standards for quality and safety, being good financial stewards, creating a safe and desirable workplace, and the list goes on. Children s Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Since Pat Givens departure to Denver Children s Hospital, Donna Williams, R.N., M.S.N., has been serving as interim chief nurscontinued on page 2 Happy New Year to all! As we enter a new calendar year, we have a lot to celebrate and much to look forward to. First, thank you for the tremendous participation in our Staff/Faculty Community Survey. These results reflect the deep and consistent dedication of our nurses and the openness to continually improve so that our patient care is the best anywhere in the country. Look for important leadership updates as we announce the new leader for the ambulatory services at Monroe Carell Jr. Children s Hospital at Vanderbilt and national searches under way for chief nursing officers for our Psychiatric and Children s hospitals. We also celebrate the nurses of our own SICU which just won a national award two years in the making for their work in improving critical and acute care. This month we welcome more than 100 new nurse residents to Vanderbilt who are the best and brightest new nurses from throughout the country. We anticipate great things since they will be learning from our talented, experienced nurses. I hope you enjoy this issue, Recognized Excellence Designated Magnet 1
ing officer and the search has begun for a permanent replacement. The search committee is led by Dubree and includes Williams, John Brock, M.D., Kevin Churchwell, M.D., Jonathan Gitlin, M.D., Barbara Joers, M.H.S.A., C.H.E., Pam Jones, R.N., M.S.N., and Julie Morath, R.N., M.S. It met in late December to begin the search process. The executive search firm Witt/Keiffer is currently inventorying candidates and will present a slate of suggestions to the committee by early March. Dubree hopes to have a final candidate decided by late spring. This is a very important role for us to fill as we continue to be the leader in pediatric care in the area. We want a strong leader at Children s Hospital, Dubree said. Our final candidates will meet with nurses of all levels of the organization. While the candidates certainly can t meet everyone, we will have a group of staff nurses involved who represent the best of us. We want to assess each candidate s fit but also share the wonderful work we do with the candidate, Dubree said. Psychiatric Hospital Chief Nursing Officer This search has been underway since August. Lori Harris, R.N., B.S.N., has been serving as interim nursing leader. As we aspire to make the Psychiatric Hospital a Top 10 hospital, we want to have the strongest nursing leader we can find. We need a person who can help us get to that next level, Dubree said. For both of these positions, I speculate about someone who has a passion for the care of children and individuals with mental illness, demonstrates evidence of leadership and building good teams and has a strategic vision of what nursing can be in collaboration with other teams. Is the candidate well rounded? Does he or she fit the culture of Vanderbilt? Do they have experience at an academic health center or a Magnet organization? These are all important considerations in our choice. Welcome Suz Kaprich Suz Kaprich, R.N., B.S.N., M.H.A., has been appointed Director of Nursing for Children s Ambulatory Services at Children s Hospital. This newly created role oversees nursing operations at pediatric outpatient clinics in Cool Springs, One Hundred Oaks and the Doctors Office Tower. Kaprich reports to continued on page 3 LEADERSHIP UPDATE continued from page 1 Suz Kaprich 2
LEADERSHIP UPDATE continued from page 2 Margaret Head, R.N., M.S.N., M.B.A., chief operating officer and chief nursing officer for Vanderbilt Medical Group and The Vanderbilt Clinic, and Chris Lee, M.S.H.A., M.B.A., associate director for Children s Ambulatory Services. The Doctors Office Tower and other clinics are the ambulatory arm of our pediatric work. We have not had a nurse leader here before, but as the area continues to expand, we saw the need for a nurse partner to lead this work Dubree said. Kaprich comes from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where she served as nurse manager in the pediatric specialty clinics, pediatric graphics lab and pediatric cardiac catheterization lab. During her tenure, clinic patient volume increased 46 percent and patient satisfaction increased 10 points. She also led several renovation and expansion projects. Kaprich is a member of the Association of Ambulatory Care Nurses and the American College of Healthcare Executives. Suz brings experience managing pediatric clinics. Plus, she comes from an academic environment. We are very pleased with her background. She s a unique match, Head said. She has a good, clear communication style. She will be able to communicate well with our nurses to bring information to them as well as hear their concerns and needs and be a liaison. Kaprich will work with administrators and managers in the clinics, oversee nursing practice and staffing, and ensure that the clinics meet standards of care. For the first few months, we need her to get in, spend time in the clinics, learn the system and really get a good understanding of our current state, Head said. Then we will begin to decide how to better support our growth and quality initiatives. Our pediatric clinics do great work, but there are always things we can do to improve. Head to serve on AMGA Board of Directors Margaret Head, R.N., M.S.N., M.B.A., the chief operating officer and chief nursing officer of Vanderbilt Medical Group and The Vanderbilt Clinic, has been elected to the American Medical Group Association s (AMGA) Board of Directors the first nurse executive ever appointed. I am very excited about the opportunity to represent the Vanderbilt Medical Group and nursing in this multidisciplinary role, Head said. The future really is about patient-centered care and building a team that supports that. The AMGA improves health care for patients by supporting multi-specialty medical groups and other organized systems of care. Head will serve as an at-large director for a three-year term. With health care reform, we re all wondering what change will occur but are sure that change is coming. We want to support medical practices to position themselves to be ready to respond to whatever changes arise, Head said. Margaret's appointment to the AMGA Board is an affirmation of her strength and excellence as a health leader, said Marilyn Dubree, R.N., M.S.N., executive chief nursing officer. She is valued tremendously for her contributions and leadership at Vanderbilt and will bring that to bear on the work of the AMGA Board. 3
SICU WINS BEACON AWARD Kristy Instinski, R.N., B.S.N., works with a patient s equipment. SICU nurses practice operating a bariatric lift in the new Critical Care Tower. After more than two years of work and a grueling 42-question application, Vanderbilt University Hospital s Surgical Intensive Care Unit has received the prestigious Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence. This is acknowledgement of the hard work that has gone into creating a healthy work environment that provides excellent patient care, said Devin Carr, administrative director. Given by the A m e r i c a n Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the Beacon Award is meant to challenge acute and critical care units to improve standards of care. Units must meet rigid standards in r e c r u i t m e n t and retention, training, evid e n c e - b a s e d practice and r e s e a r c h, patient outcomes, healing environment, leadership and organizational ethics. The Beacon Award recognizes the efforts people put in on a day to day basis, said Ashley Staniewski, R.N., M.S.N., interim manager of patient care services. You don t come in and decide to be Beacon. It takes a lot of hard work, paying attention to detail and not accepting the status quo. There are about 6,000 intensive care units in the U.S. and only 188 have received the Beacon Award. The VUMC SICU is the first adult unit in Tennessee to be recognized. I am very proud and excited about this important award, said Pam Jones, R.N., M.S.N., chief nursing officer of VUH. The SICU leadership and staff have worked very hard to ensure excellent, evidenced-based practice nursing is delivered in a consistent manner to patients and families. The unit began working on the application in spring 2007 and submitted it in August 2008. Basically we had to tell them our story and pull in everything we knew about the unit, said Mike Daly, R.N., M.S.N., assistant administrator of the Trauma and Surgery Patient Care Center. We don t meet all of the standards, but we were able to show how we were analyzing our work and trying to meet or exceed continued on page 5 4
BEACON AWARD continued from page 4 the standards. We know we re not perfect, but we never stop striving for perfection. After a five-month review process, the application came back requesting more information on many items. The staff pulled together once again to resubmit. Medical Director Addison May, M.D., said the key to the SICU s success is teamwork. We could not have achieved this award without support from numerous groups at all levels of the hospital: nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, etc., May said. All these groups have to function as a team in a single complex location. This is recognition for what the team has felt we ve done well for a long time. The Beacon Award is given for one year, and there are plans to apply again in the future. Now we have a sense of ownership and obligation to maintain these high standards. The reapplication will help keep us focused on quality improvement and where to put our efforts, said Richard Benoit, R.N., Ph.D.(c), nurse educator. Key Writers of Application Richard Benoit Billy Cameron Devin Carr Mike Daly Barbara Gray Lindsey Robertson Donna Sabash Ashley Staniewski Regina Wisecarver WELCOME NURSE RESIDENTS 483 Inquiries 324 Applications 206 Interviews 126 Residents chosen Number in each specialty track: 40 Pediatrics 25 Adult Medicine 20 Adult Surgical 41 Adult Critical Care The Nurse Residency Program helps new nurses transition from nursing school to professional practice through hands-on clinical experience, interactive education sessions and the support and guidance of staff. Meet the Winter 2010 cohort: 30 States represented 69 Nursing programs represented 3.47 Average GPA 76% B.S.N. 19% A.S.N./A.D.N. 5% Matriculating to M.S.N. 2009 STAFF/FACULTY COMMUNITY SURVEY RESULTS Thank you to the 3,050 nurses, including registered nurses, advanced practice nurses, research nurses and licensed practical nurses, who participated in the 2009 Staff/Faculty Community Survey. In all categories, nursing scores at VUMC were notably higher than the 20 comparative Magnet organization scores. Please consider this information as you review the results at the unit, department or clinic level. 5