The six affiliates of Memorial Health System work together to fulfill our mission to improve the health of the people and communities we serve.
Nursing

 

Memorial Medical Center

Transformational Leadership

Advancing Care by Design

Nurse leaders played a significant role in designing the new patient care units, which will be a key part of the MMC facility expansion project.

Pictured, Deidra Glisson, RN, MSN, MBA, director, Nursing Operations, Shelly Seago, RN, nurse manager, 6B Cardiology,Beth Fullington, RN, MSN, director, Nursing Operations, and Jennifer Neff, RN, BSN, nurse manager, 4B Orthopedics, review the patient room mockup that was used for design concept testing and work process evaluations prior to finalizing the room layout.

114 The number of new, private patient rooms to be constructed as part of the hospital’s historic Advancing Care by Design expansion project.

Three patient care units — cardiology, orthopedics and intermediate care — will move to the new addition in early 2016. Each unit has been carefully designed to enhance patient safety and quality of care.

When considering the layout of each unit and patient room, nurse leaders conducted site visits to other high-performing organizations and

  • evaluated their room designs;
  • researched the latest studies on evidence-based healthcare design concepts;
  • worked with their interdisciplinary colleagues such as Environmental Services and Pharmacy to be sure their needs would be met;
  • and researched anticipated changes in technology and evidence-based practices involving the healthcare needs of the patients to be served on these units.

Nurse leaders also surveyed staff nurses on recently renovated units at MMC to learn what they liked and what they would change about their renovated areas. As a result, Memorial’s new patient rooms will feature dedicated patient, family and caregiver zones, direct visualization of the patient from the charting area outside each room, “patient servers” in each room containing supplies nursing staff need to provide care without leaving the room, and a multidisciplinary work room and “collaboration alcoves” in each hallway to enhance communication between disciplines. Safety concepts include nonslip flooring in bathrooms, a hand-washing sink inside each room, noise reduction materials, and wider hallways and doorways, among other features.

Continuing Nursing Education

Doug Gregory, RN, BSN, 5C nurse manager, and Jill Koch, RN, BSN, 4G nurse manager, achieved specialty certification in 2012.

59.5 The percent of nurse leaders at Memorial Medical Center with a master’s degree or higher.

Because research demonstrates that patient outcomes can be positively impacted by the level of formal nursing academic preparation, MMC nurses are committed to continuous learning, especially our nurse leaders, several of whom have completed their graduate degrees in the past 18 months.

In addition to academic advancement, 83 percent of the MMC nurse leaders are nationally certified in nursing leadership or a clinical specialty. “At Memorial, we are a learning organization,” said Val Floyd, RN, MBA, CNML, director of Nursing Operations. “It’s become a part of the culture of the organization and is reflected in our nursing staff and leadership practices.”

Several opportunities exist for nurse leaders to advance their knowledge without leaving the MMC campus, including

  • participation in the VHA Leadership Excellence Series, in which members of the Nursing Management Team participate in brown-bag lunch gatherings six times a year;
  • a Book Club, in which nurse managers together select and read books on leadership and periodically meet to discuss them;
  • nurse leadership research article reviews that are conducted six times a year as a part of the Nursing Management Council meetings;
  • and a Journal Club, in which nurses throughout the organization can read a piece of published research and respond.

Floyd noted that looming healthcare reform has provided yet another source of motivation for leaders to advance their education. “Advancing our education is one way to prepare for the future ways of delivering patient care,” she said. “Nurses are key members of the patient care team and therefore drive a significant component of the outcomes patients achieve. They have a lot to contribute when it comes to the best ways of delivering care in the future.”

Memorial also provides an Academic Advising Service, which counsels nurses seeking to advance their education and provides options that best fit their professional and personal needs.

Nurse Leader Internship Program

Nurse Leader Internship participants, Becca Vortman, RN, BSN, Surgery, Michelle Geiss, RN, BSN, 5A/G, and Ashley Kahl, RN, BSN, 2G.

24 The total number of participants in Memorial’s Nurse Leader Internship program since its inception in 2007.

The program, which initially focused on the nurse manager role but was expanded in 2011 to include a variety of nursing leadership roles at MMC, is offered once per year and requires a six-month commitment from participants. Applicants submit a resume and personal goals for pursuing the program as well as participate in an interview with several Nursing directors before being selected.

Over the course of the six-month internship, participants job shadow eight different leaders on the Nursing team. Participants also meet for two hours per month and hear from guest speakers who discuss leadership topics that are tied to
one of the Magnet Model elements. The interns also spend time reviewing leadership research articles and reflecting on their shadowing experiences. On the final day of the program, they present a group project that was completed during the internship.

The Nurse Leader Internship is intended to provide a unique professional development opportunity for high-performing staff nurses, strengthen succession planning for the Nursing team and serve as a retention tool. Of the 24 participants in the program thus far, several have accepted leadership roles throughout the organization, including as nurse managers, patient care facilitators and administrative supervisors. Kristi Olson- Sitki, RN, MSN, nursing outcomes improvement facilitator, and Yvonne Pellerin, RN, MSN, 2E Oncology nurse manager, serve as primary faculty, and Cecilia Wendler, PhD, RN, director of Nursing Research and Academic Partnerships, oversees the program.

Nurse Leader Internship Program

4 The number of evidence-based process changes implemented by nurse leaders in 2012 to help retain new hires.

Our efforts to prevent nurse turnover start before a nurse is even hired. Working with the nurse recruiters, the evidence-based Healthcare Selection Inventory (HSI) tool was adopted for use during the hiring process in 2012.

All applicants complete the HSI, which can indicate a person’s intent to stay with the organization. Also during the interview process, applicants are asked retention-targeted questions to further assess whether they’d be a good fit for Memorial and are likely to pursue a long-term career here. Once a nurse has been hired and completes Nursing Team onboarding, he or she takes part in a Unit-Based Orientation Plan, which outlines expectations and activities on a week-by-week basis. As part of this plan, the new nurse has weekly feedback meetings with his or her nurse manager and preceptor. During these meetings, the new nurse conducts a self-assessment of his/her progress and the manager and preceptor provide the individual with developmental feedback. Together, the trio sets goals for the following week. By individualizing the orientation process in this manner, we are sending our new hires a strong message that we care about them and want them to be successful.

Finally, 30- and 90-day interviews are conducted by the nurse manager, during which they review the new RN’s accomplishments toward meeting orientation goals. This structured set of questions includes retention-related items and enables the new hire to provide feedback to nurse leaders about their orientation experience. This feedback enables continued refinement and improvement of the new-hire orientation experience.

We are monitoring our turnover data to determine the effectiveness of our new initiatives and continue to seek out and implement additional best practices shared by other Magnet organizations from around the country.