Inside an Award-winning ED's Nursing Department

The ED nurses at Boston Children's Hospital are never satisfied with the status quo. Whether it's improving nurse scheduling satisfaction, doing better patient handoffs, or increasing communication with families, they're always striving for excellence.

That continuous quest for improvement is part of the culture at Boston Children's, and it's also part of the reason that the hospital's ED was one of eight winners of the Emergency Nurses Association's (ENA) second annual Lantern Awards. According to the ENA, the awards recognize an ED's "commitment to quality, safety, a healthy work environment, and innovation in nursing practice and emergency care."

Boston Children's Hospital is no stranger to excellence in patient care: It was just ranked in the top four of every evaluated specialty in US News & World Report's annual ranking of the best pediatric hospitals. But according to Fran Damian, MS, RN, NEA-BC, the ED's nursing director BCH is not about to rest on its laurels. She thinks that's why the Children's ED was one of the ENA's 2012 honorees.

"We were able to demonstrate really good data and outcomes with ongoing initiatives with continued and sustained improvements around things that we're always striving to do better," Damian tells HealthLeaders Media.