With so many sources of information out there, it can be tough for busy nurse execs to keep up on their reading. Here's a list of five HealthLeaders Media articles and columns you don't want to miss.
What a year 2015 was. My husband and I rang in the New Year knowing that on January 1, 2015, he would be laid off from his job. Fortunately, he found a new position at a new company just months later. In fact, we both started new jobs within weeks of each other. I left my job as a night-shift telephone triage nurse and started as the senior nursing editor here in March. On top of that, we spent the year adjusting to again having an infant in the house and helping my daughter get used to her new baby brother.
Life can be a bit chaotic, to say the least, and I know I'm not unique in feeling like there are times when things just seem to pass me by.
Nurse leaders are certainly familiar with the frenzied pace that both work and life can take, which is why I put together this list of HealthLeaders Media content that I don't want you to miss this year. I know they'll be informative, but I also hope these pieces inspire you to give some thought to how you could apply some of these concepts to help develop the nursing profession of the future. And I've included some challenges to get your wheels turning for 2016.
1.) How Patient Flow Nurses Help Cut Readmissions
Whether they're 8 hours, 12 hours, or days or nights, nursing shifts have one thing in common—they're busy. The patient nearing a respiratory arrest doesn't suddenly improve his O2 sats because there are four admissions on the board and two more patients are waiting to receive their discharge instructions so they can go home. But there are ways to help control the chaos.
A few years ago, Karen S. Hill, DNP, FAAN, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at Baptist Health Lexington(KY) launched the role of the patient flow nurse. These are experienced RNs who supplement the regularly scheduled nurses on the units and work with the primary nurses to educate patients, fill out discharge paperwork, and move patients along the care continuum in an efficient and expedient manner.
Not only has this helped Hill retain seasoned staff members with a wealth of nursing knowledge, the program has also helped decrease readmissions.
2016 Challenge: Think about new or unique ways to use experienced nurses, and their wealth of knowledge, to improve patient care and outcomes and nurse satisfaction and retention.
2.) Nurses Can't Afford to Ignore Healthcare Costs
Do your nurses sigh and roll their eyes at the mere mention of hospital finances? Well, they shouldn't, says Susan J. Penner, DrPh, RN, MN, MPA, CNL, an adjunct faculty member who teaches courses in healthcare financial management at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions. Nurses actually play an essential role in helping a healthcare institution stay financially viable and that goes far beyond being mindful of overtime.
"I think it's very important that nurses are able to link the high-quality work they do with the costs and savings that are involved," Penner says. "With all the concerns about healthcare costs right now and about performance, nurses are in a really key role to help lower healthcare costs."
For example, nursing is instrumental in preventing hospital-acquired infections, providing patient education, and coordinating care, all of which can reduce readmissions and influence the value-based outcomes tied to financial reimbursement in this changing healthcare system.
2016 Challenge: Show your nurses data on how their work has improved both patient outcomes and hospital finances. Thank them for their work and remind them that even nonprofits need to generate a positive margin in order to invest in services that improve patient care.
3.) Hospital Cuts Readmissions in Half with Help from College Students
I realize I just said that nurses play a vital role in preventing readmissions—and it's true. But they don't have be the only ones making contact with and educating patients to influence outcomes. By coordinating with and overseeing other healthcare workers, nurses can still make a huge difference in patients' lives.
AlexSandra Davis, RN, BSN, heads up Wooster (OH) Community Hospital's Community Care Network, a program that trains and uses college students as community health workers. The students review disease-specific discharge booklets, which all Wooster patients receive upon discharge, and help patients set goals, ensure that patients have the proper resources to maintain or improve their health, and report any issues to the patients' primary healthcare providers.
In addition to the students (who receive college credit for their work), the program's staff consists of Davis, one full-time LPN and one part-time LPN. "You don't need to have a whole bunch of RNs out there," she says.
As patient enrollment has gone up—by January 2016 Davis expects more than 100 patients to be part of the program—hospital use has gone down. According to data collected a year ago, patients enrolled in the program had a 26% reduction of ED use and 51% reduction in hospital readmissions.
2016 Challenge: Consider using nontraditional resources such as college students, retired healthcare professionals, even manicurists, to support your nurses and improve outcomes.
4.) CNO Exchange: New Nursing Care Models Require New Ways of Thinking
Another first that took place in 2015 was HealthLeaders Media inaugural CNO Exchange, which was held in November. More than two dozen nurse executives from across the country gathered to share some out-of-the-box thoughts on the challenges, solutions, and opportunities facing the nursing profession.
Discussions focused on the people, the practice, and the profession of nursing and how, as healthcare changes, nursing will have to evolve as well; during the discussions, it was clear that leaders expect nurses to create new roles, work at the top of their licenses, and start using a systems thinking approach to achieve the goals of the shifting healthcare system.
2016 Challenge: Ponder this question from Cynthia Latney, RN, PhD, the CNO and vice president of patient care services at Penrose St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs, CO: "If you had no boundaries, what would you keep doing today, and what would you give away or delegate?"
5.) Big Ideas
HealthLeaders magazine's final cover story of 2015 focuses on how some healthcare organizations, leaders, providers, and payers are tackling big issues in healthcare, such as interprofessional collaboration, healthcare price transparency, patient-reported outcomes, and the relationship between vendor contracts and provider performance.
Though the story is called "Big Ideas," the sources interviewed share more than just theories. They get into the nitty-gritty details of how they are dealing with these challenges.
2016 Challenge: Start thinking about the specifics—cost, leadership structure, partners—that can move you beyond an idea and into action.
Jennifer Thew, RN, is the senior nursing editor at HealthLeaders.