Nursing Innovation Center: Making the Business Case for Staff Nurses Improving Patient Outcomes

Purpose:
A key solution found efficacious in mitigating errors and improving outcomes is for nurses to be actively involved in quality work at the bedside. The goal of this strategy is to empower nurses to identify and solve problems impacting patient outcomes and to convey the business case for this method.

Significance:
After a decade since the IOM called for reducing deaths from medical errors, significant challenges remain for reducing these events and improving quality. One reason is that RNs are under-leveraged in the healthcare industry. The Center partners with nurse leaders to address this crucial issue.

Strategy and Implementation:
The Center's innovation was to implement programs aimed to empower staff nurses and improve their work environments. The two inaugural programs were the Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy and the work environment assessments. The Academy provided 25 RNs from 7 hospitals sessions on quality and safety methods, social entrepreneurship and advanced leadership skills. Also, the RNs were mentored to conduct improvement projects such as reducing pressure ulcers and increasing RN certification. The hospitals received $10K to support this work. Work environment assessments were conducted with RNs at 3 academic medical centers. Customized reports provided leaders with areas for improvement such as retention of seasoned RNs, developing nurse managers, and implementing shared governance. Each hospital received $25K to employ these interventions. Funding for the Center was provided by regional partners as well as a Northwest and RWJ Foundations Partnership in Nursing grant.

Evaluation:
CSIs executed projects including reduction of pressure ulcers, increasing RN certification rates, and decreasing emergency room wait time. Environmental assessments led to improvements including retention of the seasoned RN, initiation of nurse manager development, and shared governance.

Implications for Practice:
Safety and quality must be embedded into our DNA in order to move from being the most trusted profession to one of assuring the public and practice partners that we act as quality agents, one nurse, one patient at a time. Lastly, we must demonstrate our tangible value each and every day.