Nursing Committees Updates
The Nursing Informatics & Clinical Innovations Committee is comprised of clinical nurses representing a wide spectrum of patient care areas. All members have an interest in clinical systems technology and its impact on patient safety and quality of care. Committee members participate in the development of an infrastructure that will capture nursing’s unique contribution to patient and family care; provide direction for clinical system analysis and informatics throughout the nursing department; and collaborate with others in BWH to identify opportunities for work process improvement of information management. The committee serves as a forum for review and approval of new technologies that affect the clinical nurse at the bedside. Members are called upon to contribute and participate in the configuration, implementation and ongoing support of new technologies and clinical systems.
Goals for 2008 include:
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establish the committee as a forum for review and approval prior to the selection of new technologies that impact clinical nurses;
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identify criteria related to the selection of new technologies and clinical information systems with an emphasis on critical human factors and workflow of the clinical nurse;
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establish the committee as a forum for feedback and continuous improvement for technologies in use at BWH;
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provide staff development regarding nursing informatics;
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improve communication to coworkers regarding the work of the committee.
Accomplishments:
To date, this committee has provided feedback and direction for the following BWH initiatives: Laboratory Order Communication, Patient Education TV, Pharmacy/eMAR ongoing support, eMAR downtime support, new eMAR Scheduling Application (development, testing, CBT, roll out and follow up feed back), First Consulting Group Hardware Assessment, PAML Enhancements and demonstration and discussion of a new glucometer.
The committee is co-chaired by Carol Booth, RN, of Tower 12AB, and Heidi Doucette, RN, of Tower 10CD. Committee advisors are Anne Bane, RN, and Denise Goldsmith, RN. It meets the third Tuesday of every month, 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Nurses from a variety of clinical areas are members of the Quality, Safety and Care Improvement Committee. The primary work of this committee is to foster a culture that promotes commitment to continuous improvement of patient/family centered care, quality and safety.
Goals for 2008 include:
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describe how the committee’s work affects patients and their care;
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identify committee member educational needs related to quality and safety;
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provide input into the annual quality plan for the Department of Nursing.
Accomplishments:
To date, this committee has established a taskforce to work with Biomedical Engineering on repair tag enhancements to improve compliance and overall process of effectively identifying, labeling and requesting repair of broken equipment; collected information from nursing staff regarding how they would like to receive communications and need-to-know information; provided member education that demonstrates how quality improvement processes affect practice. The topics reviewed included Joint Commission mock survey results, Patient First initiatives, fall prevalence data, restraint prevalence data, medication reconciliation, quadramed compliance and reliability review and PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) quality improvement methodology.
The committee is co-chaired by Mary Antonelli, RN, quality program manager, and Stephanie Capello, RN, of Tower 14AB. Diane Lancaster, RN, is the committee advisor. It meets the second Tuesday of every month from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The work of the Patient and Family Education Committee is to provide feedback on Department of Nursing patient education policies, procedures and standards, to advise and provide input into the goals of the patient and family education program and to make recommendations for educational resources for patients and families. Nurses on this committee come from a variety of clinical areas with a particular interest in patient and family education.
Goals for 2008 include:
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complete orientation of members to the work of the committee;
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to identify existing patient and family resources available throughout BWH and Partners and provide feedback on best ways to make these widely available to staff;
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determine the best ways to communicate to staff, patients and families the available education resources;
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provide input into the development of a patient and family education Web site;
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utilize needs assessment data to prioritize patient and family educational needs at BWH.
Accomplishments:
To date, the committee has brainstormed issues related to patient and family education; formed work groups to examine challenges and provided input into a patient and family education vision and goals.
Co-chairs are Cindy Loring, RN, of CWN 10, and Deb Moody, RN, of Tower 5B. The committee advisor is Ann Furey, RN. Meetings are held monthly on the fourth Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The Standards, Policy and Procedures Committee is comprised of nurses in clinical and leadership roles from across the BWH nursing community. The overall purpose of this committee is to provide a forum to coordinate, review and monitor practice standards, policies, procedures and guidelines, based on current evidence based information and practices.
Goals for 2008 include:
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coordinate the review, consistency and approval of standards, policies, procedures and guidelines;
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identify any needs to develop or revise these documents, assuring that the language and content meet any regulatory requirements;
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strive to attain consistency of content and congruity of language with other disciplines standards, policies, procedures and guidelines.
Accomplishments:
To date this committee has reviewed, updated and approved approximately 60 policies, procedures and guidelines including eMAR policies and procedures; new guidelines for care of patients with STEMI; policies for ICU and intermediate medical-surgical Plan of Care documentation; new procedure for the administration of regular insulin for hyperglycemia in neonates; intensive pain management therapy and care of the patient experiencing pregnancy/neonate loss. Also, educational sessions on evidence based practice and review of definitions has been offered.
Committee co-chairs are Cindy Jodoin, RN, of Tower 6A, and Sharon Swan, RN, Tower 7C, with Barbara Bauman, RN, as advisor. Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of every month from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.