Letter from CNO, SVP Mairead Hickey
Dear Colleagues,
One of the most important responsibilities that nurse leaders share is to create a professional practice environment where nurses are able to make their best contributions to the care of patients and families. This issue of BWH Nurse describes some of the efforts we have undertaken over the past two and a half years to understand what constitutes expertise in our nursing practice. The goal of our ongoing work together is always to recognize the extraordinary strength in our nursing practice at BWH and the exceptional talent in our staff, and to build on that talent and strength to develop further the clinical knowledge and skill of all members of our practice community.
The findings of two Department of Nursing initiatives, “Finding the Good” and “Defining the Good,” remind us once again that expert nursing practice is more complex than mastering tasks and techniques. Expert nursing practice always involves knowing the patient by understanding the patient’s world, what matters to him or her and what resources are available to the patient and family to achieve health and healing. The relational skills to work with members of the health care team to ensure that patient and family needs are met in ways that restore dignity and enhance trust are always part of the expert nurse’s repertoire. And expert nurses can be relied on to work toward building healthy practice communities, where nothing less than focused attentiveness to the needs of patients and families and respectful behavior to all is demonstrated.
With this knowledge to guide us, we now are ready to move forward with the ongoing development of our nursing practice, which serves the ultimate goal of improving care to our patients and families at BWH. The next important step we are taking is the formation of a Nursing Practice Committee. Our commitment to excellent care and expert practice is ongoing. This work will continue to be shared in a variety of forums including upcoming issues of BWH Nurse. As your chief nurse, I share this commitment with you for this important work and, as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN
Chief Nursing Officer and
Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services