Letter from CNO, SVP Mairead Hickey
Dear Colleagues,
In September 2007, more than 100 nurses from every clinical practice area within BWH came together to launch the new and expanded Department of Nursing committee structure. Our goal was to bring together professional nurses in all roles to influence, guide, recommend and/or approve decisions that would help support and expand a clinical practice environment in which nurses could provide excellent care to patients and families.
This first year has been very successful. The list of achievements from each committee speaks to their successes. The committees are: Informatics and Clinical Innovations, Patient and Family Education, Quality, Safety and Care Improvements, Standards, Policies and Procedures. These committees report into a Nursing Coordinating Committee and are directly accountable to the chief nurse and the Nursing Executive Board.
This impressive list of accomplishments, reported in this issue of BWH Nurse, is one example of the Nursing Department’s commitment to ensuring that the voice of nurses is present, listened to and influential in decisions about patient care and nursing practice.
Over the past few months, I have spent time with each committee learning about their work, the experience of being a committee member and their accomplishments, and we had time to celebrate the successes achieved during this first year. My time with these committees has been very instructive and gratifying. As your chief nurse, I experience great pleasure listening to nurses speak of their accomplishments, future goals and how best to represent the Nursing Department in issues involving nursing practice and clinical care throughout BWH. It is now my pleasure to welcome the newly formed Clinical Practice Committee. Through this committee, we will continue to look to BWH nurses to “preserve and extend the good in practice” and inform our decision making about how best to assure excellent care to all patients and their families.
Through this work, together we are ensuring that the environment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is professional, healthy and healing for our patients and their families and supportive and respectful for all our clinicians. Thank you for your contributions to these outcomes each and every day.