Practice Committee Launched
The Department of Nursing in November launched the Nursing Practice Committee as part of the department’s work of creating a practice environment in which all patients and families receive excellent care and all staff feel supported in their professional development to provide excellent care.
The purpose of the Practice Committee is to provide a forum to describe the key principles of a nursing practice model at BWH beginning with what “knowing the patient and having the patient feel known and cared for” will look like in the daily practice of nurses at BWH. Nurses in all roles and from each practice area comprise the committee’s membership.
“During the last three years, clinical nurses throughout the hospital have talked with us in focus groups about what excellent nursing practice looks like at BWH,” said Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, chief nursing officer and senior vice president for Patient Care Services. “The model of nursing care at BWH is being formed by the excellent nurses at BWH.”
This committee will help to “preserve and extend” the good that is in their practice, she added.
The committee’s primary functions are:
- Describe the logic of practice development at BWH;
- Identify and advocate for unit based forums that promote reflective practice;
- Create opportunities to strengthen intra- and interdisciplinary dialogue and partnerships that focus on patients concerns, plans and goals;
- Identify and describe the principles of the model of care as described by BWH nurses and how to extend them to each nurses’ daily practice beginning with, “knowing the patient and having the patient feel known and cared for;”
- Provide input to nursing leadership.
The Practice Committee:
Co-chairs: Alice O’Brien, MS, RN, nurse manager on Shapiro 8; Mary Beth Mondello, CNRN, clinical staff nurse, Neuroscience ICU.
Advisor: Mary Lou Etheredge, RN PMHCNS-BC, director of Nursing Practice Development.
Members: Laura Barrett, RN, CWN7; Peggy Bernazzani, RN, Tower 7C; Sue Botsch, RN, ED; Petra Clark, RN, Interventional Radiology; Ellen Clemence, RN, Nurse Manager, Tower 10BA; Carol Corbett, RN, Tower 11A; Elizabeth Doane, RN, Tower 15AB; Joan Dorr, BSN, RN, Shapiro 7E, 7W, 6E; Jennifer Driscoll, RN, Tower 7AB; Andrea Edmands, RN, Tower 7D; Jennifer Faricelli, RN, Tower 6A; Lucy Feild, PhD, RN, Quality Program Manager ; Suzanne Fernandes, RN, ICU Float Pool; Katie Fillipon, RN, Tower 5AB; Chris Flanagan, RN, Tower 4B; Patricia Frazier, RN, Intermediate Float Pool ; Ronna Gersh, RN, clinical nurse educator, Tower 14CD; Nine Johnson, RN, Tower 10CD; Laura Judge, RN, Dialysis; Michael Kyller, RN, CDIC; Sharon Levine, RN, Shapiro 9W; Heather MacDougall, RN, DSU; Julie McCarthy, RN, Tower 16CD; Susan McDonald, RN, Tower 6BD; Marsha Milone, RN, Nurse Manager, Tower 4BC; Kerry Noonan, RN, PACU; Kelli O’Brien, RN, Tower 9 AB; Corinne Cyr Pryor, RNC, NICU; Matt Quin, RN, Nurse Manager, Shapiro 6W; Karen Reilly, RN, Nurse Manager, Shapiro 10E/W; Tricia Ryan, RN, Tower 11C; Suzanne Silvernail, RN, Nurse Manager, Tower 15CD; Melanie Smith, RN, Tower 11BD; Elyssa Towers, RN, CWN 9; Noreen Valentine, RN, OR; Nori Vincitorio, RN, Tower 6AC; Rosemary Wickman, RN, Tower 14 AB.