Aligned Visions Benefit Patient Experience
Vision for Nursing at BWH
Designed to complement the newly unveiled Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals (BW/F) Vision, which was highlighted in last month’s issue of BWH Nurse, the Nursing Vision at BWH was revised at the beginning of this calendar year. Conceived and implemented in 2001, the BWH Nursing Vision was updated to reflect the emerging hospital priorities.
Since joining the BWH family in spring of 2000, Nancy Kruger, RN, DNSc, has led the evolution of the Patient Care Services Department (including Nursing, Pharmacy, Nutrition Services, Care Coordination and Patient Education). The department’s high standards continue to positively affect patient care delivery and clarify these standards throughout the Nursing Department at BWH, from the NICU, to the ED, to the community health care setting.
Today, patients and their families expect nurses with highly advanced technical skills and the provision of expert care. “However, in order to distinguish nursing at BWH from other institutions, we have to practice in a way that proves we are well beyond just technical experts,” notes Kruger. “Patients and families need to walk away from their BWH experience feeling that when a nurse cared for them, they were the most important person at that time.”
“Nothing speaks louder to patient care than a compassionate, expert nurse at the bedside of a patient,” said Kruger. The highest quality of patient care and nursing practice is the standard throughout BW/F as articulated by the new BW/F Vision Statement. Nursing excellence permeates all areas of the hospital—whether it is a newly licensed nurse nursing an ICU patient back to good health; a per diem nurse helping an orthopedic surgery patient begin to work his knee back its full function; a highly senior nurse who still enjoys walking a brand new mom through her newborn’s first feeding; or an RN who recently changed specialties accepting his new role to meet the needs of a terminally ill cancer patient. Both the BWH Nursing and BW/F Visions hold all patient care delivery to a consistent standard of excellence.
According to Kruger, the goal of the BWH Nursing Vision is to “carry it out effortlessly because of who we are as a nursing team.”
Kruger sees Nursing leadership as having a vital role in assuring the Vision is strived for by front-line nurses. “Nursing directors, managers and I accept that we are role models for the behavior that is expected of all nurses at BWH,” said Kruger.
“The more we can translate both the hospital and Nursing Visions into our behavior, the better. Through staff meetings, activities, sharing patient satisfaction data, enhanced coordination with physicians, consistently communicating the relationship between the BW/F and the Nursing Visions, sharing complimentary patient letters and distributing knowledge gained from patient interviews, we can work as a team to drive both visions forward,” said Kruger.
For more information on the newly announced BW/F vision, visit the hospital’s Intranet Site (www.bwhpikenotes.org).