Each year from May 6–12, the nation celebrates National Nurses Week. This is a time when we pause to recognize the most trusted profession in America, nursing, and the 3.5 million nurses across our nation. At the very heart of our health care system, nurses serve in every setting and in every region of the county, providing leadership, advocacy, and clinical expertise to address the health needs of all Americans from birth to death.
Nurses do not define health as just the absence of disease, injury, or illness but instead define health in terms of human response patterns. Nurses understand that it is in the choices or responses that we make each and every day that we either build a life of health or a life of dis-ease, with the higher potential for disease. Nurses assess patients through a holistic lens of body, mind, and spirit understanding that some of our deepest needs for healing are not physiological. It is this broad definition of health that perfectly positions nurses to work with all care providers as we partner with our citizens to advance their ability to engage in self-care such that our nation’s transition to a health care system might be possible.
As we honor nurses this week and remember the birth of Florence Nightingale on May 12, please take the time to reach out in appreciation to all of the nurses in your life and thank them for their commitment to the health of our nation.
Gladys Campbell
Gladys Campbell
MSN, RN, FAAN Chief Executive Officer, NWone
gladysc@wsha.org
NWone, founded in 1996, is a 501C3 nonprofit, membership association serving all levels of nursing leadership in all practice settings from the emerging nurse leader through nurses who are Academic Deans, Executive, and Entrepreneurs. Learn more at: http://www.nwone.org/
Swedish Ballard Hospital Receives Pathway to Excellence® Award
Swedish Ballard has recently received the Pathway to Excellence® designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), making it the first hospital in Washington State to earn this honor.
The Pathway to Excellence® program recognizes health care and long-term care organizations for positive practice environments where nurses excel. To qualify, organizations must meet 12 Pathway Practice Standards essential to an ideal nursing practice environment.
“This honor is certainly a career highlight and reaffirms the belief I had when I first joined the nursing team at Ballard,” said Jennifer Graves, Chief Executive and Nurse Executive for Swedish Ballard. Read more.
Great Nurse Stories From Across the State
Our member hospitals are proud of the high quality of care and leadership that their nurses provide. We are excited to share with you just some of their stories.
Our many thanks to the hospitals and health systems who shared their stories with us! (Mary Kay Clunies-Ross and Lilia Cabello Drain)
Kudos: Four PeaceHealth nurses win top regional awards
Four nurses from PeaceHealth St. Joseph will be honored with awards from the Northwest Organization of Nurse Executives at an award ceremony in Seattle on May 14.
The nonprofit nursing leadership group presents 15 awards annually, and a press release from the hospital said PeaceHealth taking home four of the awards is unprecedented. Read more.
St. Clare Surgical Nurses Win National Award
The perioperative nursing team at St. Clare Hospital has been named the national winner of The Competence & Credentialing Institute’s (CCI) 2015 TrueNorth Award. There is only one such award given in the U.S. each year.
Sarah Middleton, of Olympic Medical Center in Olympia is first recipient of Capella Healthcare’s Employee STAR Award
Sarah Middleton of Olympia, has been named the recipient of Capella Healthcare’s inaugural national Employee STAR Award. Established this year in conjunction with the company’s tenth year of service, the Employee STAR Award is designed to recognize individuals who are shining examples of Capella’s values. Middleton is the Joint and Spine Program Coordinator for Capital Medical Center in Olympia, WA.
Capella’s President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Wiechart presented the award at the company’s annual Leadership Conference awards banquet held in Franklin, Tenn., on August 20, 2014. Read more.
Maggie Colin Looks Back at 51 Years as a Dialysis Nurse
Maggie Colin has witnessed five decades of dialysis treatment. In fact, she’s helped make history, serving as one of the longest-working dialysis nurses in the world.
Colin, 76, retired May 9 of last year from her position as a nurse manager at Northwest Kidney Centers. She joined NKC as a nurse in 1963, not long after the nonprofit opened its doors in Seattle. She worked 51 continuous years as a dialysis nurse, taking time away from Northwest Kidney Centers from 1979 to 1987 to work as a dialysis nurse for what was then he Rocky Mountain Kidney Center in Denver. Read more.
Seattle Children’s Hospital Honors Nurses Through Video Tribute
Seattle Children’s Hospital has put together an online slide show, entitled Nursing Celebration 2015, featuring photos, nurse testimonials, and an interview with Susan Heath, Senior Vice President, Chief Nursing Officer.
The video highlights stories and quotes from patients and nurses about the importance of nurses in providing quality care and the impact their compassion and courage has on patients.
Oncology Nurse Society Recognizes Group Health RN for Work in Grief Research
As an oncology infusion nurse, Group Health RN Katie Hagerman was completely dedicated to her patients’ comfort and care; she felt oncology infusion supported a special relationship between patients and nurses that supports the treatment process. But Hagerman eventually found it difficult to deal with the grief she felt as some of her patients died or struggled with difficult outcomes.
While studying for her BSN at Seattle Pacific University, Hagerman decided she couldn’t be the only oncology nurse who struggled with grief. She decided to devote her final research project to the topic. “Initially, it was to find tools that could help me stay in this specialty without getting burnt out,” said Hagerman.
Ultimately Hagerman used her research of peer-reviewed nursing and medical journals to create a poster to help fellow oncology nurses begin dealing with the grief and compassion fatigue inherent in their job. Her poster was accepted by the Puget Sound Oncology Nurse Society and presented at their March 2015 symposium.
“All of the articles that I reviewed concluded it’s critical for nurses to take time for themselves to reflect on how they feel in these situations—and then to find a healthy way to deal with it,” Hagerman concluded. “And the responses at the symposium were overwhelming—so many people thanked me for shining a light on the issue of grief in nursing.”
Group Health Nurse Improves Care for Complex Patients
Finding more effective ways to manage care for complex patients is a top goal for most health care providers. At Group Health, RN LaNora Siggelkow helped lead a remarkably effective pilot project to address complex patients’ needs in order to improve their quality of life.
Siggelkow was the lead RN on a special team comprising a clinical pharmacist, an RN complex case manager, a counselor, a social worker, a medical assistant, and a physician. Their patient panel included more than 200 highly complex patients with multiple chronic conditions. Many of these patients also faced behavioral health issues that had to be addressed in order to successfully treat their physical symptoms.
Siggelkow recalls reaching out to one patient who felt she didn’t understand his experience and his condition (diabetes). She kept reaching out and soon created a diabetes support group so that patients could talk with each other about their difficulties, strategies for improving, and outcomes.
“One of our support group patients has dropped his A1C to 6 from 14,” Siggelkow said. “The goal for a patient with Type 2 diabetes is 7, so that’s a potentially life-saving number.”
Group Health also created this video about nurses and the impact they make:
Leading the Way: Recognizing Nurses for Improving Patient Care
Walla Walla General Hospital Implements Nursing Professional Practice Model
The Professional Practice Model is an illustration of how nurses practice and collaborate to provide the best quality care for those served by Walla Walla General Hospital. The Model, adopted throughout Adventist Health, represents the complex role of the professional nurse. This Professional Practice Model has a two-fold purpose:
- To define and support nursing control over the care environment and the delivery of care
- To capture the values, goals and relationships that define the professional nursing identity
To read more about this model, and about how Walla Walla General Hospital is impacting patient care, click here.
DAISY Award Washington Winners
The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died of complications of the auto-immune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) at the age of 33. DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.
During Pat’s 8 week hospitalization, his family was awestruck by the care and compassion his nurses provided not only to Pat but to everyone in his family. So one of the goals they set in creating a Foundation in Pat’s memory was to recognize extraordinary nurses everywhere who make an enormous difference in the lives of so many people by the super-human work they do every day.
The DAISY Award recognizes Nurses (RN/LPN) whose clinical skills and especially compassionate care exemplify the kind of nurse that patients, families, and staff recognize as an outstanding role model.
Overlake Medical Center
Chris West, RN, BSN, MSRNC
Read his nominating patient story.
Alicia Jambi, RN, BSN
Read her nominating patient story.
Adventist Health/Walla Walla General Hospital
Becky Saranto, RN (left)
Providence Health Care Stevens County
Diana Gruner, RN, PMCH
Read her nominating patient story.
Maegan George, RN, PSJH
Read her nominating patient story.
Linda Kline, RN, PSJH
Read her nominating patient story.
Michelle Chambers, RN, PSJH
Read her nominating patient story.
EvergreenHealth
Nike Olowu, RN, PCU (center)
Read her nominating patient story here.
Preparing for New Payment Trends
