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CS105
The ICU Nursing Council: True Collaboration for Patient Safety
By: S. Hooker, D. Samways, & T. Schmitz; The Methodist Hospital, Houston,TX
For further information, please contact: sjhooker@tmh.tmc.edu
Purpose: Our Magnet-recognized hospital’s structure is service-line based, with our five ICUs divided among three service lines. The nursing leadership in the ICUs recognized the need for collaboration among all the units, and the ICU Nursing Council was born. The goal of the council is to provide a forum for developing and sharing best practices in patient safety, quality, and leadership.
Description: ICU Nursing Council membership comprises staff nurses, directors, managers, APNs, and colleagues from other disciplines. We meet monthly to share ideas, solutions, and accomplishments. First, we standardized our “patient care guidelines” throughout all the ICUs, ensuring that all patients receive the same standard of care. We collaborated with Pharmacy to reduce the potential for errors in administering high-risk IV medication infusions. A colored label was implemented that visually alerts the nurse to the medication. We also changed practice to include a double check of high-risk medication infusions during change of shift. The ICU council coordinated the annual skills competency validation. ICU Clinical Mentors (the highest level on our career progression model) staffed the skills fairs 24 hours a day for 7 days over a five-week period. Poster boards highlighting the National Patient Safety Goals, medication safety, and ICU care bundles (sepsis and ventilator-associated pneumonia) were displayed, and nurses completed written tests on these topics. 350 nurses attended the skills fairs.
Evaluation/Outcomes: Attendance at our monthly meetings is consistently high, with comments after every meeting from staff and management about the value of the meetings. Positive changes in practice resulting from collaboration include glycemic control, decreased medication errors, standardized protocols (sedation, sepsis, ventilator weaning), daily goals and rounds, and guidance on Beacon Award applications. Two Methodist ICUs are now recognized as Beacon units.
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