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Retention naturally follows recruitment as a challenge in the nursing shortage. Money alone is not enough to retain nursing staff. Working conditions and culture also have to change in order to keep sufficient numbers of highly-trained nurses.
The Colorado Consortium for Nurse Retention is a five-year program to replicate a process improvement model that has been successfully implemented in the Chest Pain Center of Porter Adventist Hospital, an urban acute care facility. In that experience, unit nurses were able to significantly reduce the time required to treat a certain type of adverse reaction by relocating supplies and developing new protocols. The changes resulted in better patient outcomes and greatly improved nurse satisfaction.
Building on the lessons of this model, the Colorado Consortium for Nurse Retention will train nurse leaders to enhance the “just in time” problem-solving skills of nurses. This intervention will both empower nurses by authorizing them to take a more powerful role in the treatment of patients, and to meet patients’ needs “just in time” – avoiding the costly minutes that can compromise patient care and outcomes.
While this model empowers nurses, it also empowers healthcare leadership by instilling a greater trust in employees. Nurses receive training that allows managers to be certain of the decision-making prowess of their employees.
The program is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
Goal
To improve nurse job satisfaction and retention through cooperative problem-solving, coordinated care, systems improvement/problem-solving in the course of work, internal leadership development and improved patient outcomes in four clinical sites.
Objectives
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Finalize the infrastructure to assure that the effectiveness of the project model of process improvement for increasing nurse retention and satisfaction is ready for use in individual settings.
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Measure nursing vacancy rates, nurse turnover (retention) and level of satisfaction using a project-consistent model for documenting unit/department turnover at each site.
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Determine level of job satisfaction and career satisfaction as indicators of nursing retention.
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Enhance the “just in time” problem-solving abilities of nurses to identify patient care delivery and system problems at the unit and department levels; create and communicate innovative solutions using the project model of process improvement methods.
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Initiate leadership development and support structures in the project clinical sites to facilitate model performance.
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Improve patient safety, core indicators and patient satisfaction.
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Support previously created infrastructure to ensure and expand the project model.
Participating Facilities
Porter Adventist Hospital (acute tertiary care) – Denver
McKee Medical Center (rural medical center) – Loveland
San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center (rural medical center) – Alamosa
Integrated Health Systems at Cherry Creek (long-term care) – Denver
Contact Information
Karren Kowalski, PhD, RN, FAAN
Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence
Project Director
Work: 303-715-0343 ext. 15
e-mail:
karren.kowalski@worldnet.att.net
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