Building Advanced Skills for Leading Quality Initiatives

The goal of this project is to increase the ability of front-line nurse leaders to lead quality improvement initiatives in their unit, agency or workplace. For some nurse leaders, the design, implementation and management of quality improve efforts is new territory. Often responsible for up to 50 nurses on a 24/7 basis, these front-line leaders are expected to enroll their staff nurses in the implementation of quality initiatives that will be critical to the improvement of patient care outcomes.

This project builds on previous Center front-line nurse leader preparation programs, and provides three days of intense training for 140 nurse leaders in an advanced set of skills that are especially important in the implementation of quality improvement initiatives: conflict resolution, facilitation, interdisciplinary relationship building, priority setting, negotiation and resiliency. With their significant three shift responsibility, we believe that this project will impact over 5,000 Colorado nurses within its initial two years. This program is funded by The Colorado Trust.

Objectives

1. Over a two year period, increase a defined skill set of 140 front line nurse leaders in the implementation of unit-based quality initiatives.

2. Educate at least 25 coaches per year in how to provide their front line leaders with coaching support over a 6-8 month period that will facilitate nurse leader skills development and the implementation of their selected quality initiative.

3. Improve by 10% the nurse-sensitive quality indicator(s) identified by the front-line nurse-leaders for their quality improvement project.

For more information, contact Ally Blanco, (303) 715-0343 ext. 22 or ablanco@coloradonursingcenter.org