Mercy's CNE says it will be.
On this week’s episode of HLM Shorts, we hear from Betty Jo Rocchio, Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive at Mercy, about how Mercy’s new innovation unit could become the standard in nursing. Tune in to hear her insights.
Transcript (edited for clarity):
How do you think Mercy’s nursing innovation unit program will evolve over time?
Rocchio: I think it's going to be the standard in nursing, and I say that because we're struggling, and we've been struggling in med-surg nursing more than any other type of nursing. I think we're going to have to connect it into our staffing and scheduling with a workload tool.
If we are doing something at the front lines, we should have a way to measure it, and I think we're going to start asking these nurses more about how they feel about the patients, and start scheduling them by a workload number to group those patients rather than ratios. That is going to launch in that third phase that we talked about, the workload assessment tool that automatically makes assignments for nurses based on workload of the patients. That helps our charge nurses, and it helps our nurses with how they feel when they go home.
The workload measurement is not just objective, but it's also subjective, how the nurse felt at the end of their shift. I think that's a really important point, how nurses feel going home. We want to send our nurses home still feeling good with plenty of energy to be able to take care of their family, friends, [and] personal lives, rather than leaving so exhausted from work.
Click here to view the full interview.
G Hatfield is the nursing editor for HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Innovation units have the potential to become the standard practice in nursing.
The workload assessment tool will be able to automatically make assignments for nurses based on patient workload.
A really important unit of measurement is how nurses feel going home.