Two North Shore-LIJ Health System facilities have been selected to participate in a leadership and training program designed to improve its nurses’ patient care abilities and identify cost-cutting strategies, health system officials announced on Friday.
North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and LIJ Medical Center in New Hyde Park were among the seven New York-area hospitals chosen for the preliminary rollout of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Clinical Scene Investigator Academy, the only nursing excellence and leadership skill-building program providing hospitals with educational programming and grant funds to support the projects, according to a news release from the health system.
“As we transform health care, it is vitally important that we engage the frontline, direct-care staff in taking a leadership role in improving the quality outcomes, the patient experience and bending the cost curve,” said Maureen T. White, senior vice president and chief nurse executive of the North Shore-LIJ Health System. “The ACCN-CSI initiative will foster the collaboration and sharing of best practices that will lead to new innovation in care delivery.”
As part of the program, teams of up to four nurses from each New York hospital will work with Clinical Scene Academy faculty, an internal mentor and a chief nursing officer for the next 16 months to help identify patient-care responsibility issues and develop projects resulting in improved patient care and efficient spending, according to the release.
During the program’s three-year first phase, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses will invest $1.25 million to fund the implementation of programs at partnered hospitals, according to the release. In addition, each participating hospital will receive a $10,000 grant in support of program administration.
Health system officials said the project reflects the Viejo, Calif.-based American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ response to the Institute of Medicine’s recent “Future of Nurses” report, which documented the increased significance nurses play in the transformation of health care.
The academy’s New York teams join those already in place in the 42 hospitals from Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas that are working on projects preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers, falls, delirium, unplanned extubation and improving communication and teamwork, according to the release.
The teams will present their project results to regional health care officials in November, and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses will later post the results to its Web site.
