Jeanette Ives Erickson

The value of collaborative governance/staff empowerment.

Objective Collaborative governance is the decision-making process that places the authority, responsibility, and accountability for patient care with the practicing clinician. Background Collaborative governance was introduced as one of nine structures within the patient care services’ professional practice model to facilitate communication and optimize staff participation in decision-making across disciplines. The concept of empowerment was used to evaluate the impact of the collaborative governance structure on members. Methods The purpose of the current study was to compare empowerment and power scores for both members and nonmembers of collaborative governance over a 3-year period. Results Initial survey data (baseline) from 136 staff from across disciplines was returned prior to beginning work on a committee. Study results were based on survey returns from 657 staff over a 3.5-year period. There were no significant differences between collaborative governance members and nonmembers on some demographic variables such as age, but there were significant differences on variables such as work status and education. All empowerment scores were significantly higher at the 2nd and 3rd measurement periods for collaborative governance members as compared to nonmembers. Conclusions Findings suggest that membership on a collaborative governance committee increased staff sense of empowerment and fostered self-growth and organizational development.

Patients' needs for nursing care: Beyond staffing ratios

The current focus on staffing ratios as a means to assure appropriate care for patients ignores the very real differences among patients in their needs for nursing care. Implementing a system that identifies these needs provides a more accurate indication of staffing requirements. In addition, storing the raw data from the system at their most basic level provides opportunities for more extensive analyses and informed, data-driven decision-making related to resource allocation, performance improvement, and productivity enhancement.

Partnering and leadership: core requirements for developing a dedicated education unit.

Preparing new nurses to practice independently and provide safe and effective care has always been a priority for nurse leaders in academe and service but is becoming more of a challenge as patient acuity intensifies and care systems become more complex. Recent reports by the Carnegie Foundation1 and by the Institute of Medicine and RWJF2 call for nurse leaders to improve how nurses are prepared and educated by reducing the gap between classroom and clinical teaching and making better use of resources and partnerships available in the community. The development of a dedicated education unit is one strategy to address this gap.

Why not nursing

Does nursing have an image problem that scares off potential nursing students? Heres what high-school students and adult career-switchers think about nursing as a potential career choice.

The STTI Practice-Academe Innovative Collaboration Award: honoring innovation, partnership, and excellence.

Purpose: To describe the benefits and barriers associated with practice-academe partnerships and introduce Sigma Theta Tau Internationals (STTIs) Practice-Academe Innovative Collaboration Award and the 2009 award recipients. Design and Methods: In 2008, STTI created the CNO-Dean Advisory Council and charged it with reviewing the state of practice-academe collaborations and developing strategies for optimizing how chief nursing officers (CNOs) and deans work together to advance the profession and discipline of nursing. The Council, in turn, developed the Practice-Academe Innovative Collaboration Award to encourage collaboration across sectors, recognize innovative collaborative efforts, and spotlight best practices. A call for award submissions resulted in 24 applications from around the globe. Findings: An award winner and seven initiatives receiving honorable mentions were selected. The winning initiatives reflect innovative academe-service partnerships that advance evidence-based practice, nursing education, nursing research, and patient care. The proposals were distinguished by their collaborators’ shared vision and unity of purpose, ability to leverage strengths and resources, and willingness to recognize opportunities and take risks. Conclusions: By partnering with one another, nurses in academe and in service settings can directly impact nursing education and practice, often effecting changes and achieving outcomes that are more extensive and powerful than could be achieved by working alone. Clinical Relevance: The award-winning initiatives represent best practices for bridging the practice-academe divide and can serve as guides for nurse leaders in both settings.

Applying the Adams influence model in nurse executive practice.

The ability to influence others is a required competency for nurse executives trying to achieve positive patient/organizational outcomes. The Adams Influence Model (AIM) is a framework for understanding the factors, attributes, and process of influence. The AIM is grounded in nursing and organizational literature and provides nurse leaders with a road map for developing an effective strategy to achieve influence with individuals and/or groups. The authors describe the AIM and present a case study illustrating its application by a chief nurse executive.

Professional practice model: strategies for translating models into practice.

In the current health care climate, economic and cultural conditions have created an optimal opportunity to envision a new direction for nursing as a profession. Nurses find themselves at the formative stages of charting this new direction. The articulation of a professional practice model provides a framework for setting this new direction and thus the achievement of exemplary clinical outcomes. In this article, the authors describe the evolution of the professional practice model at the Massachusetts General Hospital and how the model continues to be evaluated and modified over time by the nurses within the system.

Mentoring the minority nurse leader of tomorrow.

Diversity is crucial to the future of nursing. And fortunately, a shift in the composition of the nursing workforce so that it more accurately mirrors the composition of Americas patient population is already taking place. However, this emerging multiculturalism brings an important issue to the forefront—the leadership tier in healthcare organizations must also reflect the ethnic and cultural changes taking place. Movement in this direction makes prominent the importance of the mentor role in the life of the minority nurse seeking a leadership career path. Acknowledging the present demographics of the profession, it is most unlikely that the mentor and mentee will be a cultural or ethnic match. The good news is that this should not be viewed as an automatic barrier. This article describes the 5 Cs of mentoring a minority nurse professional, that is, candor, compromise, confidence, complexity, and champion—the specific competencies that promote a mentor-mentee relationship focused on career success.

Identification of the psychometric properties of the leadership influence over professional practice environments scale.

This study uses the qualitatively developed Adams Influence Model© (AIM) and concepts from the psychometrically validated Revised Professional Practice Environment scale to guide the development of the Leadership Influence Over Professional Practice Environments Scale. Nurse executives and others can use this scale individually or in conjunction with instruments targeting staff or patient perceptions of their influence as part of health services research, leadership development, and professional practice environment enhancement strategy.

Keeping the nursing shortage from becoming a nursing crisis

Healthcare organizations are experiencing an unprecedented shortage of qualified nurses. How can we increase our understanding of how the potential labor pool views the nursing profession and identify recruitment themes to encourage young people and adult career switchers to choose a career in nursing? The authors discuss the results of a study that was conducted to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of career selection among these two target groups and identify what types of communication would motivate young people and career switchers to be drawn to the nursing profession.