d. Develop networks, collaboratives, partnerships, and interprofessional relationships to enhance nursing’s influence within the academic/healthcare community and the broader community.
Throughout this assignment, I began to examine my career as a nurse and how I will evolve into a nurse educator. I identified and discussed the key roles of a nurse educator, which included empowerment and commitment. Finally, I discussed the importance of being a lifetime learner and continually growing to impact the future healthcare community.
The following artifacts represent the relationship and partnership created with the ECMO team to educate PICU RN's on bedside care of an ECMO patient. Throughout the CNE approved course, nurses learn the logistics of an ECMO pump, pertinent assessments of a patient on ECMO, complications, and anticipated interventions when caring for an advanced critically ill patient on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine. This course is now offerred once a month as an orientation to new bedside ECMO nursing care as well as a refresher course for current nurses.
Shared Governance is defined as a partnership in which every role within the patient care divisions collaborates in problem-solving and decision making to enhance the quality of patient care and our work environment. The foundation of Shared Governance has four guiding principles and skills to create a successful system of governance:
~ Partnership: every person in the organization has a key role in fulfilling its purpose;
~ Equity: each person either lends value to the organization or takes away from the value of the organization;
~ Accountability: each person is accountable for the work to be done; and
~ Ownership: each person must be an owner, both of his or her own work and in the organization. This requires commitment and investment.
As a member I learned every individual is responsible for making Shared Governance successful in the organization. Shared Governance encourages individuals and groups to have a voice in the organization. There is collaborative effort to have decisions made at the point of care where there can be a positive impact on the patient. If the issue cannot be resolved at the point of care, or has potential to impact a broader scope, the issue is taken to the unit level, a housewide council, an interdisciplinary committee, or other groups as appropriate. Care guidelines, policies and procedures, forms, and teaching sheets are developed, implemented and evaluated as resources for staff. Each patient care area supports an AAC made up of representatives for the patient care roles in that unit. Members of AAC have an equal responsibility with department leadership to own the success of programs and services in their area to impact quality patient care. This requires a commitment to the organization. Housewide councils provide oversight and direction for both clinical nursing practice and professionalism. The purpose and skills developed when acting as a member of AAC include collaboration, teamwork, and defining expactations regarding work completed outside of the meetings to govern the operations and care dlivery for each area within the institution. The key to successful Shared Governance is the work completed in each Area Action Council.