Building a Culture of Safety: Fostering a Staff Driven Model of Safety and Engagement

Patient safety is driven by the nurse manager and while they are recognized as leaders and experts in safety, it is the engagement of staff nurses and their passion for excellence that drives and sustains patient safety, quality and patient satisfaction. Nurse managers recognize the evidence that highlights the value of hourly rounding as an evidence-based practice.  However, the actual development, dissemination and sustainability of this leading practice is not easy and the implementation methods frequently ignore the impact that rounding has on nurses’ work routine with significant emphasis on compliance rather than congruence with the patient care delivery model and may ultimately fail. Following such a failure in our hospital and system, a different strategy was adopted at our institution that utilized the shared decision making model to promote application of our professional practice model and maximized the partnership of our unit based council with a nurse residency cohort to develop and be the champion drivers of hourly rounding and ultimately change the culture of their nursing unit. This presentation will explore leadership methods that promote the application of the professional practice model and an example of staff driven evidence based practice can drive patient safety and quality outcomes and can be used as a prototype for shared decision making.  Tips for success will be provided that will discuss the practical and innovative methods used for initiating and sustaining measurable outcomes and engagement in the process. The ROI assessment will be presented using a 360 approach – feedback from a variety of key stakeholders and nationally benchmarked 2012 patient outcome and nurse engagement data. Healthcare facilities both large and small can profit from the return on investment realized through improved patient safety, staff satisfaction, reduced falls and an increase in the patients’ perception of a caring environment.