A word from Dr. Lisa Smithgall, chief nursing executive
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Ballad Health Nursing Newsletter! As your chief nursing executive, I am thrilled to introduce this quarterly newsletter – a vibrant platform designed exclusively for you, our nursing staff.
Our vision for this newsletter is simple yet profound: to inform, inspire, and encourage dialogue. In this edition, you’ll learn about an initiative in which we’ve incorporated your feedback and partnered with IT Clinical Informatics to help streamline workflows and eliminate unnecessary hurdles when using Epic. Your input matters. Based on last year’s electronic health record survey, our nursing and IT leadership collaborated to enhance elements of the EHR, resulting in positive impacts on nursing workflow.
Notably, we successfully piloted Rover devices in a medical surgical unit, which significantly saved time for nursing team members when interacting with the EHR. Additionally, we adopted Flowsheet MACROS during the November Epic quarterly upgrade. This feature empowers nursing team members to create and share flowsheet MACROS for frequently documented value sets. Since its implementation, our nursing team has saved an impressive 1,226,251 clicks, freeing up valuable minutes for other patient care activities. In future editions, you’ll find evidence-based insights, spotlights on your achievements and lots of timely, need-to-know information.
So, my valued colleagues, let’s embark on this journey together. This newsletter is designed to be a tool to connect us across units, shifts and specialties.
Thank you for your unwavering commitment. We vow to make every page count!
Click here to see a short video from Dr. Smithgall about National Nurses Week.
Nurses, you’re gonna love this: Help us ‘Get Rid of the Stupid Stuff’ in Epic
Get Rid of the Stupid Stuff (GRoSS) is an initiative we’re doing to improve the efficiency of our Epic electronic health system and make life easier for our nurses and clinical team members. If you see something in Epic that’s inefficient, poorly designed or totally unnecessary, let us know and we’ll see if we can eliminate or improve it!
The initiative is brought to you by the Nursing Productivity/Satisfaction End User Group to streamline workflows and get rid of unnecessary hurdles.
When a team member finds an issue, they can report it immediately via the “Get Rid of the Stupid Stuff” (GRoSS) submission form.
To find out more about our GRoSS initiative, click here!
Update: Streamlining how we provide clinical education for the acute care nursing team
The nature of the nursing profession requires constant education, but we all know it can be difficult to find the time to attend multiple one- to two-hour, in-person education events, in addition to fulfilling the scheduled work shifts.
As a result, we have initiated a quarterly education model to address the care practice revision and regulatory-required education, which will include an all-day event for all nursing team members each quarter. Attempts will be made to schedule in-person education into this quarterly education event so our nursing team is able to schedule in advance and attend.
Find out more about this exciting update to our nursing education process, click here!
Want to help name this newsletter and win some Ballad Health swag?
Scan the QR code to submit your title suggestion for this newsletter. A committee of nursing leaders will review all submissions and select three finalists. The entire Ballad Health nursing staff will then have the chance to vote on which of these three titles becomes the official name of the nursing newsletter. And, as an exciting bonus, the winner will receive some fantastic Ballad Health swag!
