Contact:
Terry Bryant, MBA, BSN, RN, CNA, BC (Director, Professional Practice) terryjb@bjc.org
Lisa Fraser, (Department Assistant) llf5833@bjc.org
Description:
The Department of Professional Practice and Systems is focused on enabling clinical departments to provide high quality, cost effective patient care through collaboration, facilitation and coordination of services and activities.
Scope of Services:
- Ensure the standards set forth by the Magnet Recognition Program of the American Nurse Credentialing Center (ANCC) are met and/or exceeded by the Division of Nursing at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Complete and submit all required documentation to the ANCC.
- Coordinate the divisional nursing quality assurance program that includes the dissemination of centralized data from various sources; review of divisional QI results; and the development of teams to improve results. Participate in Performance Excellence six sigma initiatives as needed.
- Participate in Information Services strategic planning for clinical documentation, computerized provider order entry and integration of other clinical applications into the electronic medical record.
- Coordination of nursing practice resources such as policies, protocols and nursing guidelines to turn our evidence based practice model into clinical practice changes.
- Support divisional operational issues such as emergency equipment, safety and new product evaluations. Assist with managing financial resources through the coordination of capital equipment purchases and utilization when appropriate.
- Support front line and leadership staff development through centralized education; allocation of financial resources for conference travel/registration and certification exams.
- Promote and support nursing clinical research including grant application and research design; focus clinical efforts on evidence based practice incorporating research into daily patient care.
- Participate on hospital committees and councils as nursing representation (such as Ethics Committee, Pharmacy & Therapeutics, Infection Control, etc.).
- In collaboration with the Office of Pediatric Quality Management, ensure patient care units meet all regulatory requirements; facilitate teams to ensure new regulations are understood and implemented by the appropriate time frame.
- Ensure patient safety through collaboration with the Patient Safety Officer and Office of Pediatric Quality Management, developing strategies to implement and monitor compliance with the National Patient Safety Goals.
Departments:
- Patient Care Information Systems
- Clinical Practice and Nursing Quality
- Clinical Education
- Clinical Research
Patient Care Information Systems
Contact:
Diane Watson, RN, BSN, MA (Manager, PCIS) DLW0389@bjc.org
Scope of Services:
- Provides in-depth knowledge of SLCH operations and clinical information system applications and integration.
- Acts as a central communication hub throughout the life of a project. Includes liaison role to SLCH Executive Staff, BJC IS, physician leaders and affected departments.
- Ensures development and completion of training materials, coordination of staff training and, when indicated, physician training.
- Ensures completion of internal testing from both a system integration and user perspective.
- Ensures development and completion of communication plan and tools.
- Takes a leadership role during parallel run, ensuring that changes identified are completed prior to go-live.
- Accepts, evaluates, prioritizes, and approves system change requests. Communicates outcome to appropriate parties.
- Convenes key stakeholders to identify plan including proactive identification of potential problems, to monitor progress and take action to ensure project success before, during and after roll-out.
Accomplishments:
- Implemented computerized provider order entry system (CPOE) in Emergency Unit.
- Implemented nursing clinical documentation system in inpatient units.
- Implemented Respiratory Therapy electronic documentation and as a result, significantly improved revenue capture and documentation compliance.
Clinical Practice and Nursing Quality
Contact:
Lisa Steurer, MSN, CPNP, RN lisami@bjc.org
Heidi Fields, MSN, CPNP, RN hsf0290@bjc.org
Scope of Services:
- Oversees evidence-based practice projects for the hospital in order to ensure a consistent standard of nursing practice.
- Reviews all nursing guidelines and policies on an ongoing basis.
- Serves as a resource for all clinical practice issues.
- Develops clinical research questions when gaps in literature for standardization of practice are discovered.
- Coordinates the initiation of new equipment & supplies for the hospital.
- Spearheads the Nursing Clinical Practice Council, Nursing Quality Improvement Council and provides oversight to all clinical practice committees.
- Collaborates with Performance Excellence Projects and the Office of Pediatric Quality Management to ensure patient care quality and regulatory standards are met.
Accomplishments:
- Developed clinical practice guidelines and standardized orders for the care of infants with hyperbilirubinemia.
- Initiated several research questions for development including the following:
- Correct method for analyzing nasogastric tube placement.
- Comparison of different methods for application of subcutaneous buffered lidocaine prior to intravenous catheter placement.
- Appropriate heparin concentration for flushing of central lines for the prevention of thromboembolytic occlusions.
- Led the hospital initiative to develop IV Team.
- Obtained a satisfactory review by JCAHO with only 3 requests for information.
- Implemented Smart Pump technology for large volume IV pumps.
Clinical Education
Contact:
Cynthia Vishy, BSN, RN (Manager, Clinical Education) cynthidv@bjc.org
Scope of Services:
- Designs and coordinates new employee orientation for staff on the patient care areas.
- Identifies, develops, coordinates and tracks clinical competency.
- Ensures professional staff have access to continuing education opportunities including
- MONA CE approval
- Nursing Grand Rounds
- Preceptor Development
- Pediatric Code Management
- Pediatric Sedation
- Manages, coordinates and tracks CPR and other clinical mandatory requirements.
- Develops on-line courses, manages and coordinates web-based learning activities through the CHEX Learning Management System. (CHEX is a system developed and coordinated by a collaborative group of children’s hospitals within the Child Health Corporation of America (CHCA) and is focused on pediatric content and competency.
- Schedules, track and evaluates housewide in-servicing for new equipment, policies and practices.
- Coordinates school of nursing clinical placement activities including basic clinical rotations, senior preceptorships, graduate student practicums, summer externship program and observation experiences.
- Provides on-site testing for Certified Pediatric Nursing Exam.
Accomplishments:
- Hosted the "Annual Perspectives in Pediatric Nursing Conference".
- Coordinated clinical rotation experiences for over 500 nursing students.
- Expanded use of CHEX to additional users through development of new courses and curriculums.
Clinical Research
Contact:
Patricia Jamerson, PhD, RN (Nurse Researcher) paj3987@bjc.org
Scope of Services:
- Identifies funding opportunities to support research.
- Facilitates faculty/multidisciplinary research collaboratives.
- Assists with development of research questions.
- Provides literature search assistance.
- Assists with definition of measures (variables/tools).
- Helps to design and validate study tools.
- Assists with the development of study design.
- Facilitates development of institutional review board proposals.
- Helps to develop grant proposals.
- Assists in planning study implementation.
- Provides data entry, analysis, and interpretation.
- Facilitates abstract, manuscript, oral and poster presentation preparation.
- Provides manuscript review and editing.
- Negotiates with legal services study agreements/contracts.
- Houses a research reference library.
- Provides access to library tools (EndNotes, SPSS).
- Offers consultation and mentoring in the conduct and dissemination of research.
- Coordinates access to external statistician.
- Coordinates grant management.
Accomplishments:
- Hosted the Fifth Annual Nursing and Allied Health Research Conference, designed to enhance knowledge in the conduct of research and showcase research conducted by pediatric nurses and allied health personnel through oral and poster presentations.
- Provided monthly workshops related to the conduct and dissemination of research.
- Developed the St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s "Research" internet webpage highlighting SLCH researchers and their projects.
- Developed a research brochure listing various services offered at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
- Organized ‘Research Awareness Day’.
- Oversight of the nursing student research assistant program.