AACN Selects Boston Hospitals For National Nurse Leadership Skill-building Program

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) continues the national rollout of its new hospital-based nurse leadership and innovation training program with the addition of seven Boston-area hospitals.

AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy is designed to empower bedside nurses as clinician leaders and change agents whose initiatives measurably improve patient outcomes with bottom-line impact to the hospital. As the only nursing excellence and leadership skill-building program that provides hospitals with both educational programming and grant funds to support project implementation, AACN CSI Academy represents a substantial investment by AACN in the future of nursing.

Participating hospitals in Massachusetts:

• Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Mass.
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston
• Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
• Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
• Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, Mass.
• South Shore Hospital, South Weymouth, Mass.
• Tufts Medical Center, Boston

Dave Hanson, RN, MSN, CCRN, CNS, will serve as lead faculty for the nurses participating in Boston's AACN CSI Academy program. He is a nursing educator, speaker and consultant in Chicago, and served as AACN's 2007-08 national president.

"Some of the greatest success stories occur when frontline staff nurses are engaged in identifying solutions to clinical problems and challenges," he said. "Hospitals and nurses involved in the Boston AACN CSI Academy fully embrace AACN's vision of creating a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and families where acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution."

In addition to benefiting participating hospitals, the program is designed to foster industry-wide nursing innovation through sharing of results and best practices via publications, presentations and online content.

Healthcare leaders in the Boston area are eager to introduce the program to local nurses and anticipate the benefits will be immediate and long-lasting.

"AACN CSI Academy provides the opportunity for staff nurses to work with colleagues from other organizations and to learn and share innovative, evidence-based approaches to the delivery of quality patient care. This experience will further support and empower the clinical nurse to influence change at the bedside," said Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, DNP, FAAN, chief nurse and senior vice president for Patient Care, Massachusetts General Hospital.

For the next 16 months, teams of four nurses from each hospital will work with CSI faculty, an internal mentor and their chief nursing officer to identify issues related to their existing patient care responsibilities. Teams will then develop and implement unit-based projects, resulting in quantifiable improvements in patient outcomes and decreases in hospital expenses. In most cases, it is anticipated the projects will later be implemented in other units at each hospital.

The AACN CSI Academy teams in Boston join cohorts already in progress in Indiana and North Carolina, for a combined total of 20 participating hospitals. The Indianapolis and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., nurse participants are undertaking projects focused on preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers, falls, delirium and unplanned extubation, and improving communication and teamwork between healthcare providers and patients' families.

Indianapolis program participant Rachel Culpepper, RN, BSN, CCRN, staff nurse II at Wishard Health Services, says the program is already making a difference. "Participating in AACN CSI Academy has empowered me to become a better nurse. I am more confident in my own practice and as a leader on my unit," she said.

"The program has also made me more aware that my day-to-day interventions can greatly affect a patient's entire hospital stay and have an impact beyond the bedside," Culpepper added. "My actions help save the hospital money, decrease mortality rates and length of stay, and improve patient outcomes."

AACN CSI Academy expands a successful pilot program developed by the Bi-State Nursing Innovation Center, Kansas City, Mo., with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Over the next three years, AACN will invest $1.25 million to fund national implementation of the program at partner hospitals across the country. This investment will support program administration and provide a $10,000 implementation grant to each participating hospital.

About the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses: Founded in 1969 and based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. AACN joins together the interests of more than 500,000 acute and critical care nurses and claims more than 240 chapters worldwide. The organization's vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution.

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 101 Columbia, Aliso Viejo, Calif. 92656-4109;
Phone: (949) 362-2000; Fax: (949) 362-2020; www.aacn.org; facebook.com/aacnface; twitter.com/aacnme

SOURCE American Association of Critical-Care Nurses