Sammie Mosier, DHA, MA, BSN, NE-BC Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive
Earlier this month, we celebrated Nurses and Hospital Week. This celebration of you and our
colleagues is part of our culture. Our nursing strategy embeds this culture through our Advocacy and Leadership pillar.
The Advocacy and Leadership pillar focuses on developing extraordinary leaders at every level and provide unparalleled opportunities for a career for a lifetime. We achieve this through nursing leadership at every level. We support new and future nurse leaders through multiple development programs. We understand that better leaders help provide better colleague and patient experiences.
- Elevate the clinical nurse coordinator (CNC) role to support operations and new nurse transition
- Chief nursing officer (CNO) council
- Clinical nurse coordinator (CNC) advisory council
- Director Development Program for Intensive Care, Surgical Service and Emergency department leaders
- Chief nursing officer (CNO) and associate chief nursing officer (ACNO) development programs
- Chief nursing officer (CNO) physician cabinet
Another area of work in this pillar is recruiting and retaining the workforce. We believe excellent people make excellence happen, so we recruit and retain excellent caregivers and exceptional clinical staff. We offer programs to support the emotional health and wellbeing of all colleagues, so they may continue to positively impact our patients, each other and the communities we serve.
- Adopt a new nurse support mentorship program to support nurse transition
- Emotional Wellbeing resources
Finally, we advocate for the voice of the nurses. We deeply care about our nurses’ insights and ideas to better our organization and patient outcomes. That’s why we seek their input and listen to their suggestions. Through our commitment to shared governance and regular engagement surveys, nurses across the organization help drive decisions affecting patient care and nursing practice.
- Advisory councils
- Resource councils
- Shared governance
- Vital Voices engagement survey
As we wrap up the celebration, I want to share my gratitude for you. I am grateful for your work at HCA Healthcare. I’m proud of the way you are changing healthcare and making our facilities a place of caring and compassion. You are the face of healthcare, and I’m grateful for you.
I look forward to supporting you as you continue to develop your career.
Nursing Strategy
Prevent Meditech ‘Logon not allowed’ error message
Do you often see the message?
This error occurs when users open Meditech on too many computers before logging out. To stop these errors:
- Click the Launchpad red door to log out
- Tap and go does not log you out
Don’t lock yourself out – before you tap and go use the red door to log out.
Avoid phone calls during medication administration
Outside of emergency calls, no calls should be taken or placed while at the Pyxis machines or while actively scanning/administering meds to the patient. All colleagues are responsible for protecting medication administration from interruptions.
Pull medication one patient at a time
When administering medication to a patient, remember to only pull and administer the medication one patient at a time. This practices saves time and decreases medication errors.
When you pull medications for multiple patients at the same time, you risk:
- Slowing medication administration process
- Creating lines at the Pyxis machine which impact fellow colleagues and patients
- Increasing potential for medication errors due to the time intensive work of pulling all medications
- Negatively impacting medication efficacy due to body heat exposure
Pharmacy turn around times
In order for timely medication delivery, allow the established order verification Turn Around Times (TAT) before sending medication requests. Below are the TATs for different order types:
- STAT (15 minutes): An order required for emergency clinical situation (life threatening). Any medication ordered as “STAT” is verified by pharmacy within 15 minutes from the time the medication is ordered.
- NOW (15 Minutes): NOW orders appear in the pharmacy workflow queue in the same sequence as STAT orders. Since they cannot be viewed as STAT or NOW, they are processed within 15 minutes from the time the medication is ordered.
ROUTINE (60 minutes): An order required for all routine clinical needs. Any medication ordered “ROUTINE” is verified within 60 minutes from the time the medication is ordered.
Three steps to reducing non-ventilator hospital acquired pneumonia (NVHAP)
Pneumonia is the #1 hospital-acquired infection in the US and most cases occur in non-ventilated patients. However, it can be reduced by following three easy steps:
- Oral care Ask patients to brush their teeth and tongue (1-2 minutes), rinse their mouth (30 seconds) and apply non-petroleum-based lip moisturizer (after meals and before bedtime) 3-4x per day
- Early mobility Set personalized mobility goals with your patient during bedside shift report, identifying times each day to walk around or to increase movement
- Educate the patient on how important it is for them to do this every day of their stay to reduce their risk of NVHAP
HealthStream links
- Emerging Threats: Non-ventilator Healthcare-Associated Pneumonia The Nurses’ Role
- Emerging Threats: Non–ventilator–Associated Pneumonia The Physicians’, Pharmacists, and Advanced Practice Providers’ Role
Every care team member can play a part in ensuring patients reduce their pneumonia risk. Help reduce NVHAP at your facility by posting this flyer and asking every member of your care team to educate every patient on the importance of oral care every day of their stay.
Resources
- NVHAP Atlas site
- Patient flyer: oral health (English | Spanish)
- Patient flyer: early mobility (English | Spanish)
- Provider flyer: oral health and early mobility
Career pathway profile
JR Braun is the Division Vice President Nursing Operations and Analytics Medical. He leads the North Texas Division. Read more about JR’s career highlights here.
Bea Barry is the Unit Leader for the PICU Unit of Distinction. Read more about Bea Barry and her career here.
Protecting you against workplace violence
At HCA Healthcare, workplace violence is not part of the job. As we experience increasing behavioral health issues at all our facilities, we have seen an increase in violence against our colleagues. If this happens to you, we want to support you. If you would like to file a police report and do not want to share your full name and address, local physical security can assist you in filing as a witness (if this is in-line with your state laws). Here’s a step-by-step of what you can do.
As always, if you are a victim of any violence – which includes spitting, harassment, and physical assault – report it to your employee health nurse and your supervisor. As you care for our patients, we want to care for you.
May is National STOP THE BLEED® Month
STOP THE BLEED® is a national awareness and education campaign focused on preventing victims from bleeding to death, which is the number one preventable cause of death after an injury. Colleagues are encouraged to complete the brief, STOP THE BLEED® course in HealthStream and to register for the hands-on portion of the education offered at many of our HCA Healthcare facilities. The training requires only a few minutes of your time and could help you save a life.
In addition to offering training opportunities for colleagues, HCA Healthcare facilities throughout the nation are hosting free STOP THE BLEED® courses for anyone in our communities to receive life-saving training on how to stabilize bleeding victims. For the date, time and location of a STOP THE BLEED® training course near you, visit HCAhealthcare.com/StopTheBleed.
Need an extra pair of hands? Let WorkLife help!
Balancing work and home can be overwhelming – and the thought of finding help or resources can add even more stress. Let Optum WorkLife Services take that off your to-do list! Optum advisors can help find local providers and resources that fit your needs, budget and time frame:
- Personal services, including house cleaners, pet services, lawn care and more
- Family support such as childcare, after-school programs and adoption support
- Education resources from preschools to adult education
- Adult and eldercare support such as dementia resources and in-home nursing care
- Relocation services to find realtors, moving companies and more
- Chronic illness support like transportation and food service
To get started, call (877) 950-5075 or go to LiveAndWorkWell.com (select Browse as a guest and enter access code HCA).
Career Opportunities
New leadership opportunities are posted regularly for internal applicants.
Internal Candidates: InternalCareers.HCAhealthcare.com
Know someone who is perfect for HCA Healthcare? Ask them to go to Careers.HCAhealthcare.com and enter your name in the field for “were referred to this job by an employee.”
Did you know?
HCA Healthcare operates 126 ambulatory surgery centers (as of June 30, 2022).
