Stepping up to the Plate: 24/7 Leadership in Nursing

Cheryl Boldt, RN, NHA

• Do you feel like you are chasing your tail?
• Do you come to work and experience “Ground Hog Day” every day?
• Do sticky notes and e-mails with problems from yesterday greet you at the door?
• Is more staff and more money the solution in the eyes of the front line?

If you have answered YES to even one of the above questions, then this is the session for YOU!!!

Nursing is the largest and most costly department and touches virtually every customer and discipline. Licensed nurses are the 24/7 leaders we rely upon in a skilled nursing facility. The systems we have in place to support how licensed nurses can effectively work, communicate, and strengthen relationships with all team members and customers is critical. The impact of nursing is directly related to all customer/employee satisfaction, quality of care, quality of life, and financial outcomes.

Let’s take a close look at how the nursing department has evolved over the past 20 years. Pressure ulcers, infection control, risk management, MDS, restorative, quality improvement, education, unit management, medication pass, treatments, etc. have caused us to become very layered and fragmented in the nursing departments of some facilities. Change may be needed to assure we are using our money and resources correctly and efficiently. This means the right number of nurses in the right roles who are educated, empowered and held accountable for working with the team to meet the needs of our customers in a holistic rather than fragmented fashion.
 
Join us as we outline the expectations of what it means for licensed nurses to be involved, in charge, instrumental, and leading in the right direction to assure problems are solved, the customer’s needs and expectations are met, and the facility quality and financial goals are achieved.

Objectives: 
By the completion of this session, each participant will be able to:

1. Evaluate their facility systems for daily team-based communication 
2. Redefine the role and responsibilities of the front line nurse 
3. Implement budget neutral redesign in the nursing department
4. Engage nurses in financial team-based daily score-keeping systems

This session will utilize lecture, storytelling, a PowerPoint presentation with handouts, humor, group discussion, and individual action planning. The targeted audience includes skilled nursing facility corporate teams and owners, CEOs, CFO’s, Administrators, Directors of Nursing, facility leaders from all disciplines, and front line staff from all disciplines. The session length is 3 hours.