Thursday, June 19, 2014

National Nurse Leadership Training Program Yields Results in Boston


A nursing team from Boston that took part in a national leadership training program has shown measurably improved patient outcomes and a combined $8 million in anticipated annual savings for their hospitals. The Boston initiative is part of a broader training program conducted by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).

AACN directs and funds the AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy, a 16-month, hospital-based nurse leadership and innovation training program. The program empowers bedside nurses as clinician leaders whose initiatives generate quantifiable improvements in patient care and cost savings, according to an AACN media statement. Teams of staff nurses from participating hospitals take part in the training.

The Massachusetts AACN CSI Academy teams recently presented the results of their projects at an Innovation Conference in Boston, reporting successes such as:
  • Decreased the average length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) for ventilated patients by nearly eight days using an early mobility program;
  • Reduced incidence of pressure ulcers acquired while in the ICU by 50 percent;
  • Improved communication between units, leading to a 100 percent decrease in patient handoff incident reports;
  • Decreased the average number of mechanical ventilation days for ICU patients; and
  • Improved assessment of ICU-related delirium in critical care patients, leading to improved cognitive scores and decreased benzodiazepine use in patients with documented delirium.
The Massachusetts team is the third group to complete the Academy, after Indiana and North Carolina. Hospitals in New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas are currently participating and nursing teams from 42 hospitals will have completed the program by the end of 2014, according to AACN.

AACN’s searchable Innovation Database provides access to a compilation of CSI team results and documentation, including real-world project plans, clinical interventions, data collection tools, outcomes and references.

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