AACN Academy Shows Value of Investing in Nurse Leadership Development

After participating in a 16-month leadership and innovation training program, nurses at 42 hospitals nationwide went on to direct quality initiatives that improved patient outcomes and saved more than $28 million annually.

The AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy is a 16-month leadership and innovation training program for staff nurses delivered by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) that seeks to empower nurses as clinician leaders and catalysts for change.

The CSI Academy trained 163 nurses to address clinical challenges such as health care associated infections, pressure ulcers, delirium, early mobility, falls, and patient handoffs. The nursing teams saw great success, according to AACN, significantly reducing many common hospital errors.

Regional groups working in Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas showed progress in decreasing:

• Intensive care unit (ICU) and progressive care unit lengths of stay by one day; 
• Days on mechanical ventilation by 14 percent or approximately one day;
• Health care-acquired infections and ICU complications by 50 percent;
• Patient falls by 50 percent;
• Pressure ulcers by 40 percent;
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections by 70 percent; and
• Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) positive scores by 14 percent

“These outcomes solidly reaffirm the value of investing in bedside nurses’ leadership development,” AACN CEO Dana Woods said in a statement. “Our program evaluations confirm that dedicated time for nurses to apply their skills in leading organizational and behavioral change was vital to achieving the program’s impressive results.”

AACN provides project materials from each team, including plans, data collection tools, practice resources and references in a searchable online database, which can be accessed at www.aacn.org/csiprojects.

INQRI Blog featured previously released data from the Academy from regional groups working in Massachusetts  and North Carolina.