foruch visit - University of Colorado Hospital

Through August 17, 2010
Volume 4 • Issue 3
Nurses Hop across Pond
for UCH Visit
Magnet Program Director Danielle Schloffman (far right) was among the many UCH providers who welcomed nurses
from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and the London National Heath Service Trust during a July 13 visit. From far left: Amanda
Payne, matron for Neurosciences and ENT; Kay Riley, chief nurse; Louise Crosby, divisional nurse, Acute and Family
Services Division.
University of Colorado Hospital
rolled out the red carpet July 13 for
representatives from St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital in London, an institution that
boasts nearly nine centuries of health care
experience. As it turned out, the visitors
from the other side of the Atlantic found
plenty to learn from their U.S. colleagues.
They got here through some
local networking. The father of St.
Bartholomew’s (known as “Barts”)
matron (or senior nurse) for
Neurosciences and ENT, Amanda Payne,
lives in Aurora. He, in turn, contacted
UCH Chief Nursing Officer Carolyn
Sanders, RN, PhD, to arrange a factfinding visit for Payne and two colleagues,
Chief Nurse Kay Riley and Divisional
Nurse for Acute and Family Services
Louise Crosby.
“The staff at UCH were overwhelming
in their welcome to us, their hospitality
and in the excellent materials they kindly
shared with us to bring back,” Riley
wrote in a follow-up email to the Insider.
“We were also struck by the positive
culture, and the clear commitment to
staff development that was evident in
every member of staff we met with.”
Clinically, they liked what they saw at UCH,
Riley added. “There are many, many areas
that we now plan to adopt and implement
as a result of our visit,” she wrote.
Continued
Through August 17, 2010
Volume 4 • Issue 3 • Page 2
“They were
impressed with
how engaged our
nurses are and by
their willingness
to come in to
speak to them.”
“There were
so many areas
that we were
impressed with
and found
helpful, we are
currently writing
up a report with
recommendations
which we will
be sharing with
nursing groups
and taking
forward.”
Among those she listed are shared
leadership models, hourly rounding, fall
management, and TRIP (Translating
Research into Practice) sheets. The latter
are guides nurses follow to identify
clinical issues, examine sources of
evidence and develop processes for
implementing evidence-based methods
of bedside care.
The trio also was interested in the
process of achieving designation as a
Magnet nursing facility, although Riley
added that hospital redevelopment (see
box) will delay work on that for a while.
Still, their curiosity sent them not only to
UCH but also to the three other Magnet
hospitals in the area that have earned
it: Medical Center of Aurora, Craig
Hospital and The Children’s Hospital.
Putting out the welcome mat. During
their time here, they toured the hospital
and got a full-day presentation from
nursing staff on a wide variety of
subjects, including the Magnet and
Graduate Nurse Residency programs,
quality-of-care issues, evidence-based
practice, nurse research, patient and
family-centered care, shared leadership
and recruitment and retention.
“They were impressed with how engaged
our nurses are,” reports Magnet Program
Director Danielle Schloffman, RN, MSN,
“and by their willingness to come in to
speak to them.”
The visitors also had plenty of questions,
Schloffman says. For example, one
exchange veered into a discussion of
what UCH does to control MRSA
(Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus
aureus) infections, a big concern for Barts
and other United Kingdom hospitals.
Infection Control Practitioner Teri
Hulett, RN, came in on short notice to
field the inquiries.
Riley also expressed admiration for the
hospital’s research nurse scientists and the
organization’s commitment to evidencebased practice, as well as the Graduate
Nurse Residency Program, one of only two
in the nation to earn accreditation from the
Commission on Collegiate Nurse Education.
“There were so many areas that we were
impressed with and found helpful, we
are currently writing up a report with
recommendations which we will be
sharing with nursing groups and taking
forward,” Riley concluded.
To Say the Least, a Venerable Institution
To put in perspective the longevity
of Barts, which traces its origins to
the year 1123, it already had been in
operation a little more than six-anda-half centuries when the 13 colonies
in North America declared their
independence from Great Britain. It’s
now part of a hospital system (Barts
and the London National Health
Service Trust) formed in 1994 that also
includes Royal London in Whitechapel
and London Chest in Bethnal Green.
Barts, which now concentrates on
cardiac and cancer care, and its sister
hospitals are also part of a massive
redevelopment of the entire system
scheduled for completion in 2016 at
an estimated cost of 1 billion pounds
(about $1.6 billion).
That’s about four times what
UCH plans to spend on its second
inpatient tower.
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