Shared Governance Committees

The purpose of Perceptions of Care Nursing Shared Governance Committee is to create an environment that supports nursing in the process of communication in order to drive positive perceptions of care.

The co-chairpersons of this committee are Connie Tripod and Tracie Kerns. The Perceptions of Care committee currently consists of nurses from over a dozen different departments who actively participate in the decision making processes that will improve communication and perceptions our customers have of the care provided.

Perceptions of Care Nursing Shared Governance Committee completed unit specific paper Kardex tools for nurses and patient care technicians. They have been successful in facilitating communication of important and accurate patient information shift to shift. The committee is currently working on an electronic version of the Kardex. Patient Care Technicians were provided clip boards that contain important information front and back such as vital sign parameters, codes, isolations, etc. Members from the committee felt passionate about providing patients and their families with a time frame they could expect their tests or surgery, so they developed the IPtest/procedure schedule. The Perceptions of Care committee recognizes, with a banner, departments with the highest patient experience, responsiveness and pain control.

These are just a few of the many projects this team has worked on. We continuously strive to improve processes and communication so our patient’s experience at St Bernards will exceed their expectations.

Recruitment & Retention Shared Governance

Focuses not only on recruitment and retention for nursing throughout the medical center, but also on adequate staffing as a tool of recruitment and retention. The team plans and coordinates Nurses Week every May, and works closely with the nursing recruiter to be able to offer incentives for current and future staff.

The Quality and Safety Shared Governance

Focuses on opportunity to proactively improve the care of our patients with the ultimate goal in mind of reaching zero patient harm. The group reviews trends in actual events, near miss events or "Good Catch" events and unsafe conditions. Areas of recent focus have included use of safety initiatives such as use of smart pump technology, bar code medication scanning rates, decreasing patient falls and overall standardization of processes.

Nursing Excellence Shared Governance

The nursing excellence committee focuses on nursing practice. We tackle implementation of new evidence based practice guideline, regulatory standards, review of current nursing policies and procedures, and make recommendations on nursing practice issue or concerns. The Nursing Excellence Committee meets on the second Tuesday of each month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Perceptions of Care Nursing Shared Governance

Focuses on creating an environment that supports nursing in the process of communication in order to drive positive perceptions of care. Some recent projects we helped oversee was building a nurse specific website on St. Bernards.info; developed a unit specific paper Kardex tools for nurses and patient care technicians and providing Patient Care Technicians were provided clip boards that contain important information front and back such as vital sign parameters, codes, isolations, etc.

IS Shared Governance

Focuses on nursing documentation. The team looks at ways to better streamline our documentation. We cover compliance issues that must be addressed in documentation and try to remove duplicate documentation. We come together as a team to make documentation work better and more efficiently for our front line staff. We also look at issues and/or problems on compliance, quality, regulatory, etc. and work with people in those areas to incorporate solutions in Meditech.

• Department Unit Councils: Name, description, meeting dates and times, list of projects, contact person if wish to join (Unit Council Chair)
• HealthBeat: Classes, information (Lisa Weir)