Nursing Economic$
The following articles were published in the Perspectives in Ambulatory Care department of the Nursing Economic$ journal and authored by members of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing. The PIAC column captures the essence and makes sense of today's changing ambulatory care market.
Articles
Identification2017_NEC_SOIssueSeptember/October 2017The AAACN Ambulatory Care Registered Nurse Residency Program is distinct from orientation by providing a coordinated and comprehensive transition into an ambulatory care clinical environment. The Ambulatory Care Registered Nurse Residency Program is designed to strengthen the transition support for new registered nurse (RN) graduates and RNs new to the ambulatory care specialty. Residency programs have the potential to promote the role of the RN and his or her commitment to the profession of nursing. A broad, integrated, and comprehensive structure is critical to successful implementation and sustainability.Author
June Levine, MSN, BSN, RNNational Consultant in Ambulatory Nursing, Kaiser Permanente
Identification2017_NEC_NDIssueNovember/December 2017The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative has played an important role in transforming how nursing can improve quality and safety in education and practice. Assessing whether a nurse is competent to perform the duties of his or her job role involves more than completing a skills checklist. The American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing’s Ambulatory Care Registered Nurse Residency Program used the QSEN framework to support development of competencies that will provide the new nurse to the ambulatory care setting with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide safe quality care.Author
Laurel More, MS, RN, NPD-BC, CPNClinical Education Specialist, Children's Hospital Colorado
Advanced Practice Nurses: Developing A Business Plan for an Independent Ambulatory Clinical Practice
Identification2017_NEC_MJIssueMay/June 2017The driving forces that are motivating many advanced practice nurses (APNs) to create new, high-value practices within the ambulatory care setting reflect the need for better, higher quality patient care, a deep commitment to spending healthcare dollars wisely, and most importantly, the relentless search for nursing interventions that lead to real improvement in the health of patients. Business planning provides the path through which new APN-run ambulatory practices become a reality and a success. A well-developed and sophisticated business plan is an essential first step in setting up a successful APN practice that reinforces APNs' contributions to health care, and leads to real rewards for patients and families, APNs, and the healthcare industry.
Authors
Joyce E. Johnson, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAANWendy S. Garvin, MSN, APRN-BC, RN
Identification2017_NEC_MAIssueMarch/April 2017Multiple national reports identify actionable recommendations to transform education and practice to meet the needs of health care and healthcare delivery beyond the hospital walls. The Josiah Macy Jr. Conference (2016) focused on transforming primary care and changing healthcare culture to support expansion of roles for registered nurses (RNs). Partnerships between academia and clinical practice are critical to expanding learning opportunities beyond traditional acute care settings. Development of primary care expertise in nursing faculty and adjunct faculty, in collaboration with primary care and ambulatory care nursing leaders, is essential. Academic-practice partnerships must advocate for removing regulatory and practice barriers to allow RNs to practice to the full scope of education and training. Recommendations from national reports extend beyond enhanced roles in primary care practice and have global implications for all RNs practicing in ambulatory care.Speakers
Anne T. Jessie, DNP, RNSenior Director for Population Health Management and Clinical Innovations, Gorman HealthBeth Ann Swan, PhD, RN, FAAN
Identification2017_NEC_JFIssueJanuary/February 2017Speakers
Stephanie Witwer, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAANIndependent Nurse ConsultantSusan Paschke, MSN, RN, AMB-BC, NEA-BCPart-Time Faculty, Kent State UniversityAuthors
Wanda C. Richards, PhD, MSM, MPA, BSNAnne Jessie, DNP, RNSenior Director for Population Health Management and Clinical Innovations, Gorman HealthLinda Harden, MS, BSN, RN-BCKathleen Martinez, MSN, RN, CPN, CICClinical Manager Pediatric Call Center, Children's Hospital ColoradoMargaret F. Mastal, PhD, MSN, RNCynthia Murray, BN, RN-BCMaureen T. Power, MPH, RN, LNCCMary Hines Vinson, DNP, RN-BC
Identification2017_NEC_JAIssueJuly/August 2017In the ambulatory care setting where care is episodic, occurs over time, and is impacted by multiple, interprofessional care team members, it is difficult to measure the specific impact of the registered nurse (RN). Many innovative processes are being developed and individual RNs are finding unique ways to benchmark quality that are nurse sensitive and improve outcomes for patients. The American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing Ambulatory Care Nurse-Sensitive Indicator Industry Report: Meaningful Measurement of Nursing in the Ambulatory Patient Care Environment focused on the clinical practice and the quality improvement/research role of the RN and identified nine clinical practice dimensions and three quality/research dimensions. Roles of the ambulatory care RN and exemplars classified according to those roles and dimensions are provided.
Speaker
Rachel E. Start, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FAANAssociate VP, MBE Services, Rush University Medical CenterAuthors
Rosemarie Battaglia, MSN, RNMary Morin, RN-BC, NEA-BCDana Nelson, MBA, MSN, RN-BC, CRRNBeverly Sullivan, BSN, RN
Identification2016_NEC_NDIssueNovember/December 2016Ambulatory care registered nurses (RNs) have a pivotal role in educating, encouraging, motivating, and supporting patients to be engaged in their care and achieve their health care goals. To improve health outcomes, patients need to be engaged in attaining these goals. RNs are instrumental in this process and well-controlled studies will demonstrate their impact on helping patient’s engage in their care.
Authors
Eileen M. Esposito, DNP, RN, AMB-BC, DipACLM, CPHQSenior Healthcare ExecutiveCatherine A. Rhodes, MSN, APRN, WHNP-BC, RNC-OB, SANE-ACatherine M. Besthoff, DPH(c), MHA, RN, CPHQNena Bonuel, PhD, RN, CCRN, CNS, ACNS-BCDirector of Nursing Practice, Harris Health System
Identification2016_NEC_MJ_02IssueMay/June 2016There are multiple demands and challenges inherent in establishing staffing models in ambulatory health care settings today. If health care administrators establish a supportive physical and interpersonal health care environment, and develop high-performing interprofessional teams and staffing models and electronic documentation systems that track performance, patients will have more opportunities to receive safe, high-quality evidence-based care that encourages patient participation in decision making, as well as provision of their care. The health care organization must be aligned and responsive to the community within which it resides, fully invested in population health management, and continuously scanning the environment for competitive, regulatory and external environmental risks. All of these challenges require highly competent providers willing to change attitudes and culture such as movement toward collaborative practice among the interprofessional team including the patient.Authors
Sheila A. Haas, PhD, RN, FAANMarcella Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola UniversityFrances Vlasses, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAANJulia Havey, MSN, RN, CCM
Identification2016_NEC_MJ_01IssueMay/June 2016The value of the ambulatory care nurse remains undocumented from a quality and patient safety measurement perspective and the practice is at risk of being highly variable and of unknown quality. The American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing and the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes propose nurse leaders create a tipping point to measure the value of nursing across the continuum of nursing care, moving from inpatient to ambulatory care. As care continues to shift into the ambulatory care environment, the quality imperative must also shift to assure highly reliable, safe, and effective health care.
Authors
Diane Storer Brown, PhD, RN, FNAHQ, FAANHarriet Udin Aronow, PhD
Identification2016_NEC_MAIssueMarch/April 2016The nation has been on a quest to advance quality in providing health care services and improving patient outcomes. The challenge has been to identify and define metrics that will demonstrate improvement. Acute care settings have a fairly well-established system of quality measurement, but ambulatory care systems are in less-developed stages. Imperative to accurate quality measurement in ambulatory care is to identify and define metrics that reflect the value of registered nurses to improved patient care and outcomes as well as to the organization. The American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN) established a task force to determine appropriate measures of nursing quality. The task force spent 2 years investigating measures and produced an Industry Report that addresses measures of nursing quality. This article is the first in a series of articles that will reveal and discuss the contents of the Industry Report.
Authors
Margaret F. Mastal, PhD, MSN, RNAnn Marie Matlock, DNP, RN, NE-BCSpeaker
Rachel E. Start, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FAANAssociate VP, MBE Services, Rush University Medical Center
