Future of Nursing is Engagement

1. 1. The Future of Nursing: The Secret is Engagement October 5th, 2010 marked an
important date in the history of Nursing in the US. On this day, the Institute of Medicine
(IOM) released the much awaited report on the Future of Nursing: Leading Health,
Advancing Change. This report was supposed to represent a roadmap for the future of
nursing, build human capital and professional development, and lead healthcare
transformation at the local, regional and national levels. Unfortunately, four years later,
as a CNO and frontline nursing expert, not much has changed. Nurses are the fabric of
healthcare delivery on the frontline and in the community. Dedicated nurses around the
world are present 365 days per year, 24 by 7 to care for patients in their time of need.
Day after day, committed nurses, with many years of experience, education and training,
come to the hospital to do a good job and are challenged by a poorly designed workflow.
Something is fundamentally wrong in the system; more patient deaths, poorer patient
outcomes, and disengaged providers. A recent article by David Knowleton, Chairman of
the Board of St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton, asked a difficult but worthy question,
where are nursing leaders on Hospital Boards? A great question that deserves a great
answer. The distressing answer is, nurses are simply disengaged. Let us start with some
data. Nursing engagement is lower than any other healthcare professional; 32.6%
engagement for nurses; 37.4% for Physicians and Advanced Practice Nurses; and 42.9%
non-clinical frontline staff, such as Social Workers (Advisory Board Company 2014).
Researchers, Needleman and Hassmiller, have shown that limited frontline engagement is
concerning in nursing, and that the discipline is 10 by, Kate ONeill, DNPc, RN, MSN
Chief Nursing Officer Vice President, Quality & Safety p: 610.505.0996 e:
kate.oneill@iCareQuality.org
2. 2. points lower than other healthcare professionals. Provider engagement is a vital
behavior for nurses to embrace in order to improve patient safety and patient care
outcomes. What does this mean? Low staff engagement levels are associated with
reduced worker productivity and has a negative impact on the safety culture of the
organization according to Lowe. Thus, staff engagement is a concern to the healthcare
industry given its impact on worker productivity and hospital patient safety efforts. Lest
we forget, 400, 000 preventable deaths occur per year. What is the best plan forward? My
suggestion is quite simple. First, nursing leaders and CNOs need to be engaged and must
lead by example. Make rounding on the unit a priority with a working knowledge of
day-to-day staff activities to build trust. Spend a day with a frontline nurse, its priceless.
Attend quality-safety rounds weekly, go to daily huddles, and sponsor a monthly CNO
breakfast club to discuss specific safety issues on the units. In order to support the vision
of the 2010 IOM Report, nursing engagement needs to start at the top and bottom of the
organization. As CNOs, its our job to make nursing engagement a priority and provide
staff nurses with the clinical resources to efficiently and effectively do their job.
Additionally, its critical to track daily engagement data at the unit and organization
level. Mobile solutions, like CloseCareGap, can track and trend staff engagement by
leveraging smart phones, tablets, and workstations. CloseCareGap uses gamification
reward strategies, and harnesses point of care (POC) technology to measure variances in
patient care. This kind of technology is an important capability that can be embraced by
leaders to improve frontline care delivery with real-time information. Lets engage our
nurses of today, and help build our Board Room leaders of tomorrow.
www.iCareQuality.org

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