Enriching the Practice of Nursing
Estrellita Karsh, left, and the PACU’s Katrina Bickerstaff, RN, center, and Michael Bickerstaff, RN, NIC in the OR, during the ceremony.
This year, five groups of nurses from across the hospital will lead projects that will enrich the practice of nursing, thanks to the Mary S. Fay Enrichment Award.
“This award was created because of the experience that Yousuf and Estrellita Karsh had with nurses here,” said Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN. “It was the compassion and expertise of nurses that made the Karshes’ experience so special, and because of that, they created this award to allow nurses to continue to grow.”
The award, established in 1999, affords nurses the opportunity to examine and evaluate how compassionate care is defined and provided in other health care settings and bring that knowledge back to BWH. Many of the projects nurses completed have changed the culture of patient care units.
“These awards enrich nursing and the entire organization,” BWH President Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, said during the award ceremony in July.
Last year’s award recipients spoke about where the award took them and how they are using their insights to enrich practice at BWH. Their projects covered a range of important topics, including nurse to nurse hand off communication at shift report, defining and implementing a family-centered approach to visitation in the cardiac surgery ICU, exploring skin care interventions for extremely low birth weight premature infants and assessing and treating geriatric patients with post-operative confusion and delirium.
Estrellita Karsh presented the five 2007 awards. This year’s recipients and projects are:
“Improving Patient Outcomes Through the Reduction of Nosocomial Pressure Ulcers at BWH,” Teresa Buchanan, MBA, RN, Diane Bryant, MSN, RN, CWOCN, Ilene Fleischer, MSN, RN, CWOCN, and Mary Willis, MSN, RN, CWOCN.
“Arrival to Bed: Exploring Best Practices for the ED Patient Identified as Safe to Wait,” Nicola Gilboy, MS, RN, CEN, FAEN, Paul Saavedra-Lauzon, RN, Jada Devlin, RN, and Yaeko Karantonis, RN.
“The Experience of Nurses and Physicians in Providing Treatment in ‘Futile’ Situations: When is Providing ‘Care’ Doing Harm?” Martha Jurchak, PhD, RN, CS.
“Palliative Practices in Heart Failure Nursing,” Lisa Preston, BSN, RN, and Eileen Mann, BSN, RN.
“Designing a Tool to Assess the Risk of Developing Pressure Ulcers in the Patient Undergoing a Primary Total Hip Replacement,” Barbara DiTullio, MA, BSN, RN, and Pearl Cunningham, MBA, BScN, RN, CNOR.