Dear colleagues:

As nurses, we have a long tradition of building safety into our practice through systems and processes that protect the patient from harm. Evidence is accumulating that nurses often are the “surveillance” for early detection and intervention for adverse events and, as a result, play an important role in ensuring successful patient outcomes.

Our favorable JCAHO survey is the most recent example of how important nurses are in our safety effort. Incorporating safety into nursing practice requires vigilance and changes in the ways we organize our work and the care environment. This is not easy! I congratulate each and every one of you who work every day to streamline and better align safety systems into patient care.

A goal of BWH is to create reliable, “error free” systems over time. This is, of course, the right thing for our patients and for us as clinicians. Reliability of safety practices and systems is an important goal of this institution and is one of the reasons BWH is recognized nationally as a leader in patient safety.

As we build and refine safe processes and systems, we will need to continually examine our practices and respond in ways to ensure we innovate and improve nursing practice and science. This issue of BWH Nurse presents many examples of how we are moving forward and growing together as a nursing department. These are exciting and challenging times that offer so much opportunity for us to learn together. There is no greater excitement than ongoing learning that improves patient outcomes and the practice environment.

Sincerely,

Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN

Chief Nursing Officer and

Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services