Professional Governance
Professional governance is a relational partnership model of nursing practice that provides an accountability-based structure for nursing work, empowering nurses to express and manage their practice with enhanced professional autonomy. Essentially, the nursing professional has accountability and responsibility for professional nursing practice and the outcomes of that clinical practice
- Professional Governance:
- Health & Wellness Council
- Professional Development Council
- Nursing Research
- Quality Council
- Professional Practice Council
- Clinical Informatics and Technology Council
- Patient Care Leadership Council
The Baptist Health Care Nursing Community of Practice Professional Governance structure fosters team member participation in brainstorming and idea sharing relative to clinical nursing practice. Team member participation and input are essential for creating a successful environment of Professional Governance. An interdisciplinary approach is necessary and encouraged within the Professional Governance model to foster effective relationships, communication, and collaboration.
Professional Governance Councils address issues relative to patient care, talent retention and engagement, nursing practice/performance improvement, and professional development. The professional governance councilor structure is intended to support clinical practice activities in an effort to enhance: the achievement of patient safety, advancements relative to high reliability, patient care excellence, and healthy work environments for caregivers. Each council is listed below with its purpose.
Coordinating Council
Provides an effective structure and process for Professional Governance in order to elevate professional nursing practice throughout BHC and support the successful achievement of organizational outcomes.
Health & Wellness Council
Promotes caregiver balance across all aspects of well-being (physical, emotional, spiritual) in order for the care provider to be able to bring his/her best self to clinical practice/patient care and their team.
- Develops approaches for the support of physical, spiritual, and emotional health
- Promotes caregiver support after serious work or life events
- Develops programs to assist with work-life balance, such as mindfulness, stress reduction, resiliency, and compassion fatigue
- Provides listing of resources available to caregiver team
- Supports targeted community events and nursing recognition activities
Nursing Research Council
Advances the art and science of nursing through education and innovation.
- Defines, implements, and maintains standards for nursing research and promotes an evidence-based practice approach.
- Communicates and collaborates with other councils/research groups related to research activities/evidence-based practice.
- Encourages nurses’ participation with the development of nursing practice.
- Reviews nursing proposals and interfaces with the Baptist Institutional Review Board for nursing research efforts.
- Evaluates nursing research proposals for scientific merit and feasibility based on resource availability.
- Monitors the implementation/tracking of BHC Nursing research activities.
- Develops strategies to promote BHC Nursing research.
Professional Practice Council
Implements and advances professional nursing practice that is safe, evidence-based, and supports patient centered excellence.
- Reviews and revises pertinent policies, procedures, and nursing standards of care.
- Incorporates evidence-based findings into clinical practice.
- Participates in the adoption of new clinical equipment, supplies, and technology.
- Provides input into nursing documentation standards.
- Supports standardization of nursing practice, wherever possible, to reduce variation and strive for high reliability in performance.
There are two sub-committees that report to the Professional Practice Council. These subcommittees are the Perioperative/Peri-procedural Board and the Behavioral Health Nursing Board.
Perioperative/Peri-Procedural Practice Board
- Review and revise pertinent policies, procedures, and nursing standards of care in perioperative and peri-procedural areas of nursing practice.
- Incorporate evidence based findings into perioperative and peri-procedural clinical practice.
- Participate in the adoption of new clinical equipment, supplies, and technology.
- Provide input into nursing documentation standards.
- Support standardization of nursing practice, wherever possible, to reduce variation and strive for high reliability in performance.
The Behavioral Health Nursing Practice Board
- Review and revise pertinent policies, procedures, and nursing standards of care in behavioral health areas of nursing practice.
- Incorporate evidence based findings into behavioral health clinical practice.
- Participate in the adoption of new clinical equipment, supplies, and technology.
- Provide input into nursing documentation standards.
- Support standardization of nursing practice, wherever possible, to reduce variation and strive for high reliability in performance.
Professional Development Council
Empowers nurses and advances professional development through education and innovation.
- Defines current/future education needs.
- Reviews outcomes related to clinical educational initiatives/offerings.
- Reviews Professional Recognition Program.
- Establishes reward/recognition for professional development.
Quality Council
Supports and maintains BHC Nursing accountability for optimal outcomes and processes of care.
- Defines/maintains standards for nursing quality. Promotes an evidence-based practice approach to patient care.
- Communicates/collaborates with councils and quality groups related to quality initiatives.
- Develops nurse-driven goals and strategies to promote optimal patient outcomes.
- Encourages nurses’ contribution to and participation in the development of the practice of BHC Nursing.
- Promotes standardization/continuity of care.
There is one sub-committee that reports to the Quality Council. This sub-committee is the Nursing Peer Review Board.
NURSING PEER REVIEW BOARD
- Define, implement, and maintain standards for nursing peer review.
- Communicate and collaborate through the quality council and quality groups with issues pertaining to nursing peer review.
- Promote a culture of continuous learning through self-reflection of practice and peer review.
- Promote standardization and consistency.
- Ensure trends identified are addressed and evidence-based practice is used for policy change.
Clinical Informatics and Technology Council
- Evaluate electronic medical record documentation to ensure it reflects current standards of care and practice.
- Provide consultation and recommendations regarding downtime processes and documents for clinical teams.
- Provide direct caregiver perspectives on a health system clinical informatics and technology (existing and proposed).
- Promote improvements in the delivery of patient care through the use of clinical informatics and technology.
- Recommend education/teaching strategies to meet end user needs.
- Provide understanding of clinical workflows and contribute to optimizing the electronic medical record for clinical disciplines.
Patient Care Leadership Council
Provides an interdisciplinary forum for collaboration, communication, and discussion related to patient care activities.
- Engages the multidisciplinary team in identifying, prioritizing, and implementing initiatives to favorably influence outcomes.
- Provides a setting for communication of clinical organizational initiatives.
- Discusses enhancing patient safety and fostering high reliability performance
Unit Based Council
- Evaluate unit specific policies and procedures as indicated.
- In alignment with organizational goals, analyze quality data and develop action plans in collaboration with Nurse Leader.
- Foster evidence based practice.
- Assess and plan to meet the education needs of the department; collaborate with Clinical Education Services and Nurse Leader as indicated.
- Analyze data and develop action plans, in collaboration with Nurse Leader, related to turnover rates, vacancy rates, team member engagement, culture of patient safety.
- Discuss and plan for opportunities to foster work-life integration/balance efforts.
- Implement approaches to embed the Synergy Professional Practice Model into the department.
- Implement approaches to foster effective team communication.
- Determine approaches for increasing the professional nursing certification in the department.
Night Shift Council
- Facilitate representation and engagement of night shift team members in professional governance efforts.
- Foster collaboration, communication, and access to information among night shift nursing staff and interdisciplinary members of the healthcare team.
- Assess opportunities for improvement relative to evidence based nursing practice.
- Review and revise as needed revision, of pertinent patient care policies, procedures, guidelines and nursing documentation as needed.
- Evaluate and plan for addressing education needs for night shift team members.
- Analyze quality data and develop/implement.