Projects

Emergency Department admission time Improvement (edati)

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

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• Led and collaborated with Emergency Department unit managers to collect current data to create/develop a highly- organized working chart to investigate reasons for delays.

• Used analytical frame work to break down delays into percentages and convert them into working pie charts using advanced nursing informatics and Google Applications software. Led multiple meetings for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stakeholders  to educate on findings and present improvement plans that were developed.

• While the current standard was to have veterans that were going to be admitted leave the ED within 90 minutes of orders, through this projects developed mechanisms, was able to reach a goal of 30 minutes in order to increase efficiency and quality of care for veterans.

• Continued projected outcomes of this project include but are not limited to a increase in the quality of care for veterans by further decreasing wait times and increasing efficiency and communication between ED and VA inpatient units. This is done through direct mentoring of developing talent and current leadership staff alike.

• Measured outcomes achieved as of July 2021 include over 20 Acute Care Emergency Department staff members in the Gulf Coast VISN being trained on the integration of practice changes and procedure for decreasing delays to a 30-minute maximum.

• Through the strategic implementation of this project there has been an 80% decrease in delay times compared to May 2021 as of July 2021.

collaborative glucometer training across increased specialties (cgtais)

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

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• Led/managed the execution and implementation of the training and use of Nursing Assistants in bedside blood glucose monitoring, increasing nursing assistant competencies and increasing time of intervention for critical blood glucose treatment.

• Organized and led meetings with cross functional peers and unit managers to discuss limitations to implementation and solutions.

• Collected and organized evidenced based practice data to support the use of Nursing Assistants in the collection of bedside blood glucose values and the positive impact this change has on patient care using both quantitative and qualitative findings. 

• Created a detailed working presentation using Google Applications software to explain implementation process of project in a clear and concise format with current data collected while providing a digestible visualization for stakeholders.

• Collaborated with the GCVAMC Laboratory on skills check off requirements and arranged dates for check offs for nursing assistants.

• Created clear and concise education regarding the critical blood glucose levels using both written and verbal educational materials and what they mean as well as how to properly report these levels to nursing staff for prompt intervention.

• Led and encouraged active communication between unit managers using advanced nursing informatics competencies and executive communication standards to allow for problems and concerns with implantation of project to be addressed. Through the successful implementation of this project Nursing Assistant competencies were increased by 15%.

outlined use of extension tubing for hospital infection control (etic)

Community Health Systems

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• Proposed and developed a creative practice change project to address the evolving number of COVID19 patients on critical care drips needing frequent titration. This was issue was increasing nursing exposure to COVID19 and depleting the limited numbers of PPE available.

• Collaborated with ICU team and surgical team to propose the use of extension tubing

• Collaborated with CFO and Supply Director to ensure adequate numbers of extension tubing sets were available to facility as well as to communicate the urgency while still balancing high level needs of these senior stakeholders.

• Utilized clinical, financial, technical, and community resources and systems to implement new plans and procedures. This was achieved while incorporating new knowledge and strategies to initiate change in clinical health informatics and nursing practices while simultaneously overcoming the challenges that came with such a fast paced changing environment. 

• Led and educated ICU team to implement this new practice of using extension tubing to run outside of isolation rooms, while maintaining proper documentation and security of critical IV medications outside of these rooms. 

• This practice change project significantly decreased staff exposure by 34.4% while continuing to give patients the highest level of care and decreased PPE use by 21.9%.