Three outstanding nurses from Philadelphia have been recognized in this year’s Celebrate Caring Campaign by Independence Blue Cross. These nurses were nominated by patients, family members, and colleagues for their exceptional dedication and excellence in the nursing field.
Daily Nurse proudly acknowledges the outstanding work of Allison Denman, Jasmine Hudson, and Francis Doran as the Nurses of the Week for their exceptional care and dedication to their patients, families, and communities.
Allison Denman, a clinical director and forensic nurse manager at Drexel University’s Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center, was one of the honorees. She not only provides round-the-clock care for victims of sexual assault but also serves as an expert witness for legal proceedings related to SANE care.
Jasmine Hudson, an inpatient diabetes nurse practitioner at Penn Medicine, was also recognized for her work in addressing social determinants of health affecting diabetes patients. She has established community partnerships and introduced educational initiatives to improve patient care and community health outcomes.
Francis Doran, a registered nurse in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Penn Medicine, was the third honoree. In addition to his work in the ICU, he volunteers with the Kensington Project, providing medical care and essential resources to individuals experiencing homelessness and substance use disorder.
Nominate a Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday, DailyNurse.com features a nurse making a difference in the lives of their patients, students, and colleagues. We encourage you to nominate a nurse who has impacted your life as the next Nurse of the Week, and we’ll feature them online and in our weekly newsletter.
Simulation sessions can help maintain clinician proficiency and prepare staff members to be part of the multidisciplinary team during high-risk procedures that happen suddenly and infrequently.
One such situation is an emergency resternotomy in the intensive care unit (ICU) for patients recovering from cardiac surgery who experience cardiac arrest. The surgery involves reopening the patient’s chest after defibrillation did not resuscitate them. It is performed in the ICU, without transferring the patient to an operating room, and can be challenging for all clinicians involved as they race to save the patient.
The cardiovascular ICU at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, developed a three-part program to improve clinicians’ ability to recognize clinical signs that would prompt an urgent sternotomy for a postoperative cardiac surgery patient and to clarify individual roles during the emergency procedure.
Co-author Athanasios Tsiouris is an assistant professor of cardiac surgery at the medical center.
“These events are fortunately rare, but when they do occur, staff members need to be familiar with the surgical instruments and techniques needed,” Tsiouris said. “Ongoing education and simulation training allow them to rehearse these situations as a team and have hands-on experience prior to a real-life patient emergency.”
The program began with one-hour didactic education sessions that included guidelines from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons for this patient population, clarification of team roles, and logistics, such as the contents and location of emergency carts and surgical packs.
The second phase focused on procedures to improve nurse-surgeon communication and increase the speed of establishing a sterile field and wire removal. Equipment and supplies were reviewed, and naming conventions and surgeons’ preferences for procedural details were standardized.
The final phase placed the participants in various simulated scenarios with postoperative cardiac surgery patients who may need emergency resternotomy.
After the sessions, 95% of the 41 individuals who completed both surveys agreed that they were prepared to be part of the team for the emergency ICU sternotomy, compared with 52% of respondents before the sessions. In addition, 95% strongly agreed or agreed that they could identify patients who might need an emergency sternotomy, compared with 50% before the intervention.
The results also showed improvement in staff members’ understanding of team roles and activation and use of the emergency sternotomy protocol. Participants also indicated understanding the differences between guidelines for resuscitating patients who experience cardiac arrest after cardiac surgery and the more commonly used Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support protocol.
In addition, the simulations helped proactively identify equipment or systems issues that may arise during a real-life situation, leading to quality improvement in the ICU and streamlining of established protocols.
Members of the ICU nursing staff now participate in the didactic and simulation sessions twice a year to ensure that those new to the unit have taken them and that everyone is prepared for the next time a patient requires this emergency surgery.
Nurses play a crucial role in advocating for their patients in healthcare settings on a daily basis. However, they tend to hesitate when it comes to speaking up in other settings. In a recent article published in AACN’s Advanced Critical Care, Adcock urges nurses to go beyond their comfort zones and participate actively in policy discussions at the local, state, and federal level.
She notes that nurses have several advantages when preparing to engage in policy discussions, including connecting efficiently with others and using everyday language instead of jargon.
According to Adcock, nurses need to confidently voice their concerns on issues impacting patients, communities, and the nursing profession. Despite nurses being the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, their voices are often missing from crucial conversations about access to care, health inequities, and upstream problems affecting people’s health.
She outlines practical steps to enhance advocacy efforts, starting with engagement in specialty nursing organizations like AACN and state nurses’ associations. Adcock emphasizes the importance of nurses proactively seeking opportunities to contribute to healthcare policy decisions rather than waiting for invitations.
“Nursing must be present and vocal at healthcare policy tables; it is on us to get there. We cannot expect an invitation to participate,” says Adcock.
Appropriate staffing has long been one of the “AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments” (HWE standards), first published in 2005. It has also been one of the most complex areas to address.
On every national survey conducted by AACN to measure the health of clinical work environments between 2005 and 2019, nurses consistently gave lower ratings for survey items related to the appropriate staffing standard than those associated with the other HWE standards. In the most recent national survey conducted in 2021, the item labeled “ensuring an effective match between patient needs and nurse competencies” received the lowest mean rating of any element on any of these surveys.
Besides the HWE standards, the new staffing-specific standards build on AACN’s other influential resources related to nurse staffing, including the AACN Synergy Model for Patient Care and its 2018 “Guiding Principles for Appropriate Staffing.”
The standards also respond to recent recommendations from the Partners for Nurse Staffing Think Tank and the Nurse Staffing Task Force, both co-convened by AACN. Both groups called for specialty nursing organizations to define staffing standards for the patient populations they serve.
Developed by a work group with representatives from various nursing roles, “AACN Standards for Appropriate Staffing in Adult Critical Care” outlines seven standards to incorporate appropriate staffing into everyday operations and patient care. Each standard includes actions for organizational leaders, clinical leaders, and direct care nurses, as well as suggested exemplars, tools, and resources.
The link between healthy work environments and patient safety, nurse retention and recruitment, and an organization’s bottom line is irrefutable,” says Vicki Good, AACN chief clinical officer and co-editor of the staffing standards document. “These standards, coupled with a deep commitment to collaboration and change, provide an opportunity for evidence-based transformation that can profoundly improve the U.S. healthcare system’s ability to meet patients’ needs.”
The seven standards are as follows:
Direct care nurses participate in all aspects of staffing: planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Hospital patient care areas establish, evaluate, and refine unit-specific staffing guidelines based on their impact on patient and nurse outcomes.
Temitope (Temi) Oseromi, MSN, RN, CCRN-K, became the nurse manager of GBMC Healthcare’s Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) in early 2022. She’s the only nurse manager overseeing two units, but Oseromi was also tasked with rebuilding a decimated MICU.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline medical staff were hit the hardest in terms of stress, uncertainty, and burnout, especially those nurses working in Intensive Care Units. As a result of post-COVID burnout, only three nurses were left on the unit.
From the ashes, Oseromi was a stabilizing, innovative, and compassionate leader who transformed the culture and energy of the unit in just 12 months. By engaging with nurse leaders on the units in a shared governance mindset, she has built trust within the teams and empowered them to lead.
Daily Nurse proudly names Temitope Oseromi Nurse of the Week for her stabilizing nursing leadership and abilities to recognize and mentor novice leaders while raising the bar of excellence for her clinicians.
“Temi has demonstrated for years that she can set a course heading for her teams and raise the bar of excellence for her clinicians,” says Stephen Benko, MSN, RN, CEN, Assistant Director of Critical Care, Medicine & Telemetry. “In addition, Temi has a keen ability to recognize potential in her teams, has mentored several novice leaders, and several promotional opportunities have presented themselves for her clinicians. Having Temi as a nurse leader, clinical expert, and partner has been integral to our recent successes.”
Oseromi worked tirelessly to recruit, retain, and grow ICU staff, spending hours interviewing people to ensure they were a good fit for the team. And she didn’t stop there. Oseromi has created a collaborative work environment between both the MICU and SICU. She communicates consistently with both units about staffing and other support needed to ensure smooth workflow and patient care.
Both units work closely and help each other if needed. Because of this, charge nurses now walk to opposite units to check in throughout the day, communicate about staffing for the oncoming shift, and see if nurses need to float to the opposite unit or if they need to share a secretary or tech.
This collaborative energy allows those working on the units to feel psychologically safe sharing ideas and concerns. Oseromi problem-solves alongside her team and co-builds the thought processes behind change. Not only does she leave space for change to happen, but she also encourages her team to think outside the box and come up with new ideas.
Oseromi is a consistent and caring leader who promotes a culture of compassion, fairness, and excellence in the ICUs. She advocates for her staff, identifies their strengths, and gives them opportunities to shine. Oseromi ensures qualified and interested team members are trained to charge, precept, and teach classes and quarterly simulations.
“Temi leads by example. She is empathetic and selfless, taking the time to understand and connect with staff,” says Kristin Feliu, GBMC ICU RN. “If there is a code on the unit, she is there, talking to the family, fetching supplies, or helping clean up after it is over. She does not ask others what she would not do herself. Temi consistently demonstrates integrity, competence, and commitment.”
Oseromi has risen to the challenging balance of strong leadership. She holds her staff to a high standard of excellence around patient care and collaboration and fosters a culture of openness, psychological safety, and lifelong learning. Oseromi is an exceptional leader who builds and mentors with intention and a human-first approach. GBMC Healthcare is grateful to have her on its staff.
Nominate a Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday, DailyNurse.com features a nurse making a difference in the lives of their patients, students, and colleagues. We encourage you to nominate a nurse who has impacted your life as the next Nurse of the Week, and we’ll feature them online and in our weekly newsletter.
Kate Veenstra, DNP, MSN, RN, CNL, CMSRN, ACM, NEA-BC, was recently appointed as the new chief nursing officer at the University of Michigan Health-West. Her more than 18 years of experience also tells quite a story.
Veenstra started as a bedside nurse at the hospital in 2006 and has held many roles, from associate chief nursing officer to the most recent interim chief nursing officer. Throughout her career, Veenstra has been a champion for her team and patients, leading initiatives that have significantly improved care and productivity.
One of her most notable accomplishments is co-leading a clinical nurse program, which helped to reduce cardiac readmissions and hospital stays. She also participated in a clinical care team during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Daily Nurse named Kate Veenstra the Nurse of the Week for her outstanding contributions. According to Dr. Ronald Grifka, president of UM Health-West, “Kate’s caring nature, innovative mindset, clinical expertise, and commitment to nursing excellence make her the ideal leader for this role.”
Veenstra is passionate about the success of nurses in West Michigan and has been involved in developing the Amy Van Andel Nursing Scholars program, which aims to remove cost barriers for those looking to start their careers in nursing. She has also played a significant role in creating a talent partnership with talent partnership with Grand Rapids Community College and the UM Health-West Foundation.
Nominate a Nurse of the Week! Every Wednesday, DailyNurse.com features a nurse making a difference in the lives of their patients, students, and colleagues. We encourage you to nominate a nurse who has impacted your life as the next Nurse of the Week, and we’ll feature them online and in our weekly newsletter.
