Becker's Hospital Review

80 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Prioritize nurses and your health system will succeed, MUSC's CNO says By Gabrielle Masson P atti Hart, DNP, MSN, RN, is the chief nursing officer of Medi- cal University of South Carolina Health's Charleston division, which includes MUSC Health University Medical Center. Joining MUSC in July 2016 as associate chief nursing officer, Dr. Hart took over as interim chief nursing officer in August 2019 and was af- forded the full-time position in November 2019. Currently one of the largest employers and care providers in South Carolina, MUSC Health is expanding quickly, at present building a new children's hospital. Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Question: What is the greatest challenge you're facing in your current role? Dr. Patti Hart: Learning the role of CNO has been challenging, es- pecially with so many competing areas and interests. Ultimately, though, my No. 1 priority is always to take care of my staff and ensure quality and safety of care provided. Q: What do you think is misunderstood about nursing today? PH: Too oen, executives don't think about the importance of their largest workforce: nurses. ey don't realize that nurses directly influ- ence all the key indicators contributing to an organization's success — cost, safety. One of the MUSC's strong suits is recognizing the value of nurses with strong assessment skills. If nurses start cutting corners, care quality and patient engagement automatically decrease. Q: What efforts can be used to reduce workplace vio- lence for medical staff and nurses? PH: Most of the time, staff members have excellent relationships with patients and families — there are only a few patients who cre- ate issues. In response to some occurrences of physical abuse in the children's area of the hospital, we developed a behavioral response team. Now, an entire team responds when you call to help de-escalate the situation. Anyone can call the response number and an operator will designate a nurse, physician, security guard and social worker or chaplain to the team. e team then helps determine what is need- ed — medication, discussion, comfort, verbal de-escalation. Since the program's implementation, we have seen fewer physical injuries and intend to roll out the behavioral response team initative throughout the whole hospital over the next six months. Q: What methods can be used to reduce nurse burnout? PH: We've really put a lot of effort and money into creating a healthy work environment. rough that process, we've also empowered our nursing staff — they helped us revise staffing and scheduling policies to ensure everyone's safety. Our nurses actively engage in efforts to make us a better, healthier organization. Our nurses have also championed healthy eating and living. Our fa- cility was afforded a $10,000 grant and the Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation Partners All In Award from the American Nurses Association. We also have a wellness program at our facility that recognizes prog- ress and goal achievement. We created an assignment system to help make sure nurses take their breaks and lunches. Workload was identified as a problem for our leadership team, so we're really trying to promote a healthy work-life balance. Our lead- ership administration measures how oen we take lunch to ensure we take the designated five hours a week. We're also working toward flexible hours for nurse managers. is year, we're focusing on building personal and team resilience. Leadership has to understand the symptoms of burnout and how to mitigate them. It's difficult to reengage an employee when they are already burned out, making prevention and mitigation crucial. All of these initiatives and values are so important, especially for MUSC — I don't see our growth slowing down. e best thing I can do in my role is provide our staff with the tools they need to grow as well. n Mandatory surgical jackets, bouffant caps in OR don't cut infection risk, study finds By Anuja Vaidya T he use of surgical jackets and bouffant caps in the operating room do not lower the risk of patients developing surgical site infections, according to a study published in JAMA Surgery. Researchers conducted a study of 34,042 inpatient surgeries at the University of Alabama at Birmingham University Hospital between January 2017 and Octo- ber 2018. They examined an eight-month period where surgical jackets and bouffant caps were not mandated by the hospital; a six-month period where surgical jack- ets were mandated; and an eight-month period where both surgical jackets and bouffants were mandated. Researchers found no significant difference in the risk of patients developing surgical site infections in the three time periods. The rate of surgical site infections were: • 1.01 percent for patients when caps, jackets were not mandated • 0.99 percent for patients when jackets were man- dated • 0.83 percent for patients when caps, jackets were mandated Researchers also found no significant difference in the risk of death, developing postoperative sepsis or wound separation among patients in the three time periods. n

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