PACU Staff Developer Team at UC Davis Medical Center
December 2022
PACU Staff Developer Team at UC Davis
Medical Center
PACU
UC Davis Medical Center
Sacramento
,
CA
United States
Fiona Madigan, MSN, RN, CPAN, NPD-BC
Melody Hillstrom MSN-Ed, RN, CCRN
Teri Nguyen MSN, RN, CCRN
Melody Hillstrom MSN-Ed, RN, CCRN
Teri Nguyen MSN, RN, CCRN
Our staff developers manage education and training for 270 staff members, RNs, ORAs, HUSCs and MOSCs, and NPs for 5 different departments (UTSES, SDSC, CSC, PREP, Main Pavilion PACU). The team is led by Fiona Madigan and includes Melody Hillstrom and Teri Nguyen. They have many projects, but here are a few of them:
Fiona determined urinary retention occurs in 55% of total joint with spinal anesthesia patients at UC Davis, increasing patient length of stay and patient dissatisfaction. She has worked hard on forming a plan which included research, education for interdisciplinary staff members, forming an algorithm of care for these patients, and planning for evaluation after implementation. Her research has allowed justification for the OR to order bladder scanning equipment.
Melody saw an increase in fall events in our PACU. She immediately researched, formed a falls committee, determined the need to include our anesthesia pain service nurses, and implemented education for staff. She formed weekly fall tips for our daily huddles. We have not had any falls since the beginning of this education.
Teri is our Magnet Champion and recently attended the Magnet conference. She has recruited both OR and PACU staff from Same Day Surgery Center to work together for Magnet. Historically there has been somewhat of a division between OR and PACU staff, and she is actively bringing them together. She is also working hard for our department to obtain the Beacon award. She has formed staff satisfaction surveys and is working with Press Ganey to obtain perioperative data, which has not been done. She wants to calculate fall data for the Beacon Award and compare us at the national level. This is exciting work, and I am confident that Teri will be successful.
The PACU has gone through considerable growth and our team of staff developers has done an amazing job.
PACU has interviewed, onboarded, and trained over 50 staff in 2022.
This has been no small task. Fiona has been involved in the interviewing process as well as the training program that she developed. Every 6 weeks she has a new cohort and expertly prepares the new staff for stepping on the unit. Fiona, Melody, and Teri work together to form a plan regarding the new hires' orientation schedule, knowing who would work well with whom. Check-ins with the new employees are scheduled with their assigned AN2 as well as a staff developer, providing feedback on their progress and if necessary, adjusting the orientation schedule. As you can imagine, the scheduling of the new hires is a huge task, and the team works well with our staff scheduler.
We also hired medical-surgical nurses to help with our patients who remain in our unit after their anesthesia care, waiting on room placement. Our team of staff developers has also developed a training plan for those RNs as well. This has been a huge benefit to the unit, allowing our PACU nurses to care for PACU patients. They have also started a program to train the senior medical surgical nurses in caring for active recovering patients. This will help with nurse retention and provide additional resources for the PACU.
We took over the training and development of the Same Day Surgery Center Pre-op/PACU as well as PREP Unit. Our staff developers are always available, making the long walk out to SDSC to be resources for them. I hear almost every day how much the addition of the staff developers to same day has changed their world. They are often called upon to help with patients that are staying past same day's closure time.
Skills days are planned, in services for any needed equipment are immediately conducted, rosters are made, and sign-offs are completed before you can blink an eye.
We opened our new university tower PACU unit in December, which added another job to our staff developers. The staff developers were a large part of our successful opening. They did all the training of staff, helped with equipment needs, workflow processes, and were present with licensing with all information available for them. We also opened the new GI lab in August which meant another change to our university tower space. We are now sharing real estate with GI lab nurses. Our staff developers were active members in the planning of workflows and provided training for their staff.
What is the result of this team's collaboration and teamwork?
• Well-educated and well-prepared staff who come to the PACU with various nursing experiences. I often hear from senior staff about how happy they are with our new hires.
• I have heard from new employees that they have never had such a complete, organized, and supportive onboarding experience. This leads to employee retention. We are not hiring all this staff because we have a high turnover rate. We are hiring for our continued growth within the perioperative services department. UC Davis Health is growing, and we are prepared for this exciting growth! Having a training program keeps us ahead of the hiring curve, keeping our staffing numbers strong.
• Opportunities for staff to be involved in the growth of the unit. Our staff developers lead the CN3 meetings, supporting projects for nurses' career ladder advancement. Preceptors are mentored and prepared for orienting new hires.
• From a management perspective, this team's strength and independence make our job easier. They are considered leaders in our unit, and we can count on them to take a topic of concern and have it addressed and completed. They also help build relationships between the OR and PACU.
• They are a resource to the unit and can be called upon to help at the bedside in critical situations, providing real-time training when needed. This gives our staff support and the security to know they are not alone in any situation.
The UC Davis Health nursing mission statement of providing science-based, technically precise, compassionate delivered care clearly describes our PACU staff developers. Their work exemplifies our nursing values, making a large difference in the lives of our patients, families, employees, and our community. Their expert education allows our department to provide excellent care to our patients, allowing patients' families to be supported, supporting our employees, and ultimately supporting our community by contributing to UC Davis Health's reputation of excellence.
Fiona determined urinary retention occurs in 55% of total joint with spinal anesthesia patients at UC Davis, increasing patient length of stay and patient dissatisfaction. She has worked hard on forming a plan which included research, education for interdisciplinary staff members, forming an algorithm of care for these patients, and planning for evaluation after implementation. Her research has allowed justification for the OR to order bladder scanning equipment.
Melody saw an increase in fall events in our PACU. She immediately researched, formed a falls committee, determined the need to include our anesthesia pain service nurses, and implemented education for staff. She formed weekly fall tips for our daily huddles. We have not had any falls since the beginning of this education.
Teri is our Magnet Champion and recently attended the Magnet conference. She has recruited both OR and PACU staff from Same Day Surgery Center to work together for Magnet. Historically there has been somewhat of a division between OR and PACU staff, and she is actively bringing them together. She is also working hard for our department to obtain the Beacon award. She has formed staff satisfaction surveys and is working with Press Ganey to obtain perioperative data, which has not been done. She wants to calculate fall data for the Beacon Award and compare us at the national level. This is exciting work, and I am confident that Teri will be successful.
The PACU has gone through considerable growth and our team of staff developers has done an amazing job.
PACU has interviewed, onboarded, and trained over 50 staff in 2022.
This has been no small task. Fiona has been involved in the interviewing process as well as the training program that she developed. Every 6 weeks she has a new cohort and expertly prepares the new staff for stepping on the unit. Fiona, Melody, and Teri work together to form a plan regarding the new hires' orientation schedule, knowing who would work well with whom. Check-ins with the new employees are scheduled with their assigned AN2 as well as a staff developer, providing feedback on their progress and if necessary, adjusting the orientation schedule. As you can imagine, the scheduling of the new hires is a huge task, and the team works well with our staff scheduler.
We also hired medical-surgical nurses to help with our patients who remain in our unit after their anesthesia care, waiting on room placement. Our team of staff developers has also developed a training plan for those RNs as well. This has been a huge benefit to the unit, allowing our PACU nurses to care for PACU patients. They have also started a program to train the senior medical surgical nurses in caring for active recovering patients. This will help with nurse retention and provide additional resources for the PACU.
We took over the training and development of the Same Day Surgery Center Pre-op/PACU as well as PREP Unit. Our staff developers are always available, making the long walk out to SDSC to be resources for them. I hear almost every day how much the addition of the staff developers to same day has changed their world. They are often called upon to help with patients that are staying past same day's closure time.
Skills days are planned, in services for any needed equipment are immediately conducted, rosters are made, and sign-offs are completed before you can blink an eye.
We opened our new university tower PACU unit in December, which added another job to our staff developers. The staff developers were a large part of our successful opening. They did all the training of staff, helped with equipment needs, workflow processes, and were present with licensing with all information available for them. We also opened the new GI lab in August which meant another change to our university tower space. We are now sharing real estate with GI lab nurses. Our staff developers were active members in the planning of workflows and provided training for their staff.
What is the result of this team's collaboration and teamwork?
• Well-educated and well-prepared staff who come to the PACU with various nursing experiences. I often hear from senior staff about how happy they are with our new hires.
• I have heard from new employees that they have never had such a complete, organized, and supportive onboarding experience. This leads to employee retention. We are not hiring all this staff because we have a high turnover rate. We are hiring for our continued growth within the perioperative services department. UC Davis Health is growing, and we are prepared for this exciting growth! Having a training program keeps us ahead of the hiring curve, keeping our staffing numbers strong.
• Opportunities for staff to be involved in the growth of the unit. Our staff developers lead the CN3 meetings, supporting projects for nurses' career ladder advancement. Preceptors are mentored and prepared for orienting new hires.
• From a management perspective, this team's strength and independence make our job easier. They are considered leaders in our unit, and we can count on them to take a topic of concern and have it addressed and completed. They also help build relationships between the OR and PACU.
• They are a resource to the unit and can be called upon to help at the bedside in critical situations, providing real-time training when needed. This gives our staff support and the security to know they are not alone in any situation.
The UC Davis Health nursing mission statement of providing science-based, technically precise, compassionate delivered care clearly describes our PACU staff developers. Their work exemplifies our nursing values, making a large difference in the lives of our patients, families, employees, and our community. Their expert education allows our department to provide excellent care to our patients, allowing patients' families to be supported, supporting our employees, and ultimately supporting our community by contributing to UC Davis Health's reputation of excellence.