Can anyone tell me about the ICU nurse liaison position? Does your hospital have one?

[bustthewave]

Hey guys, so I'm in an english class right now. We have to write a paper interviewing someone in an area that is concerned with our major. I was lucky enough to have my dad pull some strings (he's a chaplain at forsyth medican center, in winston salem NC) and got me an interview with Marsh Cranfill, the ICU nurse liaison. She said at forsyth this was a new position (6 months to a year) and she, as well as the directors, worked together to create the position. But since she has spoken at national conferences, and the role is branching out to other hospitals (she wasn't the first ICU nurse liaison obviously, but according to the interview, she is helping to pioneer the position).

SO! In this paper I'm looking to expand on this role, providing more history and talking to hospitals and nurses about this role. Google has very little info, except that other countries are utilizing this role.

So if anyone could tell me a bit about their experience with this role, and also tell me places you know that utilize this role (if you know of any), that would be great!

Thanks guys

[JulieCVICURN, BSN, RN]

I'm an ICU nurse, and I've never heard of it. Sorry I can't help. but it sounds interesting.

[bustthewave]

I'm an ICU nurse, and I've never heard of it. Sorry I can't help. but it sounds interesting.

Thanks anyway :). Your post is still helpful because it demonstrates that it really is a new position. I have found only one other hospital with this role - http://www.nepeanicu.org/liaison.html, and it's definitely not even in America.

But they have a good definition of what this role is and does, though I think it's differently (maybe not fundamentally in terms of end goals, but certainly methods and short term goals vary widely with no set standard) defined from Mrs. Cranfill. These are the most important quotes about the definition of this role as far as Cranfill is concerned -

Manager said to her, "We want to develop a role to work with families. Would you be interested?"

the Role "wasn't defined at all. It was just a concept, an idea. I sat down and wrote up what this job description should entail..."

"I think the hospital approached this role as a cusrtomer satisfier, 'making families happy when they were here.' I approached this role a little differently. And that it wasn't about being much concerned with their happiness as it was about meeting their needs. now you accomplish one through the other, but the mindset is very different."

"The patient family experience as they moved through the ICU shifted completely. Now there was someone to offer support, have more time to be able to spend with them, to help them understand, sit with them when the physician was there so when the physician left, there was someone there to make sense of what was just said. Because so many times after they leave, the patient is left scratching their head."

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This actually seems like a really good, viable alternative to the black and white debate about more restrictions, or less restrictions, on visitation in the ICU. I'd love to also get your opinions on that :)

[LegzRN]

Sounds like a patient care manager that works primarily in the ICU... with a different name to make her feel warm and fuzzy.

[evolvingrn, BSN, RN]

We have hospice Liasion reps at my hospice facility they are assigned to specific hospitals and work with families, primary doctors, hospice drs and hospitalist to coordinate and begin services, but they also serve as an PR person so to speak and help develop strong relationships. My thinking for an ICU nurse with this position that possibly they get transfers from other facilities? so they serve in building those connections?

[bustthewave]

Sounds like a patient care manager that works primarily in the ICU... with a different name to make her feel warm and fuzzy.

Can't say for sure, but my assumption is that it's more specialized and legitamtely so. I have actually found more resources on the actual nurse liaison role (it's easier to find once you take out ICU, but either way it's mostly found in critical care). It's apparently different enough to warrant articles, general salary reports, and national conferences, so I my inclination here is to believe this is a new and distinct role.

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

Here in Melbourne, Australia it is a CNC role. they are a resource to the junior staff in ICU, assist in coordinating care. Attend all the MET and Code blue calls. They also review the step down patients on a daily basis until they are stable. Also they are a resource for the ward nurses if they are concerned about a patient and they are not getting a prompt response from the doctor. The ICU liaison will come up and see them, review their chart and the pt and if appropriate call one of the ICU registrars (senior doc).

The guys that I work with are fantastic and they always say that they would rather a page and a 10min r/v rather than a 2 hour MET call or code blue. They are a wealth of information and are willing to share.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

Sounds like a wonderful idea if you can get the funding for a stand alone position. During dayshift, usually we have a chaplain and the nurse manager/charge nurse perform those functions (i.e., someone's coding, everyone knows they are not going to survive but the family continues to demand "everything" for someone who's brain dead -- the chaplain and the nurse manager try to lead the family to see that nothing we do is going to prolong life, only prolong suffering). Or if someone upstairs isn't doing well, they can call a rapid response and and one of us goes....unless it's just something stupid above and beyond belief, we usually try to get them sent to us at least over night for monitoring. I think the kind of position you're talking about is something that a larger hospital could afford as opposed to a smaller hospital, but the need is there regardless. In a smaller hospital, we all just do parts of that job as we can. It's nothing for us to get a call from a friend upstairs that begins, "hey, let me run this by you...." Sometimes, we respond with a "I'd call the attending and see about getting some Lasix" or "I'd call the cardiologist" but sometimes it's a case of "call Dr. X and let's get them down here right now..."