shared governance

[princessp]

My hospital is new to shared governance and I'm on a committee. We have no idea how to actually start. We've chosen teams with different things we will be responsible for but I want to know if anyone has done this in their facility and has suggestions on the actual nuts and bolts of starting. Thanks in advance.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

Our hospital is about 3 years into shared governance and we are just starting to roll our interventions. We started with quality, professional practice and 3 Rs(recruitment, retention and recognition).

The initial committees drew up bylaws and set up a schedule, maybe your management has already done this for you. Each committee meets once a month, for an 8 hour period. A CNS facilitates each committee meeting.

The quality committee sets goals based on NDNQI indicators like falls, pressure ulcers, CAUTI.

They developed protocols on skin care, falls, and removing foleys within 48 hours of insertion. They have rolled them out and are collecting data on compliance and effectiveness.

The 3Rs have put on a banquet and brought in speakers for Nurses's week. They have a yearly tea for nurses with significant work anniversaries (5, 10, 20 years etc). This last year they created awards recognizing nursing staff in 4 categories:leadership, advocacy, rising star, and legacy.

Professional practice has reviewed and updated our hospitals standards of care for compliance with state and national standards. They review critical incidents/near misses involving nurses to see if it could have been avoided.

Hope this helps!