WOW Projects Does Your Hospital Do These?

[gibbygator]

Hello, All! Long time listener, first time caller. LOL Question for you veterans as I am a new BSN/RN.

I was just hired by a Level II community (& newly designated children's) hospital that is participating in this concept of the WOW Project, the brain child of Tom Peters, the uber-guru of the business world. They are basically QI projects of sorts. (Give it a google if so inclined.) All new hires are required to come up a project. (My head is spinning just starting as a new nurse, being competent enough to be a blessing to my patients. . .but now I have to WOW someone. . .okedoke.)

I was wondering if anyone else has designed a WOW project, has any experience at all with these, or if you have any ideas to share. It can be any aspect of the hospital! (To further narrow it down for you. . .)

I have a few ideas but am not sure where to go with them, so any brainstorming/suggestions is appreciated:

• Reward/Recognition program for employees of some type.
  
• Becoming more child friendly (as this designation of "Children's Hospital" is brand spanking new)
  
• CBL on Emotional Intelligence to be included in CE
  
• Some sort of outreach program to assist local schools since school nurses are becoming a thing of the past d/t budget constraints; Maybe a "Teaching Day", etc., promotes us as a Children's Hospital
  
• Any project related to a Pediatric/PICU unit
  
• Way to tap donors for little extras for our Peds Hematology Oncology Unit patients
  

Again, grasping at straws here because I don't even know enough yet about the inner workings of a unit and hospital to come up with more! (My forte has been more EBP Research...but that is not what they are looking for here.)

Happy to be a part of the on-line community and am grateful for the help!

[A&OxNone, MSN, RN]

I am very, very lucky to have started at a wonderful children's hospital recently, and they have a lot of good programs in place.

Does your hospital do pet therapy? We have have 2 dogs that go with kids when they are scared to different areas of the hospital or when they are upset. There's a LOT that goes into getting trained to have a pet therapy dog, but it is wonderful.

Education programs for parents on children specific things - like asthma, proper corificeat use (or helping parents get proper corificeats), things like that.

One program got blankets made and donated to the NICU, so the parents could make their babies crib in the NICU look more like a regular nursery and less like a hospital.

Also, along with the EBP thing, even tho its not really what they are looking for, what if you had one article a month you made available for the staff about something that is EBP that impacts nursing care?

Just a few ideas that could maybe get your mind a thinkin'! :)

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Poster/scrapbooks aside, those days are gone. We can no longer work in a vacuum because it benefits no one. We as nurses have to see ourselves as part of a larger system and work together with each other and the rest of the organization to meet the patient's needs.

I'm generally better at "meet the patient's needs" when I'm actually taking care of the patient instead of doing one the bajillion little projects we have to do for Magnet.

A couple years ago, it was end of December (so short staffed and stuffed to the gills with patients) and we were all having to fill out our self-evals and do our career advancement notebooks, making sure we got all of our points! It took at least 4 hours of work to get that dumb stuff done. That's 4 hours that could have been devoted to patient care instead. How many of the "little things" of patient care got done while I was seeing myself as "part of a larger system and working with the rest of the organization to meet the patient's needs"?

[Jules A, MSN]

I'm generally better at "meet the patient's needs" when I'm actually taking care of the patient instead of doing one the bajillion little projects we have to do for Magnet.

As much as I love working for a large teaching hospital the whole magnet thing has really changed the climate in the worst way, imo. Education is valued over experience and not only do I have no interest in doing any of these stupid projects that take my time away from the bedside I don't feel like having to sit through anyone else's presentations either!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I am very, very lucky to have started at a wonderful children's hospital recently, and they have a lot of good programs in place.

Does your hospital do pet therapy? We have have 2 dogs that go with kids when they are scared to different areas of the hospital or when they are upset. There's a LOT that goes into getting trained to have a pet therapy dog, but it is wonderful.

Education programs for parents on children specific things - like asthma, proper corificeat use (or helping parents get proper corificeats), things like that.

One program got blankets made and donated to the NICU, so the parents could make their babies crib in the NICU look more like a regular nursery and less like a hospital.

Also, along with the EBP thing, even tho its not really what they are looking for, what if you had one article a month you made available for the staff about something that is EBP that impacts nursing care?

Just a few ideas that could maybe get your mind a thinkin'! :)

Safety for teens and social media like facebook. Bullying intervention/prevention for another couple of ideas.

I think tapping the newer nurses at time can be a huge asset, especially when dealing with the young. They are young and intouch and know what lurkes around the corner which some "older" experienced nurses might not be intouch with......I happen to have 2 young teens (14/15) even though I am amongst the "older" crowd....

http://www.nichq.org/pdf/P51(Cocks)Presentation.pdf

A great presentaiton for employees caring for children to educate about spotting prolems in the pediactric population before they are too big to handle......good luck!

[gibbygator]

Some great ideas and the wheels are turning. Thanks everyone!