Developing and Implementing a Nursing Professional Practice Model in a Large Health System

Abstract

A large healthcare system was challenged to develop a nursing professional practice model that would apply to and be understood by nurses at all levels and across all entities of the organization. A team was convened, composed of direct care nurses, educators, clinical nurse specialists, Magnet program directors, managers, and directors, representing 5 hospitals, the organization institute for nursing, and system support services. The group drafted a model describing nursing across the organization. The draft model was vetted in nursing governance councils across the entity. The model includes a theoretical framework; a mission, vision, and values; elements of professional practice; internal accountabilities; and nursing outcomes. Nurses learned about the model through Web-based and face-to-face training, through participation in a professional practice model blog and group discussions.

Professional practice models for nursing: a review of the literature and synthesis of key components

“…Rather, collaboration and communication were essential to the nurses’ role as coordinators of care (Berger et al . ). Collaboration related to nurses’ relationships with both patients and other health professionals.…”

“…A number of PPMs were grounded in theory explaining the nature of nursing care; most commonly Swanson's () middle range theory of caring (Latta & Davis‐Kirsch , Tonges & Ray , Berger et al . ), Watson's () science of human caring (Sharkey et al . , Mathes , Ondrejka & Barnard ) and the work of Nightingale (Ondrejka & Barnard , Dickey ).…”

“…Berger et al . () referred to the body of knowledge that characterises nursing as a profession. The concept of generating knowledge to support nurses’ expert care was variously termed as research, clinical inquiry, innovation and translational research, innovation and improvement, (Mullen & Asher , Hitchings et al .…”

Using Blogs as a Qualitative Health Research Tool

“…Further samples included nurses at Norton Healthcare in the United States (Berger et al, 2012), smokers in Australia wishing to give up smoking (Graham, Rouncefield, & Satchell, 2009), people who have purchased a genome-wide test from a direct to customer genetic testing company (Su, Howard, & Borry, 2011), people with MS (Hadgkiss et al, 2013Weiland et al, 2014), blogs in the Medicine 2.0 community (Hughes et al, 2008), people blogging about food companies' press releases on health and obesity issues (Lee et al, 2013), contributors to the SARS Art Project blog (Gillett, 2007), and bloggers from the Healthy Living blogs community (Boepple & Thompson, 2014).…”

“…The blog function described in the remaining studies, we categorised as 'other'. They included a blog developed as a Virtual Journal Club for nurse education and discussion about a professional practice model for nursing (Berger, Conway, & Beaton, 2012). Pharmacy-centric blogs functioned as news, personal views, and information provision on the profession of pharmacy with the personal views blogs being analyzed to determine the impression that pharmacy websites made on the reader (Cain & Dillon, 2010).…”