Hello from Atlanta, GA! A team of UAMS RNs has been at the ANCC Magnet Conference this week, and we have enjoyed representing all of Team UAMS here! The ANCC Magnet conference is the largest annual nursing conference (over 13,000 RNs this year!) with hundreds of organizations represented, both Magnet-designated and those on the journey to excellence. The conference features national speakers, nursing presentations, and scientific posters. Hundreds of vendors come featuring products, and to celebrate the amazing professionals who make up nursing.
Rebekah Thacker, MSN, RNC-NIC, proudly wears the Magnet Designated ribbon at the Magnet Conference
This week has been different, though: this is the first conference that UAMS has been a Magnet Designated organization and Team UAMS had several highlights this week!
Amber Westpheling, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, CCRN-CSC, CMC, presented on the UAMS ECMO program and fielded tons of questions from a very interested audience. It truly exhibited how UAMS is on the forefront of this nursing-led care. Hellen Palencia, BSN, RN, represented the Emergency Department with a poster about the processes used to reduce blood culture contamination rates in the ED. Devin Terry, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, CPHQ and Shannon Finley, MSN, RN, CPHQ from the Clinical Education department presented Examining Errors: Enhancing Practice in New Graduate Nurses, a quality improvement project aimed at enhancing the Transition to Practice Program through monitoring new grad errors through safety reporting.
The absolute highlight of the week was representing UAMS during the Magnet Celebration walk. We joined over 60 other organizations that were either Magnet designated or re-designated over the last year. It brought back all of the excitement when we got the call that we had achieved Magnet Designation, just one year ago next month!
This conference has also reminded me that UAMS is right in the middle of all the other organizations that come to mind when you think about nursing excellence and high-quality patient care. We are financially and resource strained, and we are still excellent. We are recovering from a pandemic and nursing shortage, and we are still excellent. We are consistently addressing quality outcomes for our patients, we are working to make the experience of the patient the best it can be, and we are looking at better ways to improve RN job satisfaction, the work environment, and the physical and psychological safety of nurses. We will address all of it with excellence. Excellence is not a destination, it is a journey. It is also not only an outcome, but a mindset. Magnet organizations are those that do not settle with the status quo, but persevere through barriers and challenges to address the things most important in healthcare: patient care and the nursing practice environment.
You have the pride of belonging to the nursing profession and to Team UAMS. You also have the duty of being on the continuous journey to personal and professional excellence. I am committed (as all nursing leaders at UAMS are) to addressing barriers that make that challenging. Together, we can ensure that nursing excellence comes naturally at UAMS.
Hellen Palencia, BSN, RN, presented Improving Blood Culture Contamination Rates in the Emergency Department of an Academic Medical Center
Amber Westpheling, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, CCRN-CSC, CMC, had a podium presentation on Initiating Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
Devin Terry, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, CPHQ and Shannon Finley, MSN, RN, CPHQ presented Examining Errors: Enhancing Practice in New Graduate Nurses
