Nurses are an integral part of delivering personalized care to patients and communities and are key contributors to the healthcare delivery team. A challenging component for several healthcare entities is to reimagine nursing and nurse engagement in a post-pandemic world.
At Memorial Hermann, the nursing strategy is to “grow, reimagine, and excel” the nursing profession. Growth is seen through optimizing clinical education, ensuring advancement opportunities, and enhancing academic partnerships. We reimagine nursing through new care delivery models, a culture of inquiry and innovation, and a focus on safety and well-being. And finally, we excel nursing through our nursing professional practice model, ensuring high reliability and excelling in our professional governance and advocacy.
Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital is a 332-bed quaternary care woman and children’s hospital located in the Texas Medical Center. As the only hospital in Greater Houston capable of treating the entire family unit in the same facility due to both adult and pediatric trauma 1 status, we strive to provide the highest level of care to children, women, and families.
With a high acuity children and women’s hospital, a highly engaged workforce is needed to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes. Based on feedback from our last year’s employee engagement results, CNO and CEO listening tours, and town hall feedback, a multi-dimensional action plan was deployed to increase both retention and engagement. The following tactics were utilized for this comprehensive plan.
Recruitment of staff:
Staffing concerns voiced on the employee engagement results prompted a targeted focus on the recruitment of staff to ensure fundamental staffing concerns were addressed in key areas. The campus set a Wildly Important Goal of hiring 350 external staff members during a 6-month timeframe. Hiring leaders and talent acquisition met weekly and reviewed progress. On-site and electronic hiring events were conducted. A boomerang campaign targeted hiring employees that had left during the pandemic. With this targeted rigor, the team hired 540 staff during this timeframe, exceeding the hiring goal!
Decrease 1st-year turnover:
With an increase in hiring, another focus was placed on reducing turnover during the first year of employment. Managers had targeted meetings with new employees at 30, 60, and 90 days. These meetings were tracked closely and reported to senior leadership. Educators worked tirelessly to ensure onboarding and orientation went smoothly. Several areas piloted new models of orientation to accommodate a bolus of new employees.
Senior leadership visibility:
The senior leadership team ensured ongoing visibility throughout the year. Monthly town halls rotating between the CEO and CNO highlighted key topics to ensure staff were updated regularly. We launched an executive Walk-A-Mile program where the C-suite executive spends time with front-line staff monthly, both wearing Children’s Memorial Hermann bright lime green shoes. Dedicated time was spent each month conducting senior leader safety rounds with frontline staff too.
Recognition:
Efforts were made to dramatically increase staff recognition. Both preceptors and educators had recognition events. This was extremely important with the influx of new employees needing orientation. Nurses’ Week and Hospital Week included targeted awards, professional development activities, and team-building activities. There was also a targeted effort to increase “You got caught caring” electronic recognition submissions.
Results for both nurse retention and engagement were astonishing with this targeted action plan for improvement. The best part is the feeling and culture within the departments. If you are interested in joining a dynamic and engaging culture at Children’s Memorial Hermann, please visit the following link.