SUPER POWERED ORIENTATION MANUAL Presented by: Ashley Weststrate PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUPER POWERED ORIENTATION MANUAL Presented by: Ashley Weststrate

INTRODUCTION At the start of Nursing 495, we were to meet with our department management team to create a project that would allow me to manage a team of interdisciplinary professionals while working together to complete the selected project.

PROJECT OVERVIEW Re-vamping the orientation manual for CI8 (cardiac intensive care unit) A weak orientation for new hires has a tendency to lead to quick staff turnovers and can even affect the budget and funding (Adams, Bartlet, …Protor-Holmes, 2010). Having an organized and resourceful orientation manual leads to nurse satisfaction, both new hires and current staff nurses (Brown, Birch, & Pillar, 2014). As a fairly new nurse to the cardiac ICU, I remember very well my orientation. It was very chaotic with no real rhyme or reason. When first asking about different projects to do, one of the first topics that came up was re-doing the orientation manual on the unit.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Goal Objectives To produce a super powered orientation manual for the cardiac ICU so that there is a standard of expectation for preceptors as well as new hire orientees Objectives Develop an interdisciplinary team of professionals to assist the project manager in creating this manual Develop a plan for the manual Create an orientation draft to be reviewed by management and staff Evaluation forms of new orientation manual by management and staff Super powered “Go Live” date to be November 1, 2014

QUALITY AND SAFETY The focus of quality in this project is to improve nurse satisfaction and patient outcomes (Yoder-Wise, 2011) Nurses that are confident in their nursing skills and can critically think on their own are able to better care for the high acuity patients in the ICU A good orientation allows a new nurse to get acquainted with the ICU and learn the skills and knowledge necessary to care for critically ill patients and better protect patients from errors This project meets National Patient Safety goals by contributing to the communication between nurses, interdisciplinary teams, and patient (NPSG, 2014). There will be a standard of expectation for each nurse that comes through the orientation process. This will help prevent confusion and misinterpretation of what is expected.

PROCESS, PROGRESS, AND COMPLETION OF PROJECT Since there is already an orientation manual created for the unit, the process of this project was to update and revamp the old manual Was smooth sailing: meetings were created and met, emails were responded to, direct communication occurred Project completed one week after initial due date, “Go Live” date occurred as it should with the next new hire orientee without any delays

Obstacles and Challenges Respiratory therapist team member did not participate like originally planned Information requested was never received from the RT like planned Having one team member not accountable for her actions led to stress between the rest of the project team One team member from the respiratory therapy department did not commit to the project like the rest of the team members did. Originally the plan was to have the RT manager be on the project team, but three weeks of trying to get her to respond to emails led to having to find another RT to participate.

ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES No ethical issues identified Professional issues: Keeping a professional relationship with each team member Strain of one team member not following through with their portion, yet remaining professional in the work environment While this project was just a project for school, there is always a risk of relationships turning sour. Because I had such a hard time getting the help from the respiratory therapist, it put a strain on the relationship personally. It is very hard to maintain a professional relationship with someone who is not willing to help out or does not follow through with something. This not only puts stress on the project, but also the professional relationship.

LESSONS LEARNED Being a project manager takes hard work and dedication. Communication is key, between direct communication, email, and phone calls, a project manager is constantly communicating Collaborative Leadership Decisions and task were chosen based on a collaborative team, view points of different interdiciplinaries were appreciated (Heldman, 2011) While I was the project manager, each decision made for the overall project was decided on as a team and not just an individuals idea

REFERENCES Adams, P., Bartlett, L., Blasdel, D., Giesler, J., Haley, B., Hendricks, R., & ... Proctor-Holmes, M. (2014). Restructuring the New Nurse Orientation Program: Making It Meaningful, Relevant, Engaging, and Pertinent to Quality Patient Outcomes. Med-Surg Matters, 23(2), 13-15. Brown, K., Burch, A., & Pillar, M. (2014). Customizing Orientation to Improve RN Satisfaction. Virginia Nurses Today, 22(1), 10. Heldman, K. (2011). Project management. Jump start (3rd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing National patient safety goals, (2014). 2014 and 2015 national patient safety goals. The joint commission. Retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/n psgs. aspx Yoder-Wise, P. S. (2011) Leading and managing in nursing. (5th ed.). St. Lousi, MO: Mosby