Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe an innovative strategy to maintain healthcare worker safety and optimal patient outcomes that was implemented by a healthcare system in the Southeastern United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Program description: During the surges of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems have struggled with healthcare worker burnout, high staff turnover rates, and redeployment of staff to unfamiliar areas and the uncertainty regarding COVID-19 personal protection and patient care. Clinical nurse specialist/clinical nurse leader teams were created to help ensure healthcare worker safety and optimize patient care outcomes.
Outcome: Healthcare worker safety and desired patient outcomes were maintained. Throughput was expedited for emergency department patients, and there was timely implementation of therapeutic modalities for critically ill patients.
Conclusion: Clinical nurse specialist/clinical nurse leader team collaboratively cross-trained staff to ensure their safety and delivery of quality patient care. The team was pivotal in helping safeguard staff from harm while optimizing patient outcomes. Lessons learned will help us in future disasters as well as our daily operations.
Purpose/objectives: The purpose of this article is to provide a guide to identifying measurements of value and how to calculate different types of return on investment (ROI). Exemplars of clinical nurse specialist (CNS) work efforts with ROI will be presented.
Description of the project/problem: The CNS is the oldest advanced practice role; however, the role can be vague, making it difficult to articulate the value of the CNS in the organization. Functioning in 3 spheres of impact, the CNS can easily impact practice; however, demonstrating the value of this work is not always on top of mind and is rarely taught in academic programs.
Outcome: This article describes the difference between revenue generation, cost savings, and cost avoidance, as well as various structural, process, and outcome measures that can be used to calculate ROI. Resources available for performing ROI calculations will be described and shared.
Conclusion: Distributing work across the 3 spheres creates various opportunities for the CNS to demonstrate value; however, the CNS must be able to articulate that value to the organization. Developing the skill set to consistently identify metrics can be challenging; however, it is critical to the ongoing success and future of the CNS role. Utilizing these metrics to demonstrate the value and then disseminating the outcomes of these contributions will continue to promote the value of the CNS in the future.