Kris Chaisson, BSN, MS, RN, CCRN-K, NEA-BC
Senior Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services,
Central Maine Healthcare
Chief Nursing Officer
Dear nurse colleagues,
I am honored to share with you all the great work that has taken place over the past year. Despite real challenges with staffing, we have accomplished many great things. Here are some of them:
- Developed structure for unit-based practice councils
- Successfully onboarded 30 new graduate nurses
- Developed “pathways” for new grad residency to be prepared for higher acuity patient specialties
- Enhanced nursing professional advancement program
- # 25 nurses advanced this year
- Developed respiratory and CV Invasive professional advancement programs
- Increased first year new grad RN retention as well as overall nurse retention
- Successful Joint Commission accreditation with no findings related to national patient safety goals
- Successful stroke accreditation
- Decreased pressure injuries
- Presented best practice poster at Annual Summit Organization of Maine Nurse Leaders
- Developed solid process for reviewing all clinical policies
- Daisy Awards- 79 nominations and 5 recipients
- Promoted three nurse leaders to directors
- Implemented virtual nursing
- Get with the Guidelines Gold status stroke
- Leadership awards for patient care at both Bridgton and Rumford Hospital
- Platinum recognition for National Donor Month for collaboration with New England Donor
- Maternity Baby Friendly
- Implemented national database for nurse sensitive indicators (NDNQI)
- Crisis prevention intervention training to keep nurses safe
- Developed certified nursing assistant program
- Preceptor training
- Executed very successful Nurses Week
- Converted to new dialysis platform
All of this work could not have been done without you! I am sure there is more to add to this impressive list. I look forward to implementing a capacity management bed board to help with throughput and to increase professional development and certification of all of our nurses. In December we are providing education about Shared Professional Governance to the unit-based practice council chairs, co-chairs and leaders. The goal s is to educate our team on how to share in decisions that affect the way we work. This team has a voice in how workflow is done and how care is delivered. This is very exciting and only one of the strategies to help improve the way we provide care and how we demonstrate the power of professional nurses in sustaining positive patient outcomes. We have more than 600 nurses in our system and I personally value each and every one of you. My door is always open and I would embrace you coming to a “Connect with Kris” session to share what is on your mind.
Respectfully,
Kris Chaisson