Creating partnerships to facilitate change in the ICU at the Royal Hobart Hospital

Ms Veronica Croome1, Associate Professor Francine Douce, Ms  Tanya Murray, Ms Julie Crowe

1Tasmanian Health, Australia

Abstract

The Intensive Care Unit at Royal Hobart Hospital was unable to safely staff to its maximum occupancy of 18 ventilated beds due to inadequate nursing staff availability. The Office of the Chief Nurse and Midwife within the Department of Health was asked to partner with ICU management to identify strategies to bring about a reduction in the current vacancy rate. A range of investigative strategies were initiated including broad consultation with key stakeholders, gap analyses with existing workforce standards, a survey of part time staff to identify barriers to working additional shifts,  current recruitment processes and a comprehensive roster review. Key findings resulted in a number of recommendations that focused on collaborative and flexible rostering, changes to the model of care with a greater focus on teamwork, a targeted nursing recruitment campaign around a “grow your own” and a “bring them in” approach with supported education programs that align to early and mid career nurses. it was also identified that Nursing Unit Managers are spending excessive amounts of time on administrative processes linked to staff recruitment taking them away from their core functions of safe practices and quality patient care.


Biography:

Veronica Croome is a recently retired Chief Nurse from the ACT. She has a long history and successful of change management across both the public and private health sectors. Veronica has held a number of key senior executive roles in Health. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Canberra for her services to nursing and the broader ACT community.  Veronica’s areas of interest are leadership, teamwork and cultural change. Her consultations have been focused on career structures and workforce redesign. she is currently a Board member of the NSW branch of the NMBA.