Open Forum

Good afternoon All

I was wondering if anyone has an active Ambulatory Practice Council or Committee at your facility?  Or know of any facility that may have started one or looking into starting one? Or a subcommittee of a Practice Council that focus just on ambulatory needs?

Here we have a very active engaged Practice Council but the focus and majority of the time is inpatient/specialty clinic which is understandable.  While the topics discussed at times are pertinent Ambulatory, an entire council dedicated to pushing an Ambulatory Agenda would be very beneficial.

I looked in the old posts and libraries but did not see anything related to this.

Thanks

You can message privately as well if you like 

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Patrick Turpin MSN CNS
VA San Diego Healthcare System
CHULA VISTA CA
(859)379-9059
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Patrick,

Manchester VAMC is predominately ambulatory care. We have different levels of committees. We have Unit practice and also a professional nursing practice committee. Please out reach me on MS Teams and I can link you to leadership for some guidance on structures.

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Jennifer Thebodeau MSN RN CCTM
PACT RN
Manchester VAMC VISN 1
Manchester , NH
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Hi Jennifer 

Thanks so much, I will be reaching out to you for follow up; much appreciated 

------------------------------
Patrick Turpin MSN CNS
VA San Diego Healthcare System
CHULA VISTA CA
(859)379-9059
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-16-2024 06:03
From: Jennifer Thebodeau
Subject: Ambulatory Practice Council

Patrick,

Manchester VAMC is predominately ambulatory care. We have different levels of committees. We have Unit practice and also a professional nursing practice committee. Please out reach me on MS Teams and I can link you to leadership for some guidance on structures.

------------------------------
Jennifer Thebodeau MSN RN CCTM
PACT RN
Manchester VAMC VISN 1
Manchester , NH
------------------------------

Jennifer

I would love to learn more about your structure. I just inherited 130 community practices and trying to determine best way to engage nurses across the region! I have had Nursing Leadership Council when we were smaller academic clinic!

Thanks for sharing!

Martha M. Dartt, MSN, RN, FNP

Senior Director of Nursing

ECU Health Physicians

252-744-1841

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Martha Dartt FNP MSN RN
Senior Director of Nursing
ECU Health Physicians
Greenville NC
(252)744-1841
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-16-2024 06:03
From: Jennifer Thebodeau
Subject: Ambulatory Practice Council

Patrick,

Manchester VAMC is predominately ambulatory care. We have different levels of committees. We have Unit practice and also a professional nursing practice committee. Please out reach me on MS Teams and I can link you to leadership for some guidance on structures.

------------------------------
Jennifer Thebodeau MSN RN CCTM
PACT RN
Manchester VAMC VISN 1
Manchester , NH
------------------------------

Hello Patrick, 

I am an Amb DON at MetroHealth in Cleveland. We have an active Ambulatory Practice Council that has been in place for over 10 years with 30+ active members who are staff nurse level. If you would like more information, I am happy to share. Please email me at mkohler@metrohealth.org.

------------------------------
Mark Kohler MSN RN CNML
Director of Nursing- Ambulatory West
Metrohealth Medical Center
Amherst OH
------------------------------

Hi Mark, thanks so much will be touching base with you soon.

------------------------------
Patrick Turpin MSN CNS
VA San Diego Healthcare System
CHULA VISTA CA
(859)379-9059
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-16-2024 07:50
From: Mark Kohler
Subject: Ambulatory Practice Council

Hello Patrick, 

I am an Amb DON at MetroHealth in Cleveland. We have an active Ambulatory Practice Council that has been in place for over 10 years with 30+ active members who are staff nurse level. If you would like more information, I am happy to share. Please email me at mkohler@metrohealth.org.

------------------------------
Mark Kohler MSN RN CNML
Director of Nursing- Ambulatory West
Metrohealth Medical Center
Amherst OH
------------------------------

Hi Kim 

Thanks so much, I will be touching base with you soon

------------------------------
Patrick Turpin MSN CNS
VA San Diego Healthcare System
CHULA VISTA CA
(859)379-9059
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-16-2024 08:48
From: Kimberley Sipos
Subject: Ambulatory Practice Council

Hello!

 

Our organization has an Ambulatory Nurse Practice Forum (ANPF). It is one of 10 practice forums that work to connect specialty areas to the system shared governance structure. Membership in the ANPF includes direct care nurses, educators, and leadership from our Home Health, Medical Group, and Health Plans divisions. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

Thank you,

 

Kim Sipos, BSN, RN

Nursing Professional Development

Sentara Ambulatory Services Division

 

Office: 757-252-3324

Email: kxsipos@sentara.com | SASDClinEduTeam@sentara.com

800 Independence Blvd., 5^th Floor, Virginia Beach, VA 23455

 

 

 

 

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Good morning Patrick, 

We have an APC here at UT Southwestern in Dallas and it has been in place for almost 5 years. Happy to chat with you, if you'd like. 

------------------------------
Calli Wood MSN-Ed RN NPD-BC
Dir of Nursing, Education/Training
UT Southwestern
Coppell TX
(214)288-2331
------------------------------

Hi Calli

Thanks so much, I will be touching base with you soon 

------------------------------
Patrick Turpin MSN CNS
VA San Diego Healthcare System
CHULA VISTA CA
(859)379-9059
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-16-2024 09:21
From: Calli Wood
Subject: Ambulatory Practice Council

Good morning Patrick, 

We have an APC here at UT Southwestern in Dallas and it has been in place for almost 5 years. Happy to chat with you, if you'd like. 

------------------------------
Calli Wood MSN-Ed RN NPD-BC
Dir of Nursing, Education/Training
UT Southwestern
Coppell TX
(214)288-2331
------------------------------

We do have the Ambulatory Care RN committee at my hospital system.
I had brought the idea up to administration and championed the idea for about a year. I was then tasked to form the committee. It was not an easy task. While nursing administration supported the idea there was considerable lack of help with logistics. It was difficult to reach all ambulatory nurses as I was not able to send out blanket emails to staff nurses, no one would help me identify AMB nurses, department heads that were non nurses did not respond.
The positives was that when I finally reached individual AMB RNs they all had similar concerns. They felt isolated, had lack of communication from nursing leadership, were angry and confused by emails and policies for ALL nurses that clearly were not meant for AMB.
Finally, we were able to speak in one voice to leadership and achieved some big goals. (Symposium, new nurse educators, retention bonus)
The downside is that our departments are so small it has been difficult maintain consistent members.
It is my belief that ambulatory nurse committees are beneficial to the staff, organization and to the patient experience.
An isolated nurse becomes part of a team with a seat a the table.
Good luck


Sent from my iPhone

Hi Lauren

It sounds like you had a challenging road but good for you and congrats.  I understand what you are saying; I think my fellow Amb nurses here feel some of that as well. I am going to start putting some things together; is it permissible to touch base with you at some point down the road?

Thanks 

------------------------------
Patrick Turpin MSN CNS
VA San Diego Healthcare System
CHULA VISTA CA
(859)379-9059
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-16-2024 10:05
From: Lauren Leimbach
Subject: Ambulatory Practice Council

We do have the Ambulatory Care RN committee at my hospital system.
I had brought the idea up to administration and championed the idea for about a year. I was then tasked to form the committee. It was not an easy task. While nursing administration supported the idea there was considerable lack of help with logistics. It was difficult to reach all ambulatory nurses as I was not able to send out blanket emails to staff nurses, no one would help me identify AMB nurses, department heads that were non nurses did not respond.
The positives was that when I finally reached individual AMB RNs they all had similar concerns. They felt isolated, had lack of communication from nursing leadership, were angry and confused by emails and policies for ALL nurses that clearly were not meant for AMB.
Finally, we were able to speak in one voice to leadership and achieved some big goals. (Symposium, new nurse educators, retention bonus)
The downside is that our departments are so small it has been difficult maintain consistent members.
It is my belief that ambulatory nurse committees are beneficial to the staff, organization and to the patient experience.
An isolated nurse becomes part of a team with a seat a the table.
Good luck


Sent from my iPhone

Hi Lisa, thank you so much

What you have there is very sound and looks like a fantastic way for Amb issues to stay at the forefront just as much as inpatient.  I am starting to gather some data and get some opinions from for our leadership.  Do you mind if I follow up with you at some point with some questions?

Thanks again 

------------------------------
Patrick Turpin MSN CNS
VA San Diego Healthcare System
CHULA VISTA CA
(859)379-9059
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-16-2024 11:03
From: Lisa Dutton
Subject: Ambulatory Practice Council

Hi Patrick,

We have an Ambulatory Divisional Committee, that is part of our nursing shared governance.

The committee reports out to and rolls into our Nursing Coordinating Committee, joining with all nursing divisional committee chairs across the institution.

The co-chairs of all nursing committees consist of one staff nurse and one nurse leader.

We have staff nurse and nurse leader representation from all ambulatory areas- primary care, medical and surgical specialties; approximate 25 members in total. Each member is approved through our Nurse Executive board with a minimum membership commitment of 3 years.

Staff are allowed protected paid time to attend committee meetings and committee related work.

 

Our standing agenda items are:

Workplace Wellness

Quality and Safety Report Outs

Informatics Updates

+ rotating topics and guest speakers including reviewing NDNQI and Magnet data

 

The committee also has breakouts during the meeting to address topics in smaller groups. One of which is a quarterly Ambulatory Nursing Newsletter crafted by the committee and sent to all ambulatory nurses.

 

To try and mirror the unit-based practice councils that exist in the inpatient areas, we initially attempted to have sub divisional committees focused on Surgical Specialties, Medical Specialties, Primary Care, etc. Attendance was low (pre COVID) and our division decided to merge the subcommittees into the larger Divisional committee. We meet virtually once a month for 90 minutes.

 

I hope this is helpful!

 

Lisa

_____________________

Lisa C. Dutton, MSN, RN, AMB-BC, NE-BC

Professional Development Manager, BWH Department of Ambulatory Nursing 

Clinical Director, MGB Nurse Hotline

Operations Lead, MGB COVID Outpatient Therapies

 

 

Brigham and Women's Hospital

75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115

M: 603-479-7468 T: 617-525-7789

brighamandwomens.org

 

 

 

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