Award shines a light on St. Joseph’s

Sometimes a light at the end of a tunnel is a great motivator. For the medical-surgical intensive care unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, that light was a reward in itself.

Last year it became the only critical care unit in Georgia to receive the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses recognizes the nation’s top critical care units and honors them for extraordinary commitment to high-quality, critical-care standards and for their dedication to exceptional care.

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BARRY WILLIAMS / Special

Beacon Awards winners: (From left) Mache Bennett, Erin O’Connell, Kay Sinclair, Karen Stannard, Julie Swann, Margaret Howell, Lynn Whelan, Erin Hall and Kati Turner are members of the medical-surgical unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta. Swann is holding the lighthouse that the unit used for inspiration during the application process.

“We’re a 22-bed unit that serves a medical-surgical population with high acuity levels. We get patients with everything,” said Julie Swann, RN, BSN, clinical operations manager. “We’ve been a magnet hospital for many years and the bar for nursing just keeps getting raised higher.”

A three-person review at the beginning of the process assured St. Joseph’s officials that they were on the right track. Still, applying for the Beacon Award took a year to complete and involved the commitment of everyone on the 60-member unit.

“We had to explain to everyone what we were trying to do, and we all had to sign and pledge our support to meeting the goals,” said Kathleen Dennison, RN, BSN, MSICU staff nurse.

“We placed a two-foot statue of a lighthouse — with a real working light — at the front of our unit when we started the application process,” said Ginger Parks, RN, BSN, staff nurse. “The purpose was to remind us of the journey we were on.

“It’s so easy to get caught up in the small things every day and forget about the big picture. The beacon helped remind us why we were nurses and why we take care of patients.”

Because the lighthouse was solar-powered, nurses had to take it outside into the sunlight every few days. That was the least of the extra work involved in becoming a Beacon unit.

Members of the MSICU collected data and compiled information about all areas of the unit’s practice and administration. Beacon Award winners must show that they meet the highest evidence-based national standards in recruitment and retention; education, training and mentoring; research and evidence-based practice; patient outcomes; leadership and organization ethics; and achieving a healing environment.

“We were able to use a lot of the resources that we had in place,” Swann said. “For instance, our nurses already participate in interdisciplinary rounds daily. Still it was a huge group project and took a lot of time outside of normal work to find and compile data.”

Staff nurse Bethany Poole, RN, ADN, headed a 10-member committee that wrote the application.

“There are more than 6,000 critical care units around the country and we’re honored to be included in the 120 recognized for superior performance,” said Kim Sharkey, chief nursing officer at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “With nearly a quarter of our beds dedicated to ICU patients, we’re extremely proud of our nurses and patient care partners for achieving this honor.”

Working to achieve the highest standards boosted the staff’s morale.

“When we started looking at standards of practice across the country, it reminded us that there was a lot more to being a nurse than just doing a job,” Sharkey said. “It reminded us that what we do really matters, and it helped us stay focused and positive about the care we give.”

The unit also revived a tradition from years ago.

“When we lose a patient, we put out a basket and the nurses put in sympathy cards and notes that we send to the family. We want them to know that they are still in our thoughts,” Swann said.

Recently the unit received an update from a former patient who had been in and out of St. Joseph’s in 1992 and 1993.

“He had colon cancer in his late 30s, with severe complications,” Swann said. “He had sepsis and renal issues. At one point he coded and he gives us credit for saving his life. He writes to tell us about his recent accomplishments, what he’s doing with his life and [he] sends gifts.”

Parks said that his letters are a gift to the nurses.

“It’s a spine-tingling feeling to know that someone still thinks of us 15 years later because of what we did here,” she said. “This is a place where we can intervene and make a difference.”