A thought......

Collaboration and coordination across the continuum is vital to help place patients where they want to be placed in their world.

caring for each other-relationship based care-a great concept

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I have attended multiple meetings and a wonderful conference as well as researching and discussing Relationship Based Care over the last few years. Caring for ourselves, our patients and families, and each other forms a great foundation for doing what we do in the world of nursing.

Accountability, responsibility, and expectations all intertwine in the world of nursing. This brings me to the importance of knowing about the concept of "living outside the world of nursing". Images and perceptions by patients, families, physicians, and employers often clash with what we do as nurses. How we address issues through knowledge and professionalism with added competencey and compassion often plays a part on how our deliverance of health care information is heard and incorporated into the lives of our patients.

Knowing our scope of practice as well as our facilities mission statement, policies,and procedures is vital to protect our licenses as we work in an ever-changing hhi-tech world.

Grounded in theory and evidence-based has taken the place of "we just know". No longer can we blindly assume patient and family expectations are the same as ours. To team work at all levels of healthcare, I am just as proud today as I was 40 years ago to be a part of nursing. As always I too am evolving.

collaboration and coordination acros the continuum

I believe that nurses need to embrace the knowledge that care of patients go beyond the hospital bed providing health care "across the continuum".

In order to do this, as professionals we need to know what we are doing.
Following MD orders and Scope of Practices are essential. Keeping up with ever-evolving researched best practices brings competencey to "what we do" for the patients and each other. Collaboration and communication can not be under rated.

While some parts of nursing have not changed-there is a real cost. As nurses I believe we have a responsibility to people, resources, and quality. Furthermore there is an accountability to patients, families, physicians, peers, insurance, and facility that employs us by plannning our care through measurable goals and positive outcomes. We can not be stagnent. As always patients' expectations may differ from those expectations from medical staff.

We are only "invited" into a part of the patient's life.

And we need to celebrate the successes of our patients, our colleagues, and ourselves.