The Nurse’s Role in Supporting the Organization’s Strategic Agenda
Angela Smith
Walden University
NURS 4005, Section, Topics in Clinical Nursing
December 6, 2014

The Nurse’s Role in Supporting the Organization’s Strategic Agenda Overview
Nurses are an essential need of every patient. Nurses are on the frontlines providing the best patient care possible so that the patient will have a good outcome. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the nurse’s role in supporting the organization’s strategic agenda in patient care.
Summary of the Interview
This interview was with Janna Stiles, Director of cardiac and telemetry wing, in a small 180 bed hospital in the rural delta in Mississippi. The unit consists of 30 telemetry beds which employ 20 registered nurses and 15 certified nursing assistants. This unit’s patient population consists of any chest pain patients, myocardial infarction patients, any cardiac dysrhythmia patients that need telemetry monitoring and some stroke patients and surgical post-op patients who require telemetry monitoring. The nurse’s role in supporting the strategic agenda and ways to improve the nurse’s role were discussed thoroughly during the interview.
The first question that I asked Janna was how important is the nurse’s role in clinical outcomes on her unit. Janna stated that the impact of health outcomes is crucial, and all nurses play a vital role and are responsible for the best results for the patient. Nurses are the mediator for the patient during hospitalization. In order to prevent never events, such as falls, catheter-associated urinary tract infections and allergic medication reactions, the hospital board is researching on how to improve the care of frontline nursing care in respect to these core measures which decreases the cost and the length of hospitalization (Thornlow & Merwin, 2009).
Another question to Janna was how can nurses improve their contribution to the organization’s strategic agenda. Janna’s response was that first, and good communication skills are a necessity in frontline nursing. Poor communication between nurses and doctors is why our facility implemented the SBAR (situation, background, assessment recommendation) form and bedside reporting. With proper communication and documentation, nurses can provide more streamlined care for the patient. Communication can prevent “never” events since this is what causes “never” events for nurses. Nurses began to feel overwhelmed trying to communicate the patient needs to the physician which leads to medical errors and possible patient death (Thomas, Bertram & Johnson, 2009). Now, nurses are more engaged in nursing practice and understand that patient safety and better patient outcomes are priorities.
Impact on Nursing Practice
This interview helped me to understand the importance of good communication in patient care. In order to provide great patient care, there needs to be a collaboration with all healthcare providers. Collaboration among team members also requires good communication skills. By collaborating with each team member, nurses provide better patient outcomes and improve patient satisfaction which will lead to reduced costs and decreased length of stays