How To Help Your Nurses Reach A Higher Level Of Clinical Expertise

August 21st, 2015

Considering the increasing complexity of the medical industry — advancements in technology and patient care being two obvious examples — hospitals and doctors offices want nurses with a higher level of clinical expertise. Clinical ladder programs are helping nurses improve their skills by becoming more involved in aspects of healthcare normally reserved for those professionals in a leadership role.

These types of programs are a great way to improve the quality of care at your medical establishment. Let’s take a closer look at some ideas to make clinical ladder programs successful and how they help nurses — and their employers — advance the practice of healthcare.

Let your Nurses run Educational In-Service Programs

If any of your nurses recently received relevant training, have them host an in-service program where they present that material to the rest of your staff. The other nurses benefit from exposure to the content, while the presenting nurse gains additional experience in public speaking and preparing the course material.

Make it a point to hold these in-services regularly, while letting any interested nurse present their own topic of interest. This is great way to improve the overall knowledge base at your hospital or office.

Encourage your Staff to acquire Certifications

Achieving a national certification in a specialty helps a nurse’s career as well as the level of patient care your team provides. This also nicely ties into previous point about in-service programs. Encourage recently certified nurses to mentor their coworkers and host in-services so all your staff are also able to earn certifications.

Project Improvement Initiatives are a Plus

Continuous process improvement is a goal of nearly all companies in the business world. The medical industry should be no different. Create a quarterly project improvement initiative at your medical establishment and let your nursing staff play a key role in its development, implementation, and after the fact analysis.

Creating a clinical ladder program and leveraging these three ideas as part of the program helps your nurses do a better job, and more importantly, patient care improves as a result.

If your medical organization needs additional insight on building a winning team focused on quality patient care, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top healthcare staffing agencies, we offer the vetted candidates able to contribute to your team. Schedule a meeting with us at your earliest convenience.

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