Abstract
Purpose: Clinical nurses at a Women’s and Children’s hospital advocated for a new campus-wide nursing practice council upon identifying the need to promote collaboration and ensuring a safe place for a healthy work environment between the maternal and neonatal nursing specialties via shared governance.
Relevance: Collaboration is associated with multiple positive outcomes including but not limited to nursing and clinical excellence, optimal patient outcomes, and an overall healthy work environment as set forth by the AACN framework (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2016). The goal of this council is to improve collaboration, communication, and effective decision making across maternal/neonatal specialties related to nursing quality, practice, and workflow. The framework for council operation is based on the nationally accredited certification for obstetric and neonatal quality and safety.
Strategy: Council development was advocated for by clinical nurses and supported by executive leadership. It was then promoted within the organization’s current shared governance structure for nursing excellence. This affords the council monthly protected time for frontline nursing members across all perinatal and neonatal ICU units to engage in shared decision-making related to maternal and neonatal nursing practice.
Results: The council empowers nurses to participate in the promotion of clinical excellence and optimal patient outcomes while in a safe setting inclusive of authentic leadership, appropriate representation of staff, and collaboration of ad hoc members. This triad facilitates effective communication, decision making, and recognition of peers. Over three years the council has realigned four intra-specialty workflows, assisted in the creation of a regional safety operating procedure, a peer NICU support group, and a nurse driven lab rejection process improvement sustained through three PDSA cycles.
Conclusion: The success within the first year of establishing the council was largely attributed to the engagement of the frontline nurse members. Both returning and new shared governance applicants have continued to request this council most frequently as their top choice for membership over the last three years. In addition, various council members have been recognized with several accolades including several daisy award nominations/wins, a divisional Stand up for Safety Award, and the winning nominee for Exemplary Practice Nurse of the Year in 2023.
Notes
Al Eshaq, D., Bradley, R., McBride, E. R., & Ford, J. (2023). Patient and specimen identification in a tertiary care pediatric hospital. Transfusion, 63, 1310–1317. https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.17399
American Academy of Pediatrics, & American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2017). Guidelines for perinatal care: 8th Edition
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (2016). AACN Standards for establishing and sustaining health work environments: a journey to excellence:2nd Edition https://www.aacn.org/WD/HWE/Docs/HWEStandards.pdf
Berndt, J., & Ortelli, T. A. (2023). Creating a Healthy Work Environment. The American Journal of Nursing, 123, 59–60. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000921820.57044.2b
Dahan, S., Bourque, C. J., Reichherzer, M., Prince, J., Mantha, G., Savaria, M., & Janvier, A. (2022). Community, Hope, and Resilience: Parental Perspectives on Peer Support in Neonatology. The Journal of Pediatrics, 243, 85-90.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.11.060
Delgado, S. A. (2024). Setting standards for a healthy work environment. Nursing Management, 55, 8–10. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmg.0000000000000125
Gottimukkala, S. B., Lobo, L., Gautham, K. S., Bolisetty, S., Fiander, M., & Schindler, T. (2023). Intermittent phototherapy versus continuous phototherapy for neonatal jaundice. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 3, CD008168. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD008168.pub2
Jordán Lucas, R., Boix, H., Sánchez García, L., Cernada, M., Cuevas, I., Couce, M. (2021). Recommendations on the skills profile and standards of the neonatal transport system in Spain. Anales de Pediatria, 94, 420.e1-420.e11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anpede.2021.02.006
Kemper, A. R., Newman, T. B., Slaughter, J. L., Maisels, M. J., Watchko, J. F., Downs, S. M., Grout, R. W., Bundy, D. G., Stark, A. R., Bogen, D. L., Holmes, A. V., Feldman-Winter, L. B., Bhutani, V. K., Brown, S. R., Maradiaga Panayotti, G. M., Okechukwu, K., Rappo, P. D., & Russell, T. L. (2022). Clinical Practice Guideline Revision: Management of Hyperbilirubinemia in the Newborn Infant 35 or More Weeks of Gestation. Pediatrics, 150. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-058859
Kester, K., Pena, H., Shuford, C., Hansen, C., Stokes, J., Brooks, K., Bolton, T., Ornell, A., Parker, P., Febre, J., Andrews, K., Flynn, G., Ruiz, R., Evans, T., Kettle, M., Minter, J., & Granger, B. (2021). Implementing AACN's Healthy Work Environment Framework in an Intensive Care Unit. American Journal of Critical Care: An Official Publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 30, 426–433. https://doi.org/10.4037/ajcc2021108
Mabona, J. F., van Rooyen, D., & Ten Ham-Baloyi, W. (2022). Best practice recommendations for healthy work environments for nurses: An integrative literature review. Health SA = SA Gesondheid, 27, 1788. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1788
Moat, S. J., Dibden, C., Tetlow, L., Griffith, C., Chilcott, J., George, R., Hamilton, L., Wu, T. H., MacKenzie, F., & Hall, S. K. (2020). Effect of blood volume on analytical bias in dried blood spots prepared for newborn screening external quality assurance. Bioanalysis, 12, 99–109. https://doi.org/10.4155/bio-2019-0201
National Certification Cooperation (2024). Candidate guide obstetric neonatal quality and safety. https://www.nccwebsite.org/content/documents/cms/onqs-candidate_guide.pdf
Thornton, R., Nicholson, P., & Harms, L. (2020). Creating Evidence: Findings from a Grounded Theory of Memory-Making in Neonatal Bereavement Care in Australia. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 53, 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2020.04.006
Sigma Membership
Chi Gamma
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary, Workforce, Acute Care
Recommended Citation
Beres, Stephanie, "Uniting Care in the Maternal Neonatal Dyad: A Call to Action for Collaboration" (2025). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 6.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2025/presentations_2025/6
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Uniting Care in the Maternal Neonatal Dyad: A Call to Action for Collaboration
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Purpose: Clinical nurses at a Women’s and Children’s hospital advocated for a new campus-wide nursing practice council upon identifying the need to promote collaboration and ensuring a safe place for a healthy work environment between the maternal and neonatal nursing specialties via shared governance.
Relevance: Collaboration is associated with multiple positive outcomes including but not limited to nursing and clinical excellence, optimal patient outcomes, and an overall healthy work environment as set forth by the AACN framework (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2016). The goal of this council is to improve collaboration, communication, and effective decision making across maternal/neonatal specialties related to nursing quality, practice, and workflow. The framework for council operation is based on the nationally accredited certification for obstetric and neonatal quality and safety.
Strategy: Council development was advocated for by clinical nurses and supported by executive leadership. It was then promoted within the organization’s current shared governance structure for nursing excellence. This affords the council monthly protected time for frontline nursing members across all perinatal and neonatal ICU units to engage in shared decision-making related to maternal and neonatal nursing practice.
Results: The council empowers nurses to participate in the promotion of clinical excellence and optimal patient outcomes while in a safe setting inclusive of authentic leadership, appropriate representation of staff, and collaboration of ad hoc members. This triad facilitates effective communication, decision making, and recognition of peers. Over three years the council has realigned four intra-specialty workflows, assisted in the creation of a regional safety operating procedure, a peer NICU support group, and a nurse driven lab rejection process improvement sustained through three PDSA cycles.
Conclusion: The success within the first year of establishing the council was largely attributed to the engagement of the frontline nurse members. Both returning and new shared governance applicants have continued to request this council most frequently as their top choice for membership over the last three years. In addition, various council members have been recognized with several accolades including several daisy award nominations/wins, a divisional Stand up for Safety Award, and the winning nominee for Exemplary Practice Nurse of the Year in 2023.
Description
A hospital-wide practice council for collaboration between the maternal and neonatal nursing specialties. Frontline nurses to participate in the promotion of clinical and patient outcomes, inclusive of authentic leadership and ad hoc members. The council has realigned intra-specialty workflows, creation of a regional safety standard of operating procedure and a peer dyad support group, and a successful nurse driven lab rejection process improvement sustained through three PDSA cycles