Are you seeking effective strategies to revolutionize patient care within your healthcare organization? The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) offers invaluable tools and programs, notably the Care Innovation and Transformation (CIT) program, designed to empower nurse leaders and transform bedside care. This initiative builds upon the principles of Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB), enhancing and adapting them to meet the evolving demands of healthcare today.
Understanding the Core of CIT and TCAB: Enhancing Bedside Care
The CIT program retains the foundational elements of TCAB, focusing on rapid cycle improvement through the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) methodology. It fosters learning communities through in-person meetings, ensuring robust leadership and financial commitment from both the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). A rigorous framework for innovation and data collection is integral, promoting the continuous sharing of successes and challenges among participating healthcare organizations. The program strategically aligns with AONL’s goals, emphasizing the crucial role of nurse managers in driving transformation and culture change within inpatient units or teams.
What’s New in the CIT Program? Targeted Tools for Bedside Transformation
The CIT program introduces key enhancements, specifically targeting nurse managers with AONL’s extensive resources for leadership development. It equips nurse leaders with quality improvement tools, directly linking quality enhancement, leadership growth, and innovation to the broader national healthcare reform agenda. Participants identify a specific unit, team, or department within their organization to focus their transformation efforts. As a CIT hospital, teams engage in four in-person meetings over two years, participate in monthly calls, submit innovation logs, and commit to disseminating CIT practices throughout their institution.
Participation in CIT: A Deep Dive into Bedside Transformation Strategies
Participation in the CIT program involves a comprehensive journey towards care innovation and transformation. Hospitals and healthcare organizations applying for CIT participation are required to pinpoint a unit, team, or department ready for transformation. CIT hospitals commit to active engagement, including attending four in-person meetings across two years, participating in monthly conference calls to share progress and insights, maintaining monthly innovation logs to document their journey, and actively planning to extend CIT methodologies to other areas within their healthcare system. This structured approach ensures a deep and lasting impact on bedside care.
Who Benefits from CIT? Empowering Healthcare Teams for Bedside Excellence
The CIT program is designed for inpatient and outpatient unit teams across diverse healthcare settings. Past participants include critical access hospitals, rural and urban centers, academic medical institutions, rehabilitation units, and long-term care facilities. Team composition is multidisciplinary, typically including staff nurses, unit leadership, interdisciplinary team members, and support staff, all supported by chief nurse and quality leaders. This inclusive approach ensures a broad range of perspectives contribute to transforming care at the bedside.
Bringing CIT to Your Organization: Customized Tools for System-Wide Bedside Transformation
AONL provides the opportunity to implement a customized CIT program within your hospital or health system. This tailored approach can encompass up to 20 nursing units, teams, or departments over 18 months. By bringing CIT directly to your institution, the Center for Care Innovation and Transformation delivers the same high-quality training and educational benefits to a larger number of staff at a reduced overall cost compared to traditional off-site programs. This collaborative, workshop-style format is specifically designed to assist nursing unit leaders and their teams in enhancing patient care, improving hospital performance metrics, and boosting employee engagement. The customized CIT program maximizes participant volume while minimizing expenses, eliminating travel costs and fostering internal collaboration. While it reduces external networking opportunities, organizations are encouraged to involve pre- and post-acute care partners to broaden innovation, strengthen relationships, and enhance patient care across the entire care continuum.
TCAB Outcomes: Demonstrating the Impact of Bedside Transformation Tools
The TCAB and CIT programs have been implemented in over 200 nursing units nationwide, demonstrating significant impact. One cohort of 32 hospitals, after completing a two-year program, collectively implemented 926 innovations. Examples of these innovations include:
- Integrating discharge nurses to expedite patient discharge processes.
- Implementing bedside reporting, which has been shown to decrease patient falls and pressure ulcer rates, and reduce incremental overtime for nursing staff.
- Refining medication practices to minimize missing medications, thereby reducing the time nurses spend on pharmacy-related follow-ups.
These outcomes highlight the tangible benefits of utilizing TCAB and CIT tools for transforming care at the bedside.
The Business Case for TCAB: Justifying Investment in Bedside Transformation
The effectiveness of TCAB is further supported by a strong business case. Two notable publications provide methodologies for evaluating the financial benefits of TCAB initiatives:
- Unruh, L., Agrawal, M., & Hassmiller, S. (2011). The business case for transforming care at the bedside among the “TCAB 10” and lessons learned. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 35(2), 97-109.
- Bolton, L. B., & Aronow, H. U. (2009). The business case for TCAB. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 109(11), 77-80.
These publications offer valuable insights into the economic advantages of investing in bedside transformation through programs like TCAB and CIT.
Program Costs: Investing in AONE Tools for Bedside Transformation
Traditional CIT Program – Cost Option 1: The investment is $9,000 per hospital or healthcare team annually for two years. This fee covers comprehensive program management, including meeting coordination, expert consultation, webinars, conference calls, and extensive education encompassing rapid cycle change methodologies and train-the-trainer programs. It also includes management and analysis of collected data, along with the distribution of unit-level performance reports. The cost includes registration for up to five team members at each of the four mandatory in-person meetings. Additional participants are welcome for a supplemental fee of $200 per person to cover meals and resources. Travel and lodging expenses for participants are not included in the program fee.
For an additional one-time fee of $5,000, participating units can leverage the Time Study RN personal digital assistant (PDA) technology developed by Rapid Modeling Corporation. This tool enables precise tracking of nurse time and motion during shifts, facilitating the identification of non-value-added activities and opportunities to enhance bedside care time. The package includes two PDAs, training on their use, ongoing product support, monthly data reports, and the option to contribute to a national database for benchmarking unit performance. More information on this technology is available on the CIT Time Study page and the Rapid Modeling Corporation website.
Traditional CIT Program – Cost Option 2: This option includes all components of Option 1, excluding the Time Study PDA. The cost remains at $9,000 per hospital or healthcare team per year for two years, covering program management, consultation, webinars, conference calls, education on rapid cycle change and train-the-trainer methodologies, data management and analysis, and unit-level reports. Registration for up to five team members for each of the four in-person meetings is included, with additional participants welcome at $200 per person. Travel and lodging costs are not included.
For institutions enrolling five or more units, a discounted rate of $7,000 per unit per year is available. The Center is also equipped to accommodate institutions looking to enroll a large number of units.
Customized Hospital/System CIT Program: The Center offers a Customized CIT program for institutions aiming to enroll up to 20 units, teams, or departments. This program is designed to be highly cost-effective, facilitate rapid implementation across multiple units, and allow for program customization to meet specific organizational needs.
Application Process: Joining the CIT Bedside Transformation Initiative
The CIT program application is designed to be completed efficiently, typically requiring one to two hours. Prospective applicants are encouraged to provide concise and focused responses. The application form is accessible here.
Contact Information: Learn More About AONE Bedside Transformation Tools
For any inquiries regarding the AONL Care Innovation and Transformation program, please contact AONL directly at [email protected] or by phone at (312) 422-2804. Discover how AONE tools and the CIT program can empower your organization to achieve significant improvements in bedside care and overall healthcare delivery.
