Excellence Every Day represents an MGH commitment to providing the highest quality, safest care that meets or exceeds all standards set by the hospital and external organizations.

 

Patient Care Services is committed to creating opportunities for all members of the team to develop the skill and knowledge to enhance their professional development for the benefit of not only our patients but for the individual's professional growth. As stated in the Patient Care Services guiding principles, we view learning as a lifelong process, essential to the growth and development of clinicians striving to deliver quality patient care.

Credentialing through certification advances our individual professions through encouraging, recognizing and celebrating professional achievement. Certification is a formal process that validates one’s knowledge, skills and abilities in a particular area of practice. For our patients and their families, certification communicates to them that we maintain a higher level of achievement, expertise and judgment. Certification boards that are associated with nationally recognized professional organizations develop and implement certification examinations and procedures for nurses and our allied health professional colleagues who want to have their specialty practice recognized by their profession. One component of the required evidence is successful completion of an examination that tests the knowledge base for the selected area of practice. Other requirements relate to the content of course work and amount of supervised practice.

The following professional organizations are excellent certification resources:

Nursing

Professional and Specialty Certification/Re-certification Examinations Reimbursement (applies to Nursing only)

• American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)

Occupational Therapy

• American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)
• Hand Therapy Certification Commission
• National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT)

Physical Therapy

• American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties (ABPTS)

Speech Language Pathology

• Academy of Neurological Communication Disorders and Science (ANCDS)
• American Speech- Language Hearing Association (ASHA)
• Dysphagia Research Society (DRS)

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CONTINUING EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

Patient Care Services supports continuing education activities for all members of the team to ensure the delivery of safe quality evidence based care to our patients. Continuing education programs include a wide range of topics promote life-long learning and clinical excellence by establishing, supporting and fostering learning opportunities for the attainment of knowledge and skills necessary for safe, competent and compassionate patient-centered care.

 

 

HealthStream

• HealthStream

Nursing

• Norman Knight Nursing Center for Clinical & Professional Development
• Nursing Grand Rounds Video Presentation
• CPR and PALS certification/recertification

Social Work

• The Social Work Ethics Forum meets monthly. Social Service staff can refer to the Social Service monthly calendar for details. 
• Social Service Grand Rounds is offered monthly during the academic year.  

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SCHOLARSHIP & FELLOWSHIP RESOURCES

Massachusetts General Hospital and Patient Care Services offer a variety of scholarships and fellowships to employees to support them in continuing their education as well as enhancing their professional development. Many of these are supported through the generous gifts of former patients and families. Below you will find information on these programs.

• Association of Multicultural Members of Partners (AAMP)
  Each year AMMP members are eligible to apply for scholarships to assist in their pursuit of degrees and other relevant training at colleges and universities. The scholarship program is one more way AMMP can help its members to get the education and training they need to broaden their skills and advance in their careers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Current employees of Partners and MGH are eligible to compete for scholarship awards.
• Clinical Leadership Collaborative for Diversity (CLCDN) in Nursing Scholarship Program
  The CLCDN Scholarship was established to assist in increasing the pipeline of diverse nurses caring for patients throughout the Partners HealthCare and to develop diverse nurse leaders. Applicants who identify themselves as American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander are encouraged to apply. The CLCDN program helps to address the challenges of work, home and school and chart new possibilities for nurses employed at Partners HealthCare Institutions who are interested in pursuing an advanced degree.

• Patient Care Services Fellowships
  

• Patient Care Services Scholarships

Professional and Specialty Certification/Re-certification Examinations Reimbursement (applies to Nursing only)

Support Services Grants
MGH Training and Workforce Development facilitates and promotes employee education and training to attract, develop and retain a highly-skilled, diverse workforce through sustainable collaborations that support the MGH's mission.

Tuition Reimbursement Policy

Tuition Vouchers – Selected Programs
MGH provides clinical training for hundreds of nurses, therapist, and social workers. In exchange for providing these preceptored experiences, MGH will often receive tuition vouchers that staff can apply for. For more information, please contact your director.

Professional and Specialty Certification/Re-certification Examinations Reimbursement (applies to Nursing only)

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CLINICAL EDUCATION RESOURCES

The Clinical Affiliations Program exemplifies our mission “to educate future academic and practice leaders of the health care professions”; our vision “to create a practice environment that is built on a spirit of inquiry;" our professional practice model; and the Department of Nursing philosophy “to educate ourselves and to educate others."

Clinicians in Patient Care Services at Massachusetts General Hospital have long valued their role in caring for patients and families. The Clinical Recognition Program provides a way to formally recognize professional clinical staff for their expertise. Through the program, clinical staff from six disciplines in Patient Care Services analyze their own practice and then seek recognition for the level of practice they have achieved. The program recognizes that valuable contributions are made by staff at every level and that excellence is a goal common to all.

 

• Introduction
• Levels of practice (grids)
• FAQs
• Glossary of CRP Terms

Guides for Self Reflection

• Nursing
• Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy
• Respiratory Therapy
• Social Work
• Speech Language Pathology and Swallowing Disorders

Review Board Information

• Review Board process (video of board Process)
• Review Board members
• Portfolio Peer Review
• Observing the Review Board

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SPOTLIGHT ON PRACTICE

Across last spring and summer, PT and OT Services piloted a new forum, Narrative Rounds, in which staff presented their narratives in a small group setting. The participants took on the role of reading the narrative and “unbundling” it with the writer, to gain insight into clinical practice.  The positive reception to this model led Jampel and Knab to submit a proposal to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) for the conference in Clearwater, FL, offering narrative rounds as an active learning model that may enhance the learning experience of health professions students in the classroom or clinic. more...

— Ann Jampel, PT and Mary Knab, PT

Pictured (left to right): Mary Knab, PT, Karen Turner, OTR/L and Ann Jampel, PT

IN THE NEWS

Recognizing Clinical Excellence at All Levels of Practice:
A Multidisciplinary Clinical Recognition Program Journal of Nursing Administration. 38(2):68-75, 2008 Feb.
(accessible using Partners uder name and password to log on )

A closer look at the Clinical Recognition Program
A Celebration of Excellence in Clinical Practice —Caring Headlines, Feb. 17, 2011

Clinical Recognition Program
excellence is embedded at every level of practice
—Caring Headlines, May 5, 2011

Blending science and Storytelling
One discipline’s journey toward a meaningful narrative culture —Caring Headlines, Sept. 2, 2010

"Unlike material capital, knowledge does not deteriorate with use.  But, like equipment, old skills become obsolete with the advent of new technologies.  Continuing education and on-the-job training are required to keep existing skills in line with technological progress and new knowledge." After staff are hired, even the smallest hospital has a responsibility to see that they receive the education and training they need to provide quality care and to keep patients safe.

(Quoted by The joint Commission in it's 2009 Hospital Accreditation Standards Manual, from the WHO's World Health Report 2000 - Health Systems: Improving Performance)

Magnet Recognition

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) requires Magnet-designated organizations to track nationally-benchmarked nursing sensitive indicators (NSIs) to continually inform improvement efforts related enhance patient outcomes. Examples of NSIs include, but are not limited to: patient falls, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, blood stream infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and restraint use.

click here...

There are numerous terms and acronyms in healthcare that may be unfamiliar. Please click here to visit a Glossary of Terms that may be helpful. And please email any suggested additions.

This month's featured term: Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition

Based on the work of Drs. Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus, both professors at the University of California at Berkeley. This is a situational model of skill acquisition. It is the development of skilled know how. The model states that a person passes through five stages of
qualitatively different perceptions of his/her task and/or mode of decision-making as his/her skill improves. It is neither expected nor possible for all individuals to proceed in a linear fashion. Skill according to this model is based on innate ability, experience and environment.

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If you have questions or suggestions related to the EED portal, please contact Georgia Peirce at (617) 724-9865 or via email at gwpeirce@partners.org.

updated 6/17/13

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