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Inside best practice: Linked in: Communicate electronically with your nurses

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, August 12, 2008

Nurses need to have readily available access to unit-based and organizationwide resources, as today’s busy healthcare environment means policies, protocols, goals, and even job descriptions are continually changing and being updated.

This ever-changing need for information gave Kathleen Gall, MS, RN, NE-BC, patient care manager on the medical-surgical unit at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, WI, an opportunity to establish a unit-based communication tool that would categorize and catalogue unit and organizationwide resources.

The information systems department at Aurora St. Luke’s—an ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® redesignation recipient in 2005—built a unit-based Web site in DotNetNuke®—a free, open source framework for creating and managing Web applications. The unit’s med-surg nurses have access to the Web site at work or at home, and access is protected with a password.

Once logged on, nurses can view information related to education, staff information, and unit information. For example, nurses can find the following unit information on the site:

• The unit’s mission and vision
• Links to intranet sites within Aurora Health Care (i.e., infection control manual, policy and procedure manual for nursing, and patient education homepage)
• Unit goals
• Med-surg nurse of the year photograph
• Unit-based forms (e.g., quality control sheets)

Source: Adapted from HCPro’s Advisor to the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®, June 2008. Don't have a subscription? Take a look at the benefits of becoming a member of HCPro’s Resource Center for the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®.

Editor’s note: Do you have a best practice you would like to share? E-mail it to associate editor Cameran Erny at cerny@hcpro.com and see your name in print!

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