October 31, 2017

“I do a lot of walking around the hospital,” said Donald Wilkins, a patient ambassador at Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center campus and a 2017 Caught You Caring award recipient. “I average anywhere between 15 to 20,000 steps a day.”

While Donald’s job requires him to spend a lot of time on his feet, he wouldn’t have it any other way. As a patient ambassador, Donald always looks out for his patient and their families’ well-being. He provides updates, information and general reassurance for patients and their families involved in the perioperative process.

“When patients come in for surgery, they are anxious about what to expect during and after their procedure,” said Becky Hanson, patient care manager at PACU West Tower. “Donald is a very compassionate person. He listens and empathizes with our patients and families, ensuring their questions and concerns are addressed.”

Besides caring for patient and their families, Donald also assists the physicians with family communications and provides support to the admissions staff when they need clarification regarding patient classification. He plays an essential role in making sure that all of the operating rooms at West Tower run smoothly.

“His outgoing personality and can-do attitude makes Texas Children’s a better place for our patients and their families,” Hanson said. “Donald is just one of those people that you always want to have on your team, and is well deserving of the Caught You Caring award.”

Launched in 2015, Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program is a systemwide program that recognizes employees for going above and beyond to provide compassion and kindness in the care of a patient, family or co-worker. Last month, Donald was among more than a dozen employees who received a pair of tickets to watch the Houston Texans Play 60 game, after being recognized for his acts of kindness through this program.

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference.

To nominate a colleague, Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found across the Texas Children’s hospital system for patients and families to fill out. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

For the next three weeks, Connect will feature a series of Caught You Caring videos spotlighting several of our employees who have gone above and beyond their role in the care of our patients and their families.

More than 300 patients and family members attended the Di-A-Boo-Tes Bash on October 21 at the Houston Health Museum. Hosted by Texas Children’s Hospital’s Diabetes Clinic, more than 70 vendors participated in the event, meant to provide patients with a way to celebrate Halloween and highlight diabetes awareness to the community.

October 24, 2017

Texas Children’s inches closer towards achieving its third Magnet® re-designation, which is considered the gold standard for nursing excellence. Now that the hospital’s application and written documentation for Magnet® re-designation have been approved, Magnet’s appraiser team will visit Texas Children’s for a site visit in January.

“This step marks a huge milestone in our journey towards Magnet® re-designation,” said Texas Children’s Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre’. “The site visit will provide our appraiser team with the opportunity to validate the exemplars referenced in our written documentation. I am so proud of the combined efforts of our entire nursing team which made this collaborative achievement possible. I would also like to recognize Emily Weber, Sarah Marcion, and the NAS team for their leadership.”

From January 22 to 26, 2018, Magnet® appraisers will conduct a site visit at Texas Children’s, which is one of the many required steps to obtain Magnet® re-designation. The site visit will provide an opportunity for nurses and the entire health care team to engage with the Magnet® appraisers, share their exceptional accomplishments, and highlight our great partnership, exceptional care delivery and collaboration to enhance patient outcomes.

Reaching this milestone was no easy task. The 10-month Magnet® re-designation process required tremendous collaboration among many departments across the organization including Nursing, Quality and Safety, Nursing Clinical Informatics, Human Resources, Information Services (IS), Patient and Family Services and Marketing.

“In January 2016, Mary Jo Andre in collaboration with Emily Weber, nursing, and the interprofessional team across the organization reviewed each Magnet® standard with our consultant and aligned the submitted source of evidence examples to the Magnet standards,” said Texas Children’s Magnet Assistant Director Sarah Marcion. “Every other month we had a three-day Magnet® writers workshop for our Magnet writing team who developed the Texas Children’s Hospital exemplars that contributed to our system-wide achievements. Necessary materials and documentation were included in our Magnet® website. We received support from IS and Marketing on the website development.”

Since 2003, Texas Children’s has been a Magnet-designated organization. Every four years, the hospital applies for Magnet® re-designation, which is the highest and most prestigious recognition provided by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and reflects Texas Children’s commitment to providing quality patient care.

Following the site visit in January, the Magnet appraisers will submit a report to the Commission on Magnet®, which makes the final decisions regarding Texas Children’s Magnet® re-designation.

“We are very confident that our organization will receive the Magnet re-designation in the spring of 2018,” Andre’ said. “Our nurses and our entire health care team have worked so hard to help us maintain this gold standard of nursing excellence.”

To learn more about the ANCC’s Magnet Recognition Program®, click here.

Heather Eppelheimer is a child life specialist with Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. While she is quick to offer support in any way she can, Heather’s primary responsibility is to work closely with expecting families who have lost a child.

Heather helps these families cope with their loss and create lasting memories of their child. She offers the same type of support to her colleagues who might be going through a stressful time, consistently rising above and beyond as a supportive teammate.

“Heather has become a staple of support and mentorship for our Child Life Department,” said Saraben Turner, a child life manager. “She approaches each day with a mission to provide optimal, compassionate care to her patients and families, while also ensuring that her colleagues and teammates are feeling supported in the exceptional work they do.”

“She truly exemplifies living compassionately and amplifying unity in her every day work,” Turner continued. “She is continually provided with Caught You Caring awards and other recognitions highlighting the strong work she provides to patients and their families, her team and Texas Children’s Hospital.”

Launched in 2015, Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program is a systemwide program that recognizes employees for going above and beyond to provide compassion and kindness in the care of a patient, family or co-worker. Recently, Epplelheimer was among more than a dozen employees who received a pair of tickets to watch the Houston Texans Play 60 game on October 1, after being recognized for his acts of kindness through this program.

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference.

To nominate a colleague, Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found across the Texas Children’s hospital system for patients and families to fill out. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

For the next three weeks, Connect will feature a series of Caught You Caring videos spotlighting several of our employees who have gone above and beyond their role in the care of our patients and their families.

Pediatric plastic surgeon Dr. Edward Buchanan has published his third children’s book in a series called the Mental Ninja Series.

The first two books of the series, “The Adventures of the Prickly Pear and the Happy Hoglet: Beginning the Journey of the Mental Ninja” and “Pit Bully: The Mental Ninja Awakens,” introduce readers to a world of characters focused on understanding themselves, their feeling and the control they have over their emotions.

In “The Tale of Fenny Fox: The Mental Ninja Emerges,” the journey continues, with the introduction to more characters and a message about the beauty of differences and the importance those differences play in people’s lives.

For more information about Buchanan’s book series, click here.

October 17, 2017

For the twelfth consecutive year, Texas Children’s Hospital has been ranked by the Houston Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work in Houston. This year Texas Children’s ranked No. 3 among companies employing more than 1,000 employees!

“This ranking is a result of employees’ transparent feedback about life at Texas Children’s, and with what I witness on a daily basis, I’m not surprised we landed among the city’s top employers,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “We are one amazing team!”

The Houston Business Journal held an awards luncheon October 12 at the Marriott Marquis to present the 17th annual Best Places to Work awards and celebrate all 104 companies that made the cut.

The award recognizes companies in the Houston area with the most satisfied employees and are compiled by Quantum Workplace, which sent a survey to employees of nominated companies. Quantum then comes up with scores based on corporate culture, amenities, benefits, and worker retention and attraction strategies. Companies are ranked by that score in four categories based on company size.

Last week, Texas Children’s co-hosted the largest annual nursing conference in the country, along with other local Magnet® hospitals. More than 10,000 nurses and nursing executives representing more than 20 countries gathered at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) National Magnet Conference® from October 11 to 13.

Texas Children’s Magnet team handled various parts of the coordination including registering and preparing staff volunteers to serve in a variety of roles at the conference. The team also organized a pediatric Magnet® hospital networking dinner and hospital tours for nursing leaders from pediatric hospitals across the country as well as a tour for nurses from Lebanon. The groups toured the Cancer Center, Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, and Mission Control at Texas Children’s Medical Center campus.

Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre and Executive Vice President Dan DiPrisco welcomed the more than 10,000 attendees at the opening session. In addition to poster presentations, several of Texas Children’s nurses and staff delivered insightful podium presentations during the three-day Magnet Conference® including a presentation on how simulation-based design tests prior to the construction of Legacy Tower helped optimize patient care workflows to enhance patient safety, minimize risk and foster family-centered care.

“It is so motivating and inspiring to see the great works of other nurse colleagues,” said Leslie Morris, education coordinator at Texas Children’s Heart Center. “The nursing conference also provided great opportunities for networking.”

As the official annual conference of the prestigious Magnet Recognition Program®, the event recognized the accomplishments of newly designated Magnet organizations and showcased best nursing practices that organizations can incorporate in their own nursing programs.

“I think it is important for our nurses to attend the Magnet Conference® to fully understand what it means to be a Magnet nurse,” said Curt Roberts, a staff nurse in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Texas Children’s. “When you experience all the positive changes in practice and patient outcomes that have been spearheaded by nurses, you realize that it’s a big deal to work in a Magnet institution and be a Magnet nurse.”

This year, 125 employees from Texas Children’s attended the Magnet Conference®. Next year’s conference will be held in Denver.

For nurses who were unable to attend the conference, click here to watch video highlights.

Nurses from across the country toured Texas Children’s during the week of the Nursing Conference.