October 31, 2017

The Texas Children’s Hospital Ukulele Choir cheered on our Houston Astros in the best way they know how, with the help of some very special patients!

Led by the Music Therapy Department and made up of Texas Children’s staff members, the choir led patients and staff from the Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit in a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in support of the Astros’ appearance at the championship game.

The patients played and sang along with the choir demonstrating not only their enthusiasm for the Astros, but also the great strides they have made in their recovery at Texas Children’s.

Established in 2014, Texas Children’s Ukulele Choir is rooted in self-care and respite for staff members who work hard and endure much for our patients and families. It provides an opportunity for members to create positive moments and relationships within their work environment and outside of their immediate department. Since the choir is led by the hospital’s music therapists, patients and staff benefit from this form of therapeutic intervention intended to bolster positive moods and mindsets.

Once a month, the Ukulele Choir performs on inpatient units, high traffic areas of the hospital, as well as staff meetings and events. The choir also provides live environmental music throughout the hospital. Since its inception three years ago, the choir has grown from three to more than 30 staff members representing different areas of the hospital including Information Services, Nursing, Pharmacy and Child Life.

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.

October 17, 2017

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.

October 10, 2017

From Wednesday, October 11 to Friday, October 13, Texas Children’s will co-host 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 will gather at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) National Magnet Conference®.

“This is such an incredible honor for Texas Children’s to co-sponsor this year’s Nursing Magnet Conference® right here in the Greater Houston area,” said Texas Children’s CNO Mary Jo Andre. “For many months, our Magnet team led by Emily Weber and Sarah Marcion has been engaged with the ANCC in planning for the conference, which I know will be an amazing success.”

The entire Magnet team handled various parts of the coordination including registering and preparing our staff volunteers to serve in a variety of roles at the conference. The team also organized a pediatric Magnet® hospital networking dinner, hospital tours including a tour for nurses from Lebanon, and a Daisy Awards luncheon where the co-founders of the Daisy Foundation will be present to greet attendees.

The Magnet Conference® is the official annual conference of the prestigious Magnet Recognition Program®, that not only recognizes the accomplishments of newly designated Magnet organizations, but provides a showcase of best nursing practices for the Magnet community that can be incorporated into their own organization’s nursing program.

When the Magnet Conference® begins this Wednesday, CNO Mary Jo Andre and Executive Vice President Dan DiPrisco will be on stage with other Magnet hospital executives as more than 10,000 attendees are welcomed at the opening session. Additionally, several of Texas Children’s nurses and staff will deliver podium presentations during the three-day Magnet Conference®. Their entries were among hundreds of entries that were submitted to the ANCC for review before being selected.

Below are the podium presentations that will be delivered by Texas Children’s staff:

  • Making Magic! Mixing Staff Nurse Expertise with Leader Support

Tarra Christopher, Maria Happe, Shannon Holland and Janet Winebar

  • Utilization of Simulation-based Design Tests in Facility Design

Maria Happe, Kerry Sembera and Gemma Elegores

  • Partnership Yields Successful Communication Strategy for Nursing

Jody Childs and Rosanne Moore

The conference also will include poster presentations, informative sessions and other activities. Stay tuned to Connect for event highlights and photos from the Magnet Conference® in an upcoming article.

September 26, 2017

On September 22, Dr. Martha Curley, the 2017 recipient of the Thomas Vargo Visiting Professorship in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, presented two lectures to residents, fellows, APP’s, physicians and nurses during her visit to Texas Children’s including Pediatric Grand Rounds  titled “Team Science – Answering Complex Clinical Questions Together.”

Curley is the Ellen and Robert Kapito Professor in Nursing Science at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She also holds a joint appointment in Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at the University’s Perelman School of Medicine and is a nurse scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Through several decades of outstanding high quality nurse-led research that engages all members of the clinical team, Curley has transformed the ICU experiences and outcomes of countless critically ill children and their families all over the world.

September 19, 2017

Chief nursing executives and chief nursing officers play a crucial role in a hospital or health systems’ success. Many top nursing executives oversee large teams of nurses to ensure quality of care and patient experience.

Texas Children’s Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President Mary Jo Andre was recently recognized as one of the “60+ Hospital and Health System CNOs to Know” for 2017 by Beckers Hospital Review, the leading source of cutting-edge business and legal information for healthcare industry leaders.

Andre joined Texas Children’s as a staff nurse and held several leadership positions, including senior vice president over quality and safety, before being promoted to CNO in 2015. Andre led the hospital’s efforts to improve its quality program, which yielded better patient safety and engagement.

Click here to read the Becker’s Hospital Review article.

August 15, 2017

Dr. Milton Finegold (left), chief emeritus, Department of Texas Children’s Pathology and Mary Jo Andre (far right), chief nursing officer, congratulates Finegold Award recipients Christopher Willoughby, (from left), son of Robbye Willoughby, West Campus Emergency Center; Amelia Boettiger, daughter of Michele Boettiger, patient care manager, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Alexie-Joy De La Cruz, daughter of Arlene De La Cruz, education coordinator, Diagnostic Imaging; and Cayla Morris, daughter of Sondra Morris, assistant clinical director, West Campus.

Finegold established the scholarship in 1980 in memory of his wife, Joan, a nurse, to help the children of Texas Children’s registered nurses fulfill their educational goals. The applicant (registered nurse) must be an employee of Texas Children’s for a minimum of two years on or before May 1 of the year of application. Since the first scholarship was awarded in 1985, more than 90 children have benefited from the Joan M. Finegold Scholarship.