In our recent Webinar, “Performance Improvement: What PI Is, Where It’s Headed, How It Can Be Part of Your Education Strategy”, Nurses Improve Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE), was highlighted as an organization that is clearly structured around performance improvement.
As the leading nurse-driven program designed to help hospitals and healthcare organizations improve the care of older adults, NICHE’s primary goals are around improvement and change. Their designation demonstrates an organization’s commitment to improving the quality of care for older adults in its health system.
Although NICHE employs a number of tools to help guide organizations through change, their Leadership Training Program (LTP), is the first step to obtaining the NICHE designation- and it’s also what I’d like to highlight in this month’s Community Spotlight.
The LTP is a blended learning approach where participants engage in a rigorous six-week, web-based training program facilitated by the NICHE team.
Below is information about what makes this a well-designed program:
- Each participating hospital, long-term care facility or health system is required to register a core team of at least 3 people, such as a nurse leader, an educator, and a hospital administrator. This team-based approach ensures accountability, collaboration, and representation from various roles across the organization.
- As mentioned above, the program takes a blended learning approach with both on- and off-line components. Instruction and support are delivered via a web-based platform, as well as by NICHE staff and faculty mentors. This includes interactive conference calls, live and recorded webinars, mentoring, and on-demand access to tools. This varied approach to teaching caters to different learning styles and because there is a mentoring/interactive element, instruction is personalized to each learner.
- Participants, in collaboration with the LTP mentors, also develop a unique action plan for their organizations to implement the NICHE Program. NICHE recognizes that implementation will vary according to the individual facility characteristics, so they don’t assume what works for one will work for all.
- The program teaches evidence-based, financial, and organizational measurement approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Having benchmark data and metrics are essential to performance improvement and allow a way to assess current performance and implement any necessary interventions.
When implementing change of any kind, people need to feel supported with the necessary tools and resources. NICHE’s Leadership Training Program offers a personalized, team-based, results-driven approach that we can all hopefully learn something from.
Thank you Samara Sweig, Director of Operations at NICHE, for allowing me to share more about your organization and the Leadership Training Program in this month’s post.
Please feel free to reply to this discussion with any comments, questions, or additional resources.
And make sure to check out our previous Community Spotlight posts below if you haven’t done so already: