National Nurses United

PPC.2:4 7/22/09 10:31 PM Page 17 After they identified candidates, they would get them involved through smaller projects and tasks. If they followed through and completed them successfully, these nurses would graduate to positions of greater responsibility, such as becoming a nurse representative. These nurses would eventually be encouraged to run for election to the professional practice committee. And the process never stops as current PPC members always stay on the lookout for fresh faces and budding leaders. It took some years, but the Kaiser South San Francisco PPC by the mid 1990s had assembled a group that began seriously tackling nursing Top 10 Ways to Shape Up Your PPC 1. Create a meeting agenda and keep minutes. 2. Have every unit of the hospital represented. 3. Encourage each member to speak and give a unit report early in the meeting. 4. Have recommendations or proposed solutions ready for the issues you raise. 5. Stay in constant communication, don't just talk to each other on the day of your PPC meeting. 6. Follow through! If you had homework to do, do it! 7. Use some time during your PPC meeting to walk through the units and talk to the nurses. 8. Talk to your fellow RNs! Conduct surveys, do interviews. 9. Identify and mentor leaders and stay connected with the new grads. Test them out. 10. Just because an RN is not on the PPC doesn't mean she or he cannot help. Enlist RNs outside of the PPC on your work projects. issues and scored some victories. Perhaps the most notable achievement the PPC has made in recent years was the creation and implementation of an innovative medication safety program that was so successful that Kaiser Permanente adopted it region wide for all its facilities. It started when the hospital's director for risk and safety gave the PPC statistics on how many medication errors each unit made. One PPC member was disturbed to learn her unit had the most errors, and initiated a survey of her coworkers to ask what factors they believed would set up a situation where they'd be more likely to make a mistake. The number one response was disruption. The entire PPC brainstormed how to prevent an RN from being interrupted while passing medication. They hit upon the idea of having RNs wear a special vest while preparing and administering drugs and piloted the program on two units. Not all the RNs were easily persuaded to wear the vests or thought them necessary. "Some resisted," said Cortez. "Some people thought it looked unprofessional, that we looked like we work for Caltrans!" In response, the PPC developed an additional, more fashionable option of wearing a sash instead of a vest. Still, the PPC worked long and hard to get all their coworkers on board, showing up at 5 a.m. before their shifts started, staying late, and even coming in on their days off to walk through the units and talk to nurses. But their efforts worked. Errors dropped dramatically and were eliminated on some units. It was such a clever and simple idea that Kaiser co-opted it, branded it, and marketed it as a company program. So what makes the Kaiser South San Francisco PPC work well and what pitfalls stop other PPCs from functioning at their full potential? Cortez, Ramirez, and others on the South San Francisco PPC always seemed to circle back to the grounding philosophy that they sit on the PPC to serve their fellow coworkers and ultimately the patients—not to get a paid day off from work once a month, not to feel self important, and certainly not to gather and listen to themselves talk for eight hours. "The problem with a lot of PPCs is that they just complain," said Ramirez. "They just use the hours to talk, but they don't come up with any plan of action, so it's just wasting time. When you have a group, work as a group. Act as a group. Make people accountable. Give them an assignment. They should do what you ask them to do or they agree to do." This culture of action and duty is emphasized to aspiring PPC members. "They always said you can't just be in this meeting and not take action," said Janette Valdez, RN and PPC member. "You represent the nurses, and as members, we take it seriously. We can't just sit in the room and vent." At a recent PPC meeting, each PPC member gave a unit report which included updates on how the unit was coping with the implementation of HealthConnect, the new electronic charting program, as well as any staffing and break relief issues and assignment despite objections filed. Most importantly, members offered recommended actions the PPC could take to resolve the problems raised. "To management, complaining is whining," said Ramirez. "If we are going to complain, then we have to have solutions and we need to say it in a professional and intelligent way." RNs looking to improve their PPCs should set their eyes on the ultimate goal of advancing patient care, they said, because multiple, smart RNs can make and execute big plans. "If you work together with a group, you can make a difference," said Valdez. "We struggle and keep doing what's right, and just remember what's right for our patients." ■ Lucia Hwang is editor of Registered Nurse. JUNE 2009 W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G REGISTERED NURSE 17

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