Nursing

Mission

Akron Children's nurses are dedicated to providing patient- and-family-centered, exemplary care across the healthcare continuum, optimizing patient experience, outcomes, health and wellness through our professional practice model.

Vision

Akron Children's nurses will set the standard of excellence for exemplary, nationally recognized nursing practice to improve, maintain and promote the health and well-being of our patients, families and community.

Values

Nursing's values, reflected through the Akron Children's Spirit of Service and Character Counts! program include: Professionalism, Courtesy, Teamwork, Communication, Citizenship, Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness and Caring.

Philosophy

The philosophy of professional nursing practice at Akron Children's supports the delivery of evidence-based, patient-and-family-centered exemplary care. We are committed to providing compassionate and culturally competent care, respecting the individual needs of each child and family.

We believe in delivering high-quality, safe care to promote the health and wellness of patients, families and communities across the continuum.

We believe in providing a work environment that supports nursing autonomy, shared decision-making, professional development and innovation.

We believe in contributing to the advancement of the profession of nursing and our community through education, advocacy and community healthcare outreach.

We believe in fostering a collaborative, interprofessional team approach to achieve exemplary outcomes through continuous quality improvement, research and evidence-based practice.

Conceptual Framework

The theory-based conceptual framework describes the core elements of nursing, patient/family, environment and health. Nursing Services conceptualized the core elements to reflect beliefs about nursing at Akron Children's using nursing theories as a guide.

Click here for a downloadable PDF of our Guiding Principles

Continuing Education for Nursing

Akron Children’s is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Ohio Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. (OBN-001-91) (OH-234, 08-01-19)

As a continuing education provider, the Center of Nursing Professional Practice supports the mission and vision of Akron Children’s through an innovative commitment to professional development that emphasizes teaching, mentoring and role development. Three vital components to the continuing education provider program include offering high-quality care rooted in evidence-based practice, improving patient experience, and creating and sustaining a healthy work environment.       

Career Ladder for Nursing

The Career Achievement and Recognition of Excellence (CARE) Ladder Program is designed to recognize and reward nurses (RNs and LPNs) who demonstrate expertise in clinical, education and leadership tracks. To advance on the CARE Ladder, nurses create a portfolio of accomplishments highlighting their professional practice. Based on Patricia Benner’s Novice to Expert theory, there are five levels for a nurse to achieve, measuring the nurse’s capabilities from novice to expert.

Akron Children’s is committed to providing nurses with a supportive and educational environment throughout their transition from student to professional. 

Akron Children's Nurse Residency Program is accredited with distinction as a Practice Transition Program by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation in Practice Transition Programs. We received this recognition in 2018 and 2021.

The one-year residency program assists new nurses in gaining the skills and confidence needed as they transition to becoming competent professional nurses in a clinical environment. Nurses hired by Akron Children’s who have less than one year of experience are enrolled upon hire. Each nurse resident is provided with a preceptor for clinical support through orientation, a facilitator and peer support group to ease the transition to the nurse’s new role, structured educational experiences designed to develop competence in nursing practice, simulation experiences and support in incorporating research-based evidence linked to outcomes in practice through completion of a scholarly project. New resident cohorts begin on a bi-monthly basis, with an average class size of 18. Approximately 100 nurse residents begin the program annually. 

Center for Nursing Research

The work of nurses is essential for effective, efficient and quality health care. Nurses have high patient visibility and communicate regularly with Akron Children's interdisciplinary staff and administrative team. Trained to make detailed observations, nurses can be exceptional researchers.

At Akron Children's Rebecca D. Considine Research Institute, our commitment to nursing research creates opportunities to improve family-centered care through advances in nursing clinical practice, administration and education.

The breadth and scope of nursing science are wide-ranging, encompassing topics from patient care and safety to nursing productivity. By evaluating promising new patient care strategies and methods, nursing research contributes to compassionate care — easing the emotional burden of children and families coping with serious, sometimes painful, life-threatening medical conditions.

Our pursuit of nursing excellence through research also generates “best practice” patient care models that enhance the practice of nursing nationally.

Evidence-Based Practice

At Akron Children’s, we believe in the power of evidence-based practice to take our nursing care to new levels of excellence. Evidence-based practice inspires outstanding clinical outcomes by fostering innovative thinking and creative problem-solving to transform practice initiatives into clinical realities. This leads to improved outcomes on nurse-sensitive indicators, better patient experiences, and more cost-effective care.  

Evidence-based practice is a problem-solving approach to clinical care that incorporates the best evidence from well-designed research studies, the expertise of clinicians, and the values and preferences of patients when making decisions about care.

It includes a critical assessment of relevant research studies and the review of available literature to identify best practices. It includes the cumulative experience, education and practice skills of our clinicians, and it integrates patient values and preferences to promote individualized care.

At Akron Children’s, we foster the professional development and clinical skill-building of our nurses by supporting them in the implementation of evidence-based practice and research. By promoting problem-solving and discovery, we’re helping our nurses transform the delivery of pediatric nursing care within our hospital walls and beyond.

Beyond the Bedside: Shared Professional Governance

Akron Children's supports decentralized decision-making, shared ownership, accountability and partnerships between key stakeholders with the goal of improving patient care. Our shared professional governance structure provides a forum for our nurses to participate in the decisions that affect their work. Nurses with all levels of experience are encouraged to participate on one of our ten shared professional governance councils, as well as on their unit-based councils.
 

Unit-Based Councils

Akron Children's Unit-Based Councils provide a forum for shared decision-making between unit nursing staff and management to promote evidence-based nursing, clinical excellence and optimal patient care outcomes.

Our councils are rooted in the premise that direct-care nurses have the best insight into solutions for unit-level clinical practice, quality and performance improvement, research, professional development, and issues surrounding unit culture and work environment.
 

Healthy Work Environment

The Healthy work environment council provides input to clinical staffing and resource management processes and related policies and facilitates evidence-based resource management practices to support quality patient care and outcomes.

Professional Development

The Professional Development Council defines, implements, evaluates and improves initiatives that promote professional development and staff satisfaction, including: Supports education initiatives, provides education and promotes individual responsibility and accountability for education and professional growth.

Interdisciplinary Integrated Informatics (III)

The Integrated Interdisciplinary Informatics Council identifies issues and leads workflow analysis and improvement in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of effective, innovative information technologies across clinical, administrative, educational, and/or research domains of practice. The Council provides a venue for communication, networking, and education of clinicians across the organization for improvements in and optimization of the use of the electronic medical record system.

Clinical Practice

The clinical practice council Identifies, implements, and utilizes established standards of care and best practices to empower clinicians to provide care that is evidence-based and family-centered, as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Quality

The Quality Council promotes an environment of continuous improvement in the quality of patient care, evidence-based practice and research. As a part of a multi-disciplinary team, it assesses and ensures compliance with established standards of care and practice.

Child Life

The Child Life Professional Development Council will promote and maintain the Association of Child Life Professionals operating principles. The council promotes child life standards of clinical practice and recognition of child life achievements. The council strives to support professional and multidisciplinary collaboration and education. 

Research

The Nursing Research Council promotes an environment of inquiry through education, conduct, application and dissemination of research. The Council facilitates internal and external connections, linkages and recognition to enhance professional and multidisciplinary collaborations.

 Advanced Practice Provider Council

The Advance Professional Practice (APP) Council is comprised of APRN and PA providers, from across the organization, which represent the various areas of primary care, specialty, and acute care practice The Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Council reviews standards and practice related issues for the APRN and PA medical staff at Akron Children’s.
 

Ambulatory

The Ambulatory Council provides a forum for shared decision making to promote clinical excellence and optimal patient outcomes. The council will work to ensure that all practice and patient care decisions are consistent with evidence based practice and professional standards. The council may address clinical practice, quality improvement, research, professional development culture and work environment issues.

Leadership

The Leadership Council will promote nursing excellence through transformational leadership.

Advanced Practice Center

Our Advanced Practice Center supports advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants at Akron Children’s by providing expert resources in onboarding, orientation, practice, licensing, compliance, credentialing, privileging, continuing education and training.

VIDEO: Year of the Nurse 2020