Note from the Instructor: Wishing you a happy Nurses Week!

By Laurie L. Prescott, RN, MSN, CCDS, CDIP, CRC

“Nurses: Inspire, Innovate, Influence.”

That’s the theme of Nurses Week in 2018 and it reflects so well how nurses have affected the profession of CDI over the years. Of course, nurses share this profession of CDI with many disciplines, including HIM professionals and physicians and each brings their own skills, scope of knowledge and experience to the game.

Nurses working in the role of a CDI specialist, rarely get to apply their direct patient care skills any more. This is difficult for many, like myself, who found the intangibles of nursing to be the most rewarding experiences of our lives—holding a hand, wiping tears away, minimizing the burden of pain and fear. We are invited to share our patient’s most intimate moments in life and death. The true nurse sees this invitation as a privilege.

In honor of Nurses Week, the discipline I have been part of for more than 30 years, I ask you to join me as I honor nurses’ contributions.

Nurses inspire every day

The fact that a nurse will arise early in the morning, trek to work long before his or her shift begins to ensure the day is well planned and executed, is inspiring. Nurses assert themselves, acting as the patient’s advocate and speaking for the patient’s needs, often when the patient can’t (or is not even aware of the need). Striving to ensure safe, effective care is provided to each and every patient is a core responsibility of nurses. They must be knowledgeable about clinical conditions, treatment protocols, pharmacology-drug interactions, psychology, and interpersonal communications—all skills that lend well to the daily function of a CDI, I might add.

The CDI specialist nurse who is persistent in ensuring providers are well informed and their documentation is converted to data that clearly represents the patient’s story is an inspiration. On many days, ours is not the easiest of jobs. It’s difficult to approach a provider repeatedly, who does not wish to work with us. It’s difficult to assert our needs, the needs of the providers, and the integrity of the medical record to administration. Although not directly connected to patient care, we still advocate for the safety and well-being of our patients.

Nurses innovate every day

It could be as simple as trying to figure out how to apply a dressing that will remain intact over a patient’s abdomen without further excoriating tissue, or the ability to start a difficult IV on a shocky patient, while we stand on one foot and leaning at a 70-degree angle during a code. Innovation is what nurses do every day.

The CDI specialist nurse, working to devise new platforms to teach providers, who designs a mouse pad with imbedded documentation tips, or a pen with chronic kidney disease stages written down the side, is demonstrating innovation. The CDI specialist nurse who designs a Jeopardy board game to educate nursing staff about the assessment and documentation of wounds is an innovator. The CDI specialist who bakes cookies to ease her entrance into a provider’s office is an innovator. Innovation is a core skill of a successful nurse.

Nurses influence every day

I believe most nurses underestimate their ability to influence their organizations and the healthcare industry around them. We have a strong voice and we should remember to communicate assertively when we see issues, while also offering our ideas as to how to improve.

Nurses perform this task quietly and efficiently every day.

We influence the care of every patient we touch. We work to smooth out the edges with a goal to make bad situations tolerable and good situations amazing. Over the years, I have seen nurses arrange for a last minute marriage of a dying patient, make the devastating news of a dying infant manageable while creating memories for the parents which they will hold close their entire lifetime. We influence the world around us.

As CDI specialists, we are in a unique position to influence not only the care of the patients, the satisfaction of the providers, and the health of our organizations, but we can also influence the future of healthcare in our country. We must keep ourselves well informed, up-to-date, and act as advocates for the state of healthcare nationally and locally within our organizations. Be active, and be proud of your influence.

In closing, 30 years ago when I chose nursing as my profession, I never anticipated the wild ride I would take. I never anticipated the role I now fulfill, but I can honestly say I would never have chosen a different road.

So, if you are a nurse, I honor you and thank you for all that you do and if you came upon CDI from a different route, I ask you to thank your nurses for their inspiration, innovation, and influence.

Editor’s note: Prescott is the CDI Education Director at HCPro in Middleton, Massachusetts. Contact her at lprescott@hcpro.com. For information regarding CDI Boot Camps, visit www.hcprobootcamps.com/courses/10040/overview.