Critical Care Nurses Honor Monument Heart & Vascular
The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), Aliso Viejo, California, recently conferred a silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence on Heart and Vascular Unit (HVU) at Rapid City Hospital.
The Beacon Award for Excellence — a significant milestone on the path to exceptional patient care and healthy work environments — recognizes unit caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with AACN’s six Healthy Work Environment Standards. Units that achieve this annual, three-level award with a gold, silver or bronze designation meet national criteria consistent with the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the National Quality Healthcare Award.
"Earning the Beacon Award for Excellence represents a pivotal milestone in our Heart and Vascular Unit's journey toward clinical excellence. This achievement reflects our team's unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional patient care while fostering a supportive and collaborative work environment,” said Tasha Frisinger, MSN, RN, CMNL, Monument Health Vice President of Nursing. “Our caregivers have demonstrated remarkable dedication to improving patient outcomes through evidence-based practices. I am immensely proud of our team's achievement and excited to see how this foundation will propel us toward even greater excellence in patient care."
AACN President Jennifer Adamski, DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC, CCRN, FCCM, applauds the commitment of the caregivers at HVU at Rapid City Hospital for working together to meet and exceed the high standards set forth by the Beacon Award for Excellence. These dedicated healthcare professionals join other members of our exceptional community of nurses, who set the standard for optimal patient care.
“The Beacon Award for Excellence recognizes caregivers in outstanding units whose consistent and systematic approach to evidence-based care optimizes patient outcomes. Units that receive this national recognition serve as role models to others on their journey to excellent patient and family care,” she explains.
The silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence earned by HVU at Rapid City Hospital signifies an effective approach to policies, procedures and processes that includes engagement of staff and key stakeholders. The unit has evaluation and improvement strategies in place and good performance measures when compared to relevant benchmarks. HVU at Rapid City Hospital earned its silver award by meeting the following evidence-based Beacon Award for Excellence criteria:
Leadership Structures and Systems
Appropriate Staffing and Staff Engagement
Effective Communication, Knowledge Management and Learning and Development
Evidence-Based Practice and Processes
Outcome Measurement
The other Beacon Award designations are gold and bronze. Gold-level awardees demonstrate an effective and systematic approach to policies, procedures and processes that includes engagement of staff and key stakeholders; fact-based evaluation strategies for continuous process improvement; and performance measures that meet or exceed relevant benchmarks. Recipients who earn a bronze-level award are beginning the journey to excellence, which includes developing systematic policies, processes and procedures; identifying opportunities for staff participation; and recognizing the need to develop cycles of evaluation and improvement.