Welcome from our Chief Nursing Officer
As CNO, I am delighted that you are visiting the Shands Jacksonville website, and I can hardly wait to tell you about my organization and the nurses who work here. There are three main themes that I hope to express to you during this short introduction to Shands:
- Shands nurses have a meaningful credo - "Experienced care, expert caring." We realize that clinical excellence and competence are just half of the equation to being a great nurse. The other half involves excellence in "emotional caring" about our patients and their families, our profession, our stakeholders and other customers (such as our doctors, pharmacists, dieticians, environmental service workers, transporters, etc.), and our community. Nursing has not only adopted "Patient-Centered Care" as our model of care but all disciplines joined us in this endeavor when we presented our model of care several years ago.
- Shands nurses are dedicated to achieving a culture of patient safety and continuous performance improvement. We realize that nurses hold the key to improving organizational performance in many areas because we stand side-by-side our patients 24x7. We have been recognized as national leaders in nursing and/or interdisciplinary initiatives like organ procurement, pressure ulcer prevention, and rapid response team innovations just to name a few. We also have a strong belief that nurses should be conducting more research. We have completed more than 15 studies this year and presently have15 active studies. While other organizations have struggled with this endeavor, it is one of our strengths. We challenge our practice by seeking out evidence instead of relying on the antiquated nursing position that "we have always done it this way." We push the envelope on a daily basis.
- Shands acknowledges that all nurses are in leadership positions, and we strive to recruit and retain the "best and the brightest." We have adopted a participatory management model that engages frontline staff in decision-making. All of our nursing units have unit-based councils that are well represented by staff members. All staff members are invited to join in unit and organizational councils, as well, because our senior leadership team believes that our frontline staff is our true solution-makers. We value and demonstrate appreciation for our staff via a number of different programs, too, such as our unique Professional Recognition Program (highlighted at the 2010 Florida Organization for Nurse Executive conference). We have numerous other venues for saying "thank you" to our frontline staff.
I am proud to be a Shands nurse, and it is an honor to serve my fellow nurses in the capacity of CNO. I work for a great and progressive organization that intends to provide the BEST care available and appreciates that nurses make a difference every single minute of every single day.
Thank you for visiting this site and if you would like to chat with me personally, just give me a call at (904) 244-6166 and mention this welcome address. I will call you back.
Sincerely,
Patrice Jones, RN, MSN
Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer