Investing in nurses and nursing through the Helen Baszucki Center for Nursing Excellence
The key elements of nursing for Debbie Sober remain the same today as they were 30 years ago, when her career began: Meet each patient’s needs to the best of your ability and make them as comfortable as possible, both physically and emotionally.
At work at the nurses' station in Main Pavilion
Many other parts of the field have changed in those three decades, however, and Sober wants to ensure that nurses at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and throughout Montage Health have the tools, educational opportunities, and skills to be at the top of their profession. That was the impetus for creating the Helen Baszucki Center for Nursing Excellence at Montage Health.
"We envision a center that creates a culture of lifelong learning, innovation, and professional development, and that continuously integrates best practices into the care of our patients," says Sober, chief nursing officer of Montage Health. "It’s important to me to support and promote the critical roles nurses play."
The center’s formation was announced in May and is funded with a $6.5 million gift to Montage Health Foundation from community member Paul Baszucki. It honors Baszucki’s late wife, Helen, who was a nurse and clinical instructor.
The center’s impacts are designed to benefit patients for years to come. It will invest in the growth of nurses and the nursing profession through initiatives including:
- Supporting education by offering high-quality courses to enhance nursing practice and scholarships for those pursuing bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in nursing
- Increasing training programs for specialized roles in Community Hospital’s surgical, maternal health, intensive care, and Emergency department
- Increasing enrollment in the Maurine Church Coburn School of Nursing at Monterey Peninsula College (MPC)
- Introducing research and innovation opportunities to advance the science of nursing and improve the quality of patient care
- Investing in leadership development for nurses and care providers
Main operating room — nurses setting up for surgery
Community Hospital employs approximately 900 nurses, with most providing direct patient care at the bedside. Others specialize in areas such as diabetes, planning patient discharges, and education.
The center’s work will start at the top of the nursing funnel, partnering with MPC to significantly increase the number of nursing students who go through the two-year program. It is estimated that there will be a nationwide shortage of one million nurses in just four years, so action is needed to reduce the impacts on our community, Sober says.
"The Monterey Peninsula’s high cost of living makes recruiting health professionals from outside the area challenging," Sober says. "Our success with nursing has been in training people with roots in the community."
Community Hospital and MPC jointly formed the nursing school 38 years ago and continue to share the costs to operate it. It has paid off, Sober says, in that 80 percent of the graduates work at Community Hospital or elsewhere in Monterey County during their careers.
"There is also a need to train more nurses to take on specialized roles in our surgical, maternal health, intensive care, and Emergency departments," Sober says. "Through a three-month internship, we train about 40 nurses each year to work in these complex clinical settings. However, we need to train more to meet the changing healthcare needs in our community. Our medical team is growing and performing more complex procedures, and we need nurses trained to assist with these procedures and to care for the patients afterward."
Emergency department — nurses waiting at the ambulance bay to receive a stroke patient
The center for excellence will offer scholarships to help nurses pursue bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.
"Studies have found relationships between better-educated nurses and improved patient outcomes, such as reduced patient falls, pressure injuries, infections, and deaths," says Christine Payne, the center’s director.
The center’s strategic plan includes tracking and sharing what are called "nurse-sensitive indicators." These are patient issues that are highly impacted by nursing care, such as falls and infections. Community Hospital’s results are compared to those of similar hospitals across the United States to measure performance.
Key to the success of the center and its work is giving a greater voice to nurses. Councils are being formed on nursing units at the hospital so nurses can work more closely and collaboratively with their managers in decision-making — within set guidelines — about nursing practices to improve patient care.
The center is focused on having a highly engaged nursing staff by developing a professional practice environment that increases nurses’ job satisfaction.
Main operating room — nurse setting up for surgery
"Data confirms that having an engaged nursing team, with a supportive work environment, results in an overall improvement in the patient experience," Sober says.
Many of the plans that will be overseen by the center were in the works before Paul Baszucki stepped forward with a gift to help move them forward. Influenced by his late wife’s dedication to nursing, he became an enthusiastic supporter.
"Helen had a real affection for the nursing profession and did really well at it scholastically and in practice; she had a special touch for it," Baszucki says. "We are giving
to Montage Health because this is an important need and it’s a good thing to do."
