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Condell nurse awarded Clinician IV status

On July 28, Libertyville resident Ali Hughes, a registered nurse at Advocate Condell Medical Center, was celebrated for receiving her Clinician IV status. Hughes is the first nurse to achieve this status in Condell history.

Clinician IV promotion is a voluntary process by which the nurse submits an application including manager input, peer review and a case study supporting their nursing practice.

Once approved by a Career Advancement Board, a Clinician IV status means that the nurse demonstrates expert nursing knowledge and experience, is recognized for their leadership abilities and is a positive role model.

Since 2008, Hughes has been a nurse in obstetrics at Advocate Condell and for several years has served as a clinical coach who helps train new OB nurses. This background led her to focus on the OB orientation process for her Clinician IV advancement project.

"I wanted to make nurses feel more prepared after orientation and give them more confidence in their own nursing skills," Hughes said. "The goal is always to create safe practitioners who are dedicated to patient care."

For the project, she made significant changes to the orientation process by first creating a new hire reference binder to house all of the proper protocols and documentation.

Additionally, new hires were given consistent orientation assignments, a coaching class was implemented to teach effective strategies and weekly meetings were put in place involving the new hire and all relevant parties in order to track progress on orientation goals.

"OB is such a specific field, so it is very important to have a strong process or else new hires can become overwhelmed," Hughes said. "This new process will help to retain nurses."

After her changes were implemented, she surveyed all the clinical coaches involved and the evidence revealed that these changes were a success.

"The changes to the orientation process have benefited OB by increasing the consistency and expectations of the orientation process. I feel that there is more ownership of the process at the coach's level and it has created a more focused process for the entire department," said Margaret Behm a neonatal clinical nurse at Advocate Condell Medical Center who coordinates nurse orientation for the special care nursery.

On Oct. 28, Ali has the opportunity to present her project at a symposium hosted by Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, where many nurses share their research from the year.

"We are all so proud of Ali's accomplishment. It is also very gratifying to see that she chose a project that involves so many staff members and an ongoing commitment from the members of our department," Behm said.

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