NEONI’s PERQS Center Gains Momentum to Harness Nursing Excellence

Work is underway to establish NEONI’s Center for Practice, Education, Research, Quality and Safety (PERQS), a collaborative part of The Center for Health Affairs’ three-year strategic direction to harness nursing excellence. Since the initial launch of NEONI’s PERQS Center the four divisions, involving nursing leaders from the NEONI’s membership, met to begin the development process and implementation toward nursing excellence. Here’s an update on each division:

• Practice: In early December, the Practice division met to discuss and formalize its main focus. This division will focus on professionalism in nursing and nursing competency by surveying and observing how chief nursing officers in the community define professionalism and professional behaviors.
• Education: In February, the Education division will meet to discuss the next steps in narrowing the gap from nursing education to nursing practice. Their goal is to recognize how to best prepare new nurses to achieve a high level of competency and to minimize the learning curve as they begin their professional nursing careers.
• Research: During the early November and mid-December meetings, the Research division discussed and began plans for The Center for Health Affairs to create a database of evidence-based nursing research in Northeast Ohio for nursing students and leaders, practicing nurses and researchers.
• Quality & Safety: During the mid-November meeting, the Quality & Safety division discussed establishing baseline metrics through a survey to identify the state of quality and safety related to nursing practice and patient care in Northeast Ohio. Once a baseline is established, disparity or gaps in quality levels will be identified and opportunities to improve care and practices will be explored.

“All four divisions of NEONI’s PERQS Center are just getting underway, said Director Cynthia Danko, MSN, RN. “Their directions, structure, purpose and functions to harness nursing excellence will solidify as they meet regularly in 2013.”

NEONI’s PERQS Center is a collaborative between nurses from academia and practice with the purpose of sharing nursing research, best practices, quality initiatives, models of care and to ultimately harness nursing excellence across hospitals, schools of nursing, long-term care and homecare organizations throughout Northeast Ohio.

If you have questions about NEONI’s PERQS Center and the work of the four divisions, please contact Director Cynthia Danko at 216.255.3663 or cynthia.danko@chanet.org, or Vice President Lisa Anderson at 216.255.3660 or lisa.anderson@chanet.org.