November 13, 1998

Leaders, members and supporters of the MGH Patient Care Services filled the O'Keeffe Auditorium recently to celebrate a year of accomplishments utilizing a staff decision-making model called collaborative governance. The celebration focused on the changes and progress that have empowered nurses, therapists, social workers and other Patient Care Services staff to bring decision-making closer to the bedside.

In May of 1997, Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, MS, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nurse, inaugurated the collaborative governance initiative with the establishment of eight committees to provide infrastructure to the "bottom-up" style of management. The committees are comprised of five interdisciplinary teams that focus on diversity, ethics, quality, patient education and professional development, as well as three nursing teams that focus on practice, research and staff advisory.

"The Patient Care Services staff has exceeded all my expectations," says Erickson. "We have accomplished so much in this one year, and now we are much better as a unified team."

At the celebration, committee chairs reported on new initiatives such as staff education for providing culturally-competent care; a resource guide about hospital ethics; a nursing research award; and new guidelines for clinical care and documentation.

From left, back row: Mary Cunningham, Nancy Drinan, Kathleen Myers, RN, Vernon Dingwall, RN, Firdosh Patham, RPh, and Judy Newell, RN. Front row: Michelle Cullen, RN, Deborah Washington, RN, the Rev. Felix Ojimba and Dolores Ivette Kershaw.