Nursing at Baptist Health Homestead Hospital

Homestead Hospital is proud to be a Magnet-designated hospital, joining other organizations worldwide that have demonstrated nursing excellence, superior patient outcomes and a collaborative work environment. Magnet Recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center is the highest and most prestigious distinction a healthcare organization can receive for nursing excellence and high-quality patient care.

Achieving the performance-driven designation brings wide-ranging benefits. For patients, Magnet hospitals deliver higher patient satisfaction, a safer environment, lower complication rates, shorter length of stay and improved clinical outcomes. For nurses, Magnet designation leads to greater nurse autonomy, improved engagement, increased opportunities for professional development and education, higher nurse satisfaction and lower nurse turnover and vacancy.

Our Nursing Philosophy

The philosophy of Nursing Services at Homestead Hospital reflects the values of our nursing staff and institution. Through shared governance, Homestead Hospital nurses provide nursing excellence using a professional practice model that is focused on patient- and family-centered care. Our nurses define their practice through collaboration, professional development, clinical practice, communication and a defined care delivery system.

Through shared decision-making at all levels, nurses collaborate with each other, the interprofessional team as well as with patients and families to achieve common goals.

Nurses work in partnerships with the community to provide quality care that is culturally sensitive and meets the needs of a culturally diverse population.
Nurses are accountable and support their ongoing personal and professional development.
The contributions and accomplishments of nurses are recognized and made visible.
Nurses practice in an environment where quality, patient safety, evidence-based practice and research are emphasized and supported to achieve the best outcomes.
Nurses foster an environment of open communication, which allows for teamwork and effective partnerships with other team members as well as with patients and families.
Nurses integrate the use of the comfort theory in the delivery of caring, compassionate and competent care that is centered on patients and families.
Nurses at all levels play a leadership role within the organization.

Our Nursing Mission

The Homestead Hospital nursing staff is committed to being a leader in providing quality and evidence-based patient- and family-centered care by utilizing the comfort theory.

Nursing Contributions

Our nurses have made invaluable contributions to Homestead Hospital’s outstanding reputation for clinical and service excellence through initiatives that can be categorized under the five Magnet Model Components:

Transformational Leadership

Advocating for Patients

A nursing-led team worked, and was successful, in decreasing length of patient stay for observation patients.
Leaders supported a program for Nurse Practitioner (NP) coverage in ICU 24 hours.
Achieved GOLD Safe Sleep Certification. Through the efforts of a nurse-led interprofessional Safe Sleep Task Force, the Mother-Baby Unit began distributing sleep sacks and safe sleep education materials to new parents to decrease sleep-related deaths in the community.
The Mother-Baby unit celebrated and was featured on the intranet during World Breast Feeding Week 2023-2024.
The Inpatient Rehabilitation department’s discharge home rate is above the national average.

Mentorship and Collaboration

Collaboration in healthcare has been shown to improve patient care and outcomes. The Clinical Nurse Educators championed the mentoring process and recruited 26 mentoring pairs, 22 of which were clinical nurses, to cultivate a supportive culture across the organization.

Structural Empowerment

Professional Development

Homestead Hospital’s overall RN certification rate is 51 percent. The overall BSN and higher degree rate is 77 percent. Nurses with advanced education are better prepared to care for patients in an increasingly complex healthcare delivery system.

Teaching and Role Development

Nurses coordinated an educational intervention that improved the care of stroke patients, resulting in decreased disability.

Community Involvement

Homestead Hospital provided 343 nursing hours of community service. Outreach activities included appearances on Baptist Health social media platforms, podcasts and participation in various health fairs, first aid stations, mentoring activities, and health/chronic disease education seminars in schools, senior living residences and local businesses.
Homestead Hospital nurses partnered with community, non-profit organizations and local government officials in putting together eight Annual Toy and Thanksgiving Food Drives.
Homestead Hospital nurses participated in a Medical and Humanitarian Mission to Jamaica.
Nurses led a hospital-wide Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee that organized 27 events including activities for International Women’s Day, Juneteenth and Autism Acceptance Month.

Nursing Recognition

Nurses at all levels are frequently recognized internally through the DAISY, Nurse-of-the Year, Gail Gordon, and Golden Pineapple Awards, as well as externally by various organizations including Kiwanis of Homestead-South Dade, City of Homestead, South Dade Chamber of Commerce and the Family Christian Association of America’s Black Achievers of Excellence Program.

Exemplary Professional Practice

Professional Practice

Homestead Hospital achieved 76 percent participation in the 2022 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) RN Survey. These survey results and the annual RN and direct care RN engagement survey denoted high engagement and work environment satisfaction among nurses. Engaged and satisfied nurses can lead to quality improvements and better patient care.
Achieved significant reduction in nursing turnover, vacancies and use of traveling nurses. Having a stable nursing workforce contributes to better patient outcomes.

Care Delivery

Infection Control Nurses spearheaded an interprofessional initiative and achieved a 74 percent hospital-wide reduction in hospital-acquired infections. This contributed to Homestead Hospital’s Leapfrog A rating for reaching high hospital safety, quality and efficiency scores.
The nursing team implemented a virtual RN and virtual patient sitter program to enhance delivery of care and patient safety.
In the Short Stay Unit, nurses worked together to decrease the average amount of time patients were assigned a bed to occupying their bed by 18 minutes.
Through space redesign and re-education, the Emergency Department decreased the cancellation of STEMI (a type of heart attack) alerts at receiving facilities by 11 percentage points.

Interprofessional Care

Through various performance improvement initiatives, Homestead Hospital’s overall observation length-of-stay average decreased, which directly benefits patients.
The Emergency Department collaborated with physicians and interprofessional team members to decrease the amount of time it took for a physician to see a patient when presenting to the ED by 30 minutes.

Nurse Autonomy

Homestead Hospital’s nurse practitioners (NP) worked with physicians and leaders to improve end-of-life care for patients and their families by being able to pronounce deaths. This supports NPs to practice to the fullest extent of their license.

Safety Culture

Nurses spearheaded the implementation of Ecolab, an electronic hand hygiene compliance system, that records handwashing events by the healthcare team to further enhance infection prevention efforts.

New Knowledge, Innovations and Improvements

Research

The Evidence-Based Practice and Research Council initiated four, and completed two, research projects. They presented one publication, 37 posters and 16 podium presentations at internal, local and regional conferences. Conducting and advancing nursing research are important for delivering the most effective nursing care.

Evidence-based Practice

Obstetric nurses advocated and collaborated with physicians in implementing a best practice where mothers with uncomplicated labor are allowed clear liquids to promote hydration.

Innovation

Homestead Hospital received the HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence in 2020 for demonstrating globally innovative, thoughtful applications of information and technology to drive and redefine best practices.
The nursing staff leveraged technology by implementing telemedicine, allowing specialists to see patients faster and resulting in shorter hospital stays.
ICU nurses implemented the Wellsense technology to decrease the unit’s hospital-acquired pressure injuries.

Empirical Outcomes

Through interprofessional collaboration, the Transition-of-Care Nurse Practitioner (NP) reduced the 30-day readmission rate of patients treated for heart failure, chronic obstructive lung disease and pneumonia.
The NP-led hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI) team achieved a 37 percent reduction in HAPI in Fiscal Year 2023. These positive results reflect the outcome of professional nursing care.