Guiding nurses and providing the right tools can help them become the best nurses they can be, says Kerry "Charlie" Forbes, BSN, RN, CCRN. This belief is validated by the success of a nurse certification program she developed at Clarian Health Partners in Indianapolis, Indiana. For her leadership role in this program, Forbes is being presented with the AACN Certification Corporation-Value of Certification award by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) at its National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition in Orlando, Florida, May 15 to 20.
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The award, presented for the first time this year, is given to a nurse who has contributed to increasing and retaining the numbers of certified nurses in her facility. This can range from helping other nurses qualify for certification to promoting public awareness about the value of certified nursing practice.
"Clarian Health Partners decided to support certification among their critical care nurses, and the director of clinical care started a foundation account and challenged our team to seek grant money," Forbes explains. "I was essentially given the responsibility for making things happen-and getting as many nurses as possible certified in critical care nursing."
Forbes developed a curriculum and a review course for the CCRN-certification test and eventually secured funding from Eli Lilly, Ortho Biotech, and Aspect Medical Systems. With these funds, Clarian purchased books, gave paid time off to nurses pursuing certification, and covered exam fees.
"In the first review course, we had experienced nurses and also a novice nurse who had just achieved the time requirement to enable her to practice in critical care," Forbes says. "At that time, morale was rather low on the units. When the first group of nurses passed the certification exam, it really piqued the interest of the other nurses-they began to want what their colleagues had."
This set in motion a chain reaction in the hospital.
"I saw a real change. Nurses really stepped up to the plate, and their attitudes improved," Forbes says. "They were invested-studying on the unit, discussing pathophysiology and patient care issues-and they just embraced it."
Forbes feels that the validation of knowledge that certification offers, along with employer support in achieving that goal, made a critical difference in the morale and outlook of the nursing staff.
"They felt empowered, and also reassured that they 'had what it took' to be certified. I felt that the quality of care also improved," she says.
Being supported by the facility was essential to the success of the program. While Forbes spearheaded the program and developed the program materials, she is quick to credit Mary Meyers, the director of clinical care, with an attitude that made the difference. "Her stance was that we couldn't afford not to have our nurses certified," she says.
Forbes has seen the program mature since it began in 2001. So far, 48 nurses have been certified as critical care nurses, and some of them now teach the course. Forbes continues to help with the program, but has moved to Nashville, Tennessee. She now works for Aspect Medical Systems, providing clinical support for the company's product, a Bispectral Index monitor, which monitors a patient's level of sedation. She is enthusiastic about this role too.
"It's a chance to help set standards across the nation in an area that is not really well-defined at this point. It's brand-new technology," she says.
Forbes has been a nurse for eight years, and spent the first four years of her career as a critical care nurse in the Army, serving stateside. She worked for four years at Clarian, and has been with Aspect for eight months. Forbes is honored to receive this award, particularly since AACN uses a blind peer-nominee process. She was nominated by a clinical manager at her hospital and the director of education at another Clarian facility.
"People often talk about the problems in nursing, but I have been privileged to experience one exceptional group of nurses after another," Forbes says. "Nurses must be in an environment that empowers them to become what they want to be. That's what this course was all about."
And the approach has been as exciting as the outcome.
"It wasn't just lecture. There was peer support, and a personal tutor-me," she says with a laugh. "Of course, not everybody passed the first time, but you know what they call a nurse who takes the test four times and passes? Certified. It doesn't matter how long it takes. Our motto is 'The pride lasts longer than the pain.'"
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