Recently, articles and presentations have promoted Lean & Six Sigma methods to improve efficiency in the healthcare settings. The truth is these methods have proven to be successful in improving financial performance and in some cases patient safety. Over the past two years, numerous hospitals and ambulatory facilities have boarded the bandwagon using Lean Principles to create the most efficient and effective flow of service and products while reducing or eliminating waste and redundancy in workplace processes and improving patient, physician, and staff satisfaction. We'll provide you with the basics and get you started. This is intended to be an interactive session using data and photos provided by course registrants. A sample of attendees' data will be utilized to illustrate the concepts and demonstrate the principles that power an efficiency improvement project. The instructors will analyze data as well as photos taken by course registrants prior to the course. Photos will also be analyzed by the group during the session. This 4-hour optional session (limited to 100 participants) has been popular for the past three years requiring waiting lists and added sessions. Several of the attendees have returned for a second year to increase their knowledge.

Section Description

We are pleased to present the abstracts from sgna's 36th annual course, SGNA: your gateway to opportunity. The diversity of these topics certainly reflects the richness and breadth of our specialty. in keeping with the tradition of the annual course, we hope the following abstracts will encourage discussions for improving nursing practice and patient care outcomes.