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The Menninger Clinic awarded Nurse-Friendly designation by
The Texas Nurses Association presented the designation award to Menninger at its seventh Annual Nursing Leadership Conference on September 20. “The Nurse-Friendly designation is an important benchmark for us in our journey to accelerate nursing excellence,” says Pam Greene, PhD, RN, vice president of Patient Care Services. “It reflects Menninger’s commitment to supporting nurses as they provide safe, quality patient care.” To achieve the Nurse-Friendly designation, hospitals must confirm through extensive documentation the presence of the 12 criteria identified by the Texas Nurses Association that are the essential elements of the ideal nursing work environment. According to the TNA, the criteria represents qualities identified by nurses and research as important to the highest quality of patient care, nursing practice, professional development and nurse job satisfaction. In accordance with the Nurse-Friendly application process, Menninger also conducted a confidential survey of its nurses, asking them to verify the presence of the criteria in hospital practices and policies. Nearly 90 percent of Menninger nurses participated in the voluntary survey, which required at least 50 percent participation and a certain score in order to receive the certification. “The designation indicates that Menninger is a place nurses want to work,” says Brenda Schiavone, MSN, RN, CNAA, clinical education specialist. “It also informs nurses, patients and family members that they can expect to receive the highest standard of nursing care at Menninger.” Faced with a growing national nursing shortage, Menninger has developed innovative programs to recruit, train and retain nurses. The Clinic recently began a transition program to recruit experienced nurses from other medical specialty areas. The transition program offers extra training in addition to The Clinic’s extensive orientation and assigns preceptors to nurses to guide them through their transition. Menninger also offers a six-month, paid internship to nursing school graduates with their bachelor’s of science degree in nursing. The Betty Ann Stedman Psychiatric Nurse Internship Program provides nursing graduates with a solid groundwork in psychiatric nursing and unique perspective into The Clinic’s interdisciplinary approach to patient care. Each intern is assigned a nurse mentor and participates in additional training. To assist Menninger employees who desire a career in psychiatric nursing, Menninger created a fellowship program open to current employees who have degrees in social work, psychology counseling or teaching to become nurses. Menninger provides a stipend and tuition assistance. Fellows may work part-time at Menninger while in school. Nurses also have a voice in decision-making that affects professional practice through Menninger’s Professional Nursing Organization Shared Governance, and The Clinic’s Evidence-based Scholars Program. The shared governance model adopted by nurses at Menninger provides the structure and process for professional nurses to connect as a whole and promotes collaboration among the nurses and other interdisciplinary professionals. The Scholars Program is designed to prepare mental health professionals to systematically and rigorously apply research findings to patient care. Scholars focus on making recommendations for updating a current nursing policy or identifying a critical practice issue and making recommendations based on the best evidence.
The Menninger Clinic is an international specialty psychiatric center, providing treatment, research and education. Founded in 1925 in Kansas, Menninger relocated to
* Nurse-Friendly is a certification mark of the Texas Nurses Association.
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