Nursing at Baptist Health Baptist Hospital

Baptist Hospital of Miami is proud to be a Magnet-designated hospital — the highest international recognition that a healthcare organization can attain for nursing excellence and quality patient care. The high standards for earning Magnet status include a culture that focuses on improving patient outcomes, supporting professional autonomy and leadership and fostering collaborative relationships among the interdisciplinary team.

As of December 2020, only 8.9% out of approximately 5,000 U.S. hospitals were designated Magnet hospitals. Baptist Hospital has achieved Magnet status five times and is on the journey to earn its sixth designation — an achievement that only a handful of hospitals in the nation have realized.

Nursing Vision

We will be a leader of excellence in nursing, maintaining our Magnet Recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. We will continue to be a high-performing organization led by our principles of caring, collaboration, welcoming, attentiveness and innovation. We will sustain an environment conducive to the enhancement of professional practice from novice to expert, transformational leadership, structural empowerment, exemplary professional practice and new knowledge and evidence-based practice. We will continue to be the best practice benchmark for clinical outcomes, patient safety and satisfaction while striving to provide an environment that is a great place to work for our nursing staff. We are committed to providing high-quality patient- and family-centered healthcare and an exceptional experience for those providing and receiving healthcare. Our philosophy of healthcare that cares will continue to lead our stewardship to achieve a healthy community.

Our Nursing Mission

Nursing at Baptist Hospital of Miami is committed to our patients, our practice, our institution, our community and other healthcare providers. Our quest for excellence is demonstrated by providing superior care to patients with exceptional caring and compassion.

Nursing Contributions

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

Transformational Leadership

Executing Strategic Plans

Baptist Hospital nursing teams collaborated during the COVID-19 pandemic to adapt to high-acuity patient demands and provide outstanding, compassionate care to our community. We changed many aspects of our nursing model and developed innovative ways to train nurses and other healthcare team members.
Our strategic goals in 2020 included shaping distinctive experiences for our patients and improving quality and safety initiatives.

Developing Nurse Leaders

Baptist Hospital fosters the development, advancement and retention of clinical leaders. Through various initiatives, nurses develop leadership best practices, build leadership competencies and establish networking relationships. Recent nursing leadership promotions at Baptist Hospital include: Harold Girardo, R.N., chief nursing officer; Lourdes Castaneda, R.N., assistant vice president of Nursing Administration; Ron Burke, R.N., assistant vice president of Nursing Administration; Courtney Willard, R.N., director of ICU and Progressive Care; and Christina Aragon-Santiago, R.N., director of Medical-Surgical Units.

Structural Empowerment

Developing Professional Nurses

More than 80 percent of Baptist Hospital nurses have earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree or higher and more than 48 percent of eligible nurses are certified in their specialty. Nurses with advanced education are better prepared to care for patients in an increasingly complex healthcare delivery system.

Training Competent Nurses

Evidence has shown that implementing a nurse advancement program improves patient care and safety and increases retention of excellent nurses. Nurses at Baptist Hospital are well-supported in the Baptist Health South Florida Clinical Competency Advancement Program. Currently, 25.7 percent of Baptist Hospital nurses have achieved Advanced status; 20.4 percent have achieved Expert status; 25.9 percent have achieved Proficient status; and 27.9 percent have achieved Novice/Advanced/Beginner status.

Recognizing Nursing Excellence

Two Baptist Hospital nurses were presented with the prestigious DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in 2020: Paola Raccuia, R.N., Labor and Delivery; and Juliana Roca, R.N., Cardiac Progressive Care and Cardiac Medical Surgical Unit, 4 Clarke. Supported by the hospital’s Nursing Professional Excellence Council, the DAISY Award honors nurses for their compassionate and skillful care to patients, families and each other. Grateful patients, families, physicians and fellow employees may nominate a nurse who demonstrates knowledge, competence, professionalism, compassion, advocacy, commitment and dedication to excellence. The recognition increases nursing satisfaction, which, in turn, improves care delivery.
Lourdes Talavera, R.N., CV-BC, Cardiac Medical-Surgical Unit, 4 Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, was named Baptist Hospital’s 2020 Magnet Nurse of the year. Ms. Talavera is highly engaged and committed to providing evidenced-based care and has a natural ability to lead efforts in shared decision-making. She embodies Baptist Hospital’s five cultural values with each interaction she has with patients, families and staff. Patients consistently recognize Ms. Talavera for her compassionate care and personal connection.

Exemplary Professional Practice

Delivering Quality Care

Inclusion on U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals list is proof of our nurses’ deep medical expertise and track record of delivering positive outcomes for patients. Baptist Hospital tied for first place in the region on the 2020-21 list of the Best Regional Hospitals and ranked #5 in the state. The hospital earned high-performing honors in six specialties (cancer, gastroenterology & gastrointestinal surgery, geriatrics, neurology & neurosurgery, pulmonology and lung surgery, and urology) and seven procedures/conditions (abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, heart bypass surgery, heart failure, colon cancer surgery, hip replacement, knee replacement and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Engaging the Nursing Team

Baptist Hospital achieved an overall practice environment score in the 75^th percentile in the 2019 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators RN Survey, well above the national mean. Highly engaged and satisfied nurses can lead to quality improvements and better patient care.

New Knowledge, Innovations and Improvements

Performance Improvement

Baptist Hospital nurse Brent Cox, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, developed and implemented a performance improvement project entitled “Developing an Electrolyte Replacement Protocol.” The goal of the project was to reduce the time between an abnormal potassium result and replacement of the electrolyte by 20 percent through the development and implementation of a standardized electrolyte replacement protocol on a multispecialty progressive care unit. The implementation of an electrolyte replacement protocol on the 5-Main Multispecialty Progressive Care Unit successfully resulted in an overall reduction in the meantime to potassium replacement.

Innovating Care

Baptist Hospital implemented a Nurse Staffing Dashboard to provide capacity management nurses with accurate information regarding the hospital’s staffing levels on each unit. Armed with this important knowledge that is discussed during daily huddles, the nursing team can effectively improve workforce efficiency and patient care and safety.

Empirical Outcomes

Enhancing Patient Safety

The majority of Baptist Hospital nursing units outperformed the national benchmarks for nursing sensitive indicators, including hospital-acquired and medical device -related pressure injuries and catheter-acquired urinary tract infections.
All Baptist Hospital ambulatory areas outperformed the national benchmarks for the nursing sensitive indicators related to falls with injury and door-to-device time for stroke patients.
The majority of Baptist Hospital inpatient nursing units and ambulatory areas have outperformed the national benchmarks for patient satisfaction.

Earning National Recognition

Numerous Baptist Hospital units have earned Beacon Award for Excellence status: Intensive Care Unit (Gold); Family Birth Place (Silver); Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Silver); and Pulmonary 2 Hope (Silver). The Beacon Award, which has gold, silver and bronze levels of recognition, is awarded to hospital units that demonstrate excellence in professional practice that align with American Association of Colleges of Nursing Healthy Work Environment Standards.

Nursing at Baptist Hospital