Data-Driven Systems for RN Autonomy

In early 2005, as the nursing leadership team began to develop final action plans for our Magnet™ application, it became evident to us that we had concerns with our nursing staff's recognition of their professional role responsibilities. Staff appeared to be focused on tasks at hand and less focused on coordinating care based on patient needs. We also heard from our physician colleagues that staff nurses were not always able to articulate a concise report in terms of recognizing changes in a patient's medical condition. The nursing staff appeared to lack a true understanding of their professional responsibilities, first, as a registered nurse (RN) as required by legal scope of practice and second, based on their professional role status. In addition, they lacked understanding of how to translate their professional role into everyday practice. Furthermore, we realized that, as a nursing organization, we had not created an environment of expectation regarding professional RN role performance.