Eight nurses complete caring advocate program
WARWICK Eight Bon Secours Charity Health System nurses were saluted April 19 at a graduation ceremony in the chapel at Mount Alverno Center in Warwick.
Nurses represent St. Anthony Community Hospital, Bon Secours Community Hospital, Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and Good Samaritan Home Care.
They had just completed the Bon Secours Charity Health Systems Caring Advocate Education Program (CAEP), an initiative that gives nurses knowledge and skills needed to help themselves and other nurses practice Dr. Jean Watsons Theory of Caring and Relationship-Based Care.
Watson founded the non-profit, Boulder, Colo.-based Watson Caring Science Institute in 2007 with a goal of helping to restore caring and healing to the forefront of nursing practice. Watsons theory – which is made up of 10 caring processes – is now practiced by nurses in roughly 300 health care institutions around the world, including Bon Secours Charity Health System hospitals in Warwick, Port Jervis and Suffern.
The new CAEP nurses were mentored for six months by Jo-Ann Robinson, director of professional practice for Bon Secours Charity Health System. Their work and study projects focused on self-care to prevent nurse burnout; developing trusting relationships with patients and coworkers; and creating a caring, healing environment.
By caring for ourselves as health care workers, we can provide better care for our patients, said graduate Gunnel Greenfield of Greenwood Lake, a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern.
All Bon Secours Charity Health System nurses may apply to participate in the annual program, which will start anew in September.