Media contact: Anna Jones
The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Unit has been awarded the silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
This award recognizes health care organizations, like UAB Hospital, that provide exceptional care through positive patient outcomes and greater overall patient satisfaction.
The Beacon Award also recognizes an organization’s ability to maintain a positive and supportive work environment for its staff with greater collaboration between colleagues and leaders, higher morale, and lower turnover.
“Our unit is committed to providing UAB patients with safe, evidence-based best-practice care,” said Angela Chisholm, the clinical care coordinator in unit. “This award recognizes our faculty, staff and trainees’ daily commitment to providing consistent physical, emotional and spiritual care for each of our patients and their families. It is an honor to receive this award.”
Units that achieve this award with a gold, silver or bronze designation serve as role models to others on their journey to excellent patient and family care.
To be considered for the Beacon Award, hospital units must submit three years of data that demonstrates how they are setting the standards of excellence in recruitment and retention, education, training and mentoring, research and evidence-based practice, patient outcomes, leadership and organizational ethics, and creation of a healthy work environment. According to the AACN, nurses who work in organizations and units that meet this standard for excellence report healthier work environments and express higher satisfaction with their jobs.
UAB Hospital’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Unit consists of 20 private rooms with specially trained staff. The unit focuses on pain management, pulmonary management, early ambulation and physical therapy. It utilizes a fast-track protocol developed specifically for this patient population with the goal of helping the patient gain independence in their personal care and daily activities before their return home.
UAB will hold this designation for three years. This unit is one of the two units at UAB to have this award and one out of only 10 in the state of Alabama. For more information about the Beacon Award for Excellence, click here.
To learn more about the heart and vascular services of the UAB Cardiovascular Institute, visit uabmedicine.org/heart.