Hospital Authority

Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital

Department of Surgery

Action Plan on Building a Competent Nursing

Team in a Surgical Ward

Prepared By

Lam Shuen Pang

Advanced Practice Nurse
 How to build a competent Nursing Team in a Surgical ward?
Introduction
Nowadays, healthcare organizations are facing modern challenge of economic and technological change

and COVID-19 pandemic. There is a shortage of manpower and gradual loss of invaluable expertise as

the result of retirement of baby boomers and high staff turnover. It is important for the healthcare

organization to enhance the commitment, engagement and professional competency of nurses in order

to ensure patients can achieve positive outcomes and gain pleasant experience. Therefore, it is high time

to promote the specialty nursing development in order to maintain the staff competency, enhance staff

engagement and promote evidence-based practices. Besides, the nighttime supervision has become

more important as the result of more complex health condition in aging population. Thus, training

program for midline staff who will become night in-charge is necessary to ensure their competency in

healthcare delivery at nighttime and increase their confidence in dealing with emergency issues.

Moreover, experienced nurses are valuable in a competent nursing team as they can act as guidance and

role model to junior staff. Thus, enhancement in their commitment and engagement through enhancing

staff recognition and ownership are also the focus of building a competent nursing team.

Statement of Problems
1. Insufficient specialty knowledge and experience for managing high risk, emergency, and

complicated surgical procedures or interventions

2. Nurses may appoint to be night in-charge in their early stage of career

3. Insufficient staff commitment and engagement

Objectives
1. To provide the specialty nursing development for staff

2. To strengthen the competency and increase the confidence of staff who will become night in-charge

3. To enhance staff recognition and ownership

Plan of Action
Three directions of improvement state as follows:

1. Formulate a specialty training program to nurses in order to enhance their competency in providing

safe, reliable and advanced nursing care and empower their professional nurse autonomy

2. Formulate a training program to midline nurses in order to strengthen their abilities and increase

their confidences in providing care and dealing with emergency issues at nighttime

3. Enhance staff recognition and ownership in order to retain staff especially experienced staff

Management Plan
A. Establish a half year-based specialty training program for nurses

Formulate a specialty training program to nurses in order to enhance their competency in providing

safe, reliable and advanced nursing care and empower their professional nurse autonomy

Action Plan Target Date

1 Form a working group includes 1 WM, 1 APN and all specialty nurses 4Q21
2 Identify the practice gap and the targeted staff in this specialty training program 4Q21
3 Identify the common nursing and medical procedures, general and critical 4Q21
nursing care and investigation and operation procedures according to different
specialties
4 Conduct a pre-implementation survey to determine the learning expectation of 4Q21
nurses and their preference of specialty in training
5 Establish a standardized specialty training program by the working group 1Q22
6 Nominate 1 nurse from each surgical ward to attach specialty nursing team 1Q22
according to their preference of specialty in training for a period of half year
7 Provide opportunities to participants to have exposure in endoscopy or 1Q22
operation procedures
 8 Appoint nurses who are attending specialty training program to be the primary 2Q22
nurses for designated patients who had undergone operation during
hospitalization to assess their competency in providing specialized surgical care
and patient education learnt from specialty training program
9 Conduct a post-implementation survey to gather opinions and comments from 3Q22
participants for further improvement of the program
10 Evaluate the effectiveness of specialty training program and revise the program 3Q22
if needed

B. Establish a training program for midline nurses who will become night in-charge

Formulate a training program to midline nurses in order to strengthen their abilities and increase their
confidences in providing care and dealing with emergency issues at nighttime
Action Plan Target Date
1 Form a working group includes 1 WM and 2 APN 4Q21
2 Identify the main responsibilities of night in-charge and emergency issues that 4Q21
may encounter at nighttime
3 Identify the current work instruction or guideline that may be useful for night in- 4Q21
charge
4 Conduct a pre-implementation survey to determine the learning expectation of 4Q21
nurses who may become night in-charge
5 Design the format and content of training program by the working group 4Q21
6 Invite senior nurses or APNs to conduct a seminar to share their experiences of 1Q22
nighttime supervision and measures to deal with emergency issues
7 Conduct an observational survey by night supervisors to determine the 3Q22
competency of nurse night in-charge
8 Conduct a post-implementation survey to gather opinions and comments from 3Q22
participants for further improvement of the program
9 Evaluate the effectiveness of training program and revise the program if needed 3Q22

C. Enhance staff recognition and ownership

Enhance staff recognition and ownership in order to retain staff especially experienced staff.
Action Plan Target Date
1 Assign 1 WM, 2 APN to be the subject officer 4Q21
2 Conduct staff’s job satisfaction and expectation survey as baseline in the 4Q21
Department of Surgery
3 Identify the current resource for staff recognition 4Q21
4 Develop and implement strategies to validate staff’s contribution and recognize 1Q22
their achievements
5 Promote the nomination of staff who have clinical contribution to achieve spot 1Q22
award scheme
6 Nominate experienced staff and nurses with specialty training to participate in 1Q22
overseas training e.g. conference or hospital visit
7 Provide training opportunities to experienced staff e.g. post-registration 1Q22
certificate course in advanced surgical nursing, evidence-based practice training
or auditor training
8 Provide opportunities to experienced staff to increase their exposure e.g. 2Q22
understudy member
9 Provide opportunities to experience staff and nurses with specialty training to 2Q22
conduct program, seminar or workshop in order to gain their ownership
10 Provide support to experienced staff to achieve job promotion in their career 2Q22
11 Conduct a post-implementation survey for experienced staff 4Q22
12 Develop strategies for improvement if needed 4Q22

Word Count

996 words