My Favorite Job as AMSN President
One of my favorite jobs as AMSN President is notifying medical-surgical units that they have received the AMSN PRISM Award®.
The Premier Recognition in the Specialty of Med-surg (PRISM) Award was created as requested by AMSN members who wanted an award to acknowledge the unique and exemplary care provided by medical-surgical units and is supported by both AMSN and MSNCB - our Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification Board.
The award is unit-based and recognizes medical-surgical nursing teams’ exemplary practice and the teamwork they utilize to sustain positive patient outcomes and high staff satisfaction.
Since both AMSN and MSNCB support the PRISM Award, MSNCB’s President, Wes Foster, and I take turns making these calls to the unit recipients. Insider tip-if you have submitted a PRISM application and get an appointment for a call with Wes or I, that probably means very good news for the outcome of your application!
It is probably good that we share this duty so that we can spare our ear drums. When I tell units they are the newest recipient of the AMSN PRISM Award, there are always cheers and screams of joy!
I usually have my ear buds in when making these calls and always forget to turn the volume down; lol—it is a good pain though!
We start the call by allowing the point person for the unit, which is usually the person who submitted application, to tell us who is in the room.
The calls usually contain unit staff including nurses, unlicensed staff and others, the nurse manager and other leaders, and hospital leaders including nursing directors, the CNO, and sometimes the CEO of the organization being recognized.
That is one of the reasons I enjoy these calls so much is that all levels of staff are celebrating one another. Personally, I am most excited that nursing staff who provide direct care to the patients are present because they are the ones who did all the work highlighted in the application.
Without their hard work and dedication to the patients and the team, there may be no award or recognition.
Access the PRISM Award Application online. There you will also find information about how to apply, how long it takes to process an application, and the qualifications needed to be an AMSN PRISM Unit.
When completing the application, unit teams provide information and stories in six categories including: effective leadership, recruitment and retention, evidence-based practice, positive patient outcomes, healthy practice environment, and lifelong learning of unit staff members.
The application is limited to 50 pages which seems like a lot, but it can also be difficult to keep it to that number. The application is reviewed and scored by your peers—a committee of medical-surgical nurses.
I had the privilege of serving on the Exemplary Practice Task Force which finalized the documents for the AMSN PRISM Award when the award was first being created.
I was Chair of that task force, and we finalized the application and corresponding scoring tool. We also received the first applications, scored them and awarded the first AMSN PRISM award recipients.
Being part of this award for so long has meant so much to me because it is so important to recognize those doing the work to provide exceptional patient care and to sustain it over time.
Check out our social media sites regularly for celebration photos of our newest recipients and consider completing an application so that you and your coworkers can be highlighted and recognized next!
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