Project to Increase the Percentage of Nursing Staffs Passing Clinical Ladder-3 Certification in the Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Clinical ladder (CL)-3 nurses should have both an ability to integrate the clinical information of critically ill patients and to carry out the administrative work of the intensive care unit. However, in our unit, only 15.3% of nurses hold CL-3 certification, which is much lower than the hospital average of 23.1%. Thus, we initiated a project to raise this percentage in our unit. An analysis in January 2016 showed that the main obstacles to obtaining CL-3 certification in our unit were inability to write case reports, inadequate in-service education, and a lack of certified educators. The purpose of this project was to increase the number of CL-3-certified nurses in our intensive care unit. The resolution included holding courses on case report writing, briefings, and oral presentation techniques; assigning a preceptor to make nursing staff assignments; encouraging nurses to participate in the clinical nursing preceptor education training camp; and conducting practice tests using a multiple assessment tool. After implementation of this project, the percentage of unit nurses who had passed CL-3 increased to 39.0%. This project not only allowed our fellow nurses to share in the joy of clinical ladder advancement but also improved the atmosphere in the unit by encouraging self-development. This project helped stimulate professional growth among our staff and improved the quality of clinical care.