Nursing Special Interest Groups (SIG) February 2021 Update

The individual SIG groups met unique challenges during the last year, moving forward to continue to plan for membership growth and opportunities in 2021. The four SIGs continue with monthly or bimonthly conference calls. They are organizing SIG goals to align with the new PCICS Strategic Plan as outlined during the PCICS International meeting in December. The Administrative, Advanced Practice and CNS/Educator SIG have all had leadership transition this past year. We are excited to welcome the new co-chairs as listed below. We also welcome new SIG members and encourage further participation as you desire. Especially at times of stress and change, support from peers is invaluable. Join a SIG, bring a friend, join a call and connect. The following is a summary of SIG activity and leadership contacts. Please also feel free to contact me at lcallow@umich.edu for further information.

The Administrative SIG is currently defining topics and creating podcasts in identified areas of interest to Administrators in Pediatric Cardiac Critical and Acute Care. They are designing a format for an online journal club. During the bimonthly meetings they reserve time for discussion and sharing of strategies and information. For further information please contact kubiss@email.CHOP.edu or justin.yeh@upmc.edu.

The Advance Practice Provider SIG has continued monthly calls with center highlight and hot topic discussions. Recently, discussions have focused on orientation of new APPs and mentorship. For more information regarding this SIG please contact jill.zender@bcm.edu or Jessica.mann@bjc.org.

The Bedside Nurse SIG is entering the final stages of preparation of a standardized nursing handoff tool. They would like to enter a testing phase of this tool within the next several months. For more information please contact Annettesaltamartini.imprescia@childrens.harvard.edu, alexandra.beckman@gmail.com, or proffittk@email.CHOP.edu.

The Clinical Nurse Specialist/Educator SIG progresses with multiple projects including development, testing, operationalizing, and evaluating a simulation program for bedside nurses; development, utilization, and evaluation of a pre-and post-orientation nursing assessment tool; and creation and piloting of a preceptor development and survival guide. They have just completed significant group contributions to the PCICS Nursing Curriculum. For more information on this SIG please contact jfortkie@childrensnational.org or jardena@ccf.org.