Marjorie Godfrey, a nationally recognized expert in Clinical Microsystems, will be the keynote speaker on Oct. 26 for the Fourth Annual Leadership Conference held by area members of the Alabama Organization of Nursing Executives. Godfrey is the co-author of “Quality by Design, a Clinical Microsystems Approach.”

The one-day seminar will be held from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Springhill Medical Center near the intersection of I-65 and Dauphin Street in Mobile.

Godfrey, director of the Clinical Microsystem Resource Group at Dartmouth Medical School, will provide current data on clinical microsystems, front-line units that provide the most health care to the most people. They are the places where patients, families and care teams meet. Microsystems also include support staff, processes, technology and recurring patterns of information, behavior and results.

“The University of South Alabama Medical Center’s 6th floor nursing unit and St. Vincent’s at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola have had a number of planning sessions with Ms. Godfrey in order to provide a local, hands-on opportunity for participants to learn about the five “Ps” of purpose, patients, professionals, processes and patterns that make up Clinical Microsystems,” said Dr. Linda Roussel of the University of South Alabama College of Nursing.

Roussel said interactive sessions during the conference will provide participants with experiences to “work” the system. Participants will return home with a “tool kit,” complete with handouts and materials to begin working on their perspective units and departments.”

The day will include lunch as well as poster presentations, CEUs, awards recognition and induction of new AONE officers for Mobile, Baldwin, Escambia, Conecuh, Monroe, Clark and Washington counties.

An interactive session will include USAMC nurses Stephanie Brown, 6th Floor nurse manager, and Rebecca Pomrenke, clinical nurse leader and Angela Land, St. Vincent Unit, Sacred Heart Hospital. A panel of area hospital leaders from Infirmary Health Systems, Providence Hospital and USAMC will share their best practices in care delivery. Land will also address Sacred Heart’s experience with transforming care at the bedside, providing strategies on getting started and sustaining quality improvement.

The American Organization of Nurse Executives partnered with Robert Wood Johnson to offer Phase III of the Transforming Care at the Bedside Project. Clinical Microsystems provides an excellent model for this transformation process. USA College of Nursing was instrumental in involving the USA Medical Center in a two-year nationwide study to improve patient care at the bedside. The initiative seeks to examine and improve patient care by nurses and other clinical staff members.

Poster presentations are still being accepted for the seminar. For additional information, contact Amy Bearden at bearden_amy@yahoo.com or (251)753-6174.