Collaboration in Crisis Builds Foundation for the Future
In 2022, the Pediatric Emergency Department was recognized with the Johns Hopkins Clinical Collaboration and Teamwork Award highlighting their efforts to incorporate shared decision-making and foster cooperation and open communication with their colleagues. Read about the award here.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Karen Maggio, RN, MSN, NE-BC, senior director of Women’s and Children’s Services, and her teammates in the HCMC Pediatric Emergency Department found themselves in an eerie state of calm amidst the chaos. “Everyone was scared,” said Karen. “Parents wanted to keep their kids safe at home rather than risking COVID-19 exposure at the hospital, so we saw very few patients on our unit.” As the adult nurses rushed to keep up with the rapidly shifting emergency, the pediatric nurses realized they had the capacity to offer much needed support.
Although treating adults directly wasn’t in the pediatric nurses’ scope of practice, they were more than able to help the adult nurses complete basic, daily nursing tasks. “There was some unease with going into the COVID units,” said Karen, “but that didn’t stop anyone. We were still ready to help. Our doctors and PCPs joined us too, so it was a whole unit collaboration to help the frontlines wherever the need was.”
With the pediatric nurses handling the rote work, the adult nurses had more capacity for heavier cases that needed their specialization. This cross-departmental teamwork laid the foundation for improved crisis response and collaboration and has since helped to bridge the gap between the pediatric and adult emergency department teams.
“An awful RSV surge happened two years later in the fall of 2022,” said Karen. “The pediatric emergency department typically has about 50 to 60 patients a day, but we were seeing nearly 120 in the thick of it. The sheer volume was paralyzing, but everyone came together to assist us. We had nurses and providers from the adult ER to the NICU to the Maternal-Child Unit on the floor. There were medical surgery nurses in the unit next to staff from the environmental services and facilities departments. Our experience with COVID really opened the door in this situation for everybody to come together and ask, ‘how can we help with this even if we’re not pediatric nurses?’ It really broadened everybody’s mind and allowed us all to adapt and flex differently.”
Karen says that this collaborative spirit is par for the course at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center.
Although treating adults directly wasn’t in the pediatric nurses’ scope of practice, they were more than able to help the adult nurses complete basic, daily nursing tasks. “There was some unease with going into the COVID units,” said Karen, “but that didn’t stop anyone. We were still ready to help. Our doctors and PCPs joined us too, so it was a whole unit collaboration to help the frontlines wherever the need was.”
With the pediatric nurses handling the rote work, the adult nurses had more capacity for heavier cases that needed their specialization. This cross-departmental teamwork laid the foundation for improved crisis response and collaboration and has since helped to bridge the gap between the pediatric and adult emergency department teams.
“An awful RSV surge happened two years later in the fall of 2022,” said Karen. “The pediatric emergency department typically has about 50 to 60 patients a day, but we were seeing nearly 120 in the thick of it. The sheer volume was paralyzing, but everyone came together to assist us. We had nurses and providers from the adult ER to the NICU to the Maternal-Child Unit on the floor. There were medical surgery nurses in the unit next to staff from the environmental services and facilities departments. Our experience with COVID really opened the door in this situation for everybody to come together and ask, ‘how can we help with this even if we’re not pediatric nurses?’ It really broadened everybody’s mind and allowed us all to adapt and flex differently.”
Karen says that this collaborative spirit is par for the course at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center.
"As nurses, when we’re faced with challenges, we’re doers. We’re fixers. We want to make everything better. These nurses did exactly that.”
Karen Maggio, RN, MSN, NE-BC