Data. It’s a word often used in healthcare to back-up our findings, justify our next steps, or in some cases lead us to a new conclusion. While we live in a world of big data, we may not intuitively know how to use this effectively to create change. In fact, only 15% of healthcare organizations in a recent Tableau IDC whitepaper are data leading. Data leading organizations are those with strong enterprise-wide data cultures. Yet 83% of CEO’s in the same survey want their organization to be more data driven.

My early nursing career offered me a variety of care areas and work settings. Shortly after graduating with my BSN, I began my nursing career in Labor & Delivery at a hospital in downtown Omaha. While not as notorious as some other inner-city facilities in the country, it was a reality check and an often-stressful setting for a ‘farm-girl’ from rural Nebraska. My eyes were quickly opened by the cases that we saw in this trauma center caring for a diverse population.

When the American Nurses’ Association announced the theme for National Nurses’ Week 2020 as ‘The Year of the Nurse and the Nurse Midwife’ no one could have anticipated how true that tagline would become. As the COVID-19 virus expanded into a pandemic causing millions, of often critically ill, highly contagious patients to descend on hospitals and other healthcare facilities, nurses around the world stepped up as they always do.