Teamwork Earns Transitional Medical Unit and 3C Intermediate Unit a Silver Beacon Award

Serving together to provide exceptional care during the COVID-19 pandemic, ChristianaCare’s Transitional Medical Unit (TMU) and 3C Intermediate Medical Unit operated as one team until September 2022, sharing staff and leadership despite being in different locations and caring for diverse patient populations within Christiana Hospital.

For their unique teamwork and success, TMU/3C have earned a Silver Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. The award is the highest achievement in critical care nursing.

TMU and 3C are each 40-bed units that care for high acuity, complex patients, including those leaving intensive care and emergency departments. Their collaborative efforts were stretched even more during the COVID-19 pandemic when the units transitioned to private rooms to better accommodate patients requiring a higher level of care.

“The Beacon Award is prestigious, and demonstrates the excellence that comes from serving together,” said Tim Heckman, MSN, RN-BC, nurse manager of the Transitional Medical Unit. “This award symbolizes our success through a really challenging time in health care history.”

The Beacon Award for Excellence recognizes caregivers in units who set the standard for excellence in patient care environments by collecting and using evidence-based information to improve patient outcomes along with patient and staff satisfaction. TMU earned a Bronze Beacon Award in 2017 and a Silver Award in 2020, making it the only progressive care unit in the state of Delaware to earn such recognition.

Of the five Beacon Award-winning patient care units currently in Delaware, all are at ChristianaCare. The others are the Surgical Critical Care Complex (silver); Transitional Surgical Unit (silver); and the Cardiovascular Critical Care Complex (three-time gold winner); and the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Christiana Hospital (a record-setting five-time gold winner).

In 2022, when the time came for TMU staff to submit its application for Beacon recognition, the unit was already working as a team with 3C, led by Heckman with Jessica Tagliaferro, MSN, RN, PCCN, and Kim Prouse, RN, PCCN, as assistant nurse managers. Given the unusual circumstances and collaboration, nurse leaders asked for special approval for the two units to complete a Beacon application together.

The AACN’s Beacon Award measures systems, outcomes and environments against evidence-based national criteria for excellence in patient safety and experience. TMU/3C has earned a ChristianaCare Zero Harm award on several occasions, most recently receiving an award for having no falls with a major injury in the past 12 months.

In addition, seven nurses from TMU/3C received an Excellence in Nursing award from ChristianaCare in 2022. Recipients are nominated by their peers for the award.

Working as such a large team requires caregivers who are comfortable collaborating for the benefit of their patients.

Although the two units resumed their separate roles in September 2022 as the pandemic began to ebb, the impact of that teamwork remains.

Earning a Beacon Award reflects the high level of commitment found among caregivers working on the two units, said Tagliaferro, who now serves as 3C nurse manager.

“Receiving the silver level award as a combined unit during the peak of COVID speaks volumes to what our staffs were able to achieve during such a difficult time in their careers,” Tagliaferro said.

“Having a unit with a Beacon Award draws people to ChristianaCare as patients and as prospective new caregivers.”

Given that, it’s not surprising that the caregivers on both units already have a new goal.

“We’re shooting for the gold award next,” Heckman said.