‘Shining Example’ of Critical Care Nursing: Christiana Hospital Cardiovascular Unit Wins Beacon Award

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses awarded the silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence to ChristianaCare’s 4E, a cardiovascular step-down unit at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware. The Beacon Award is the highest achievement in critical-care nursing.

“To say I am proud is an understatement,” said 4E nurse manager Andrea Sweeny, MSN, RN, NE-BC, CV-BC. “Through COVID, staffing challenges, and everything that came with it, the team still managed to significantly improve patient outcomes and make an overall positive change within the community in which they serve.”

The Beacon Award is unique because it recognizes excellence in individual nursing units, said Chief Nurse Executive Danielle Weber, MSN, MSM, RN-BC, NEA-BC. “The 4E team is a shining example of a nursing unit that serves patients at the highest level of evidence-based care and professional practice.”

A 38-bed intermediate cardiovascular step-down unit, 4E provides evidence-based care for patients with a wide variety of diagnoses, including cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, cardiac dysrhythmia, myocardial infarction and vascular surgical patients. Admissions to 4E come from the outpatient setting, emergency department, procedural areas and the operating room, as well as the intensive care unit and the medical units if the patient’s condition requires a higher level of care.

Citing strong communication, collaboration and leadership, the Beacon Award panel commended the unit’s “refined processes that are applied systematically with participation by stakeholders. There is clear evidence of learning and cycles of improvement.”

The 4E team includes 69 direct care registered nurses, 20 patient care technicians, four student nurse externs and leadership. Nursing professional development specialist Danielle Coyne, MSN, RN-BC, NPD-BC, said 4E team members are motivated to grow their skills and broaden their career paths.

“The team continues to pursue professional goals of obtaining certification, advanced degrees, shared governance involvement and clinical ladder advancement,” she said. “Many of our assistive personnel are enrolled in nursing programs and partner with nurses for support and mentorship as they plan to transition to nursing.”

Colleen McGhie, MSN, RN IV-BC, a 4E team member for more than 20 years, said the unit is like a family. “I often hear patients compliment us by saying we work well together,” she said. “Everyone treats every patient as their own. We don’t focus solely on who is assigned to us. Everyone jumps in to assist one another with patient care and safety as our goal.”

Collaboration among the 4E team, a strength noted by the Beacon Award panel, is embedded into the unit’s culture, McGhie said. “Our unit practice council meets monthly to develop and execute performance improvement projects,” she said. “Our most recent project on fall prevention was a huge success. We were able to improve our scores, leading to a positive impact on patient safety.”

Of the six Beacon Award-winning patient care units currently in Delaware, all are at ChristianaCare. The others are the Transitional Medical Unit and 3C Intermediate Medical Unit (silver); the Surgical Critical Care Complex (silver); Transitional Surgical Unit (silver); 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).