Highlights From 2018
This year has been a whirlwind! We started by setting BIG TEXAS enrollment goals in January to serve an additional 300 active clients by December 31, 2018. In February, we worked with our stakeholders and Congressional members in Texas and across the country to reauthorize federal funding for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting grant that funds a significant number of teams across the state. Nurses from Any Baby Can, Baylor Teen Clinic, Baylor Scott and White, the City of Port Arthur, Texas Children’s Health Plan, UT Health Sciences Center in Tyler, and Wellness Pointe participated in enhanced education on how to use the STAR framework with support from the Episcopal Health Foundation. Last April, we took time for education, refueling, and celebrated our nurses and champions at the first Texas Nurse-Family Partnership conference in five years.
Nurses Honored for Years of Service
Over the summer, we welcomed Lara Reichle to the National Service Office Team as the Texas Philanthropy Officer. We also partnered with TexProtects in the summer and into this fall to host a series of Legislative Breakfasts to update policy makers on Nurse-Family Partnership in Austin, Houston, and Dallas. In addition, the supervisors met face to face in Austin to learn strategies to promote health equity from Dr. Camara Jones, a well-known public health expert on racial disparities. In August and September, teams were busy with National Site Visit week, participated in the Nurse-Family Partnership Symposium in Denver and in the Partners in Prevention Conference in Arlington. In November, the team supervisors met face to face with National Service Office and Department of Family and Protective Services staff to participate in Crucial Conversations, an education session on effective communication. As teams across the state have been working hard to hire nurses, enroll moms, and complete home visits, teams are also learning how to use new data collection forms, the data collection system, reports, and integrate MAPS for their professional development.
The Year of the Caregiver
Needless to say there is a lot of change going on, and change is hard! Even small changes can build up stress as we implement those changes while balancing work, family and life. As the leaves turn colors and the seasons change, how can we manage the changes that are all around us? Prioritize your own self-care and your team’s self-care. We ask the moms we work with to take small steps towards big goals and do their best to take care of themselves and their babies on every visit, but sometimes we do not prioritize taking care of ourselves. Remember, “only a small change is necessary.” Maybe you can take a five-minute walk at lunch, get up 10 minutes early to meditate, or fix yourself healthy snacks for the week that you can throw in your bag. It’s not going to get in the way of getting your work done or taking care of your family. It’s essential to your health and well-being and the health and well-being of everyone around you that you carve out time for self-care.
The team at Texas Children’s Health Plan Team had some great ideas including:
-Hold a team meeting and picnic lunch outside on the office lawn on meeting day to enjoy the sunshine and get out of the office.
-Play birthday bingo as an icebreaker to start a team meeting and celebrate lunch out of the office for birthdays.
-Conduct a “Getting to Know You” activity several times a year where the supervisor Adrian McKinney introduces a series of questions and the nurses answer them to get to know each other and team build prior to Team Meeting/Case Conference.
-“Walking 1:1s” where the supervisor and team members walk around the block or on treadmills in their office to support wellness and a change of scenery to discuss heavy cases.
-Use an aromatherapy wax melter with a scent called “Zen” to help de-stress.
-Bring markers and mandalas to the team meeting for those that like to process case conference and de-stress.
-Complete the team self-care plan and have the team identify three (3) things the team wants to start doing. TCHP created a stress free zone/wall of ocean scenery in their workspace, a visual of how many client’s lives the team has touched by putting glass pebbles in a jar, and a motivational quote on a board in the workspace.
-Create videos for staff made by their clients to show appreciation. Check them out on the NFP community site at http://community.nursefamilypartnership.org/Nursing-Practice/Innovations-Advisory-Committee
-Ask about successes, challenges, and wellness during 1:1s to have staff identify what they are actively doing for wellness and stress reduction when they leave the office.
-Host an offsite quality workshop to address our ER utilization education plan, subsequent pregnancy and birth control education, and client event planning for birth control education. Work by day and team-build in the evening.
-Offer annual team awards to recognize work well done, which does the soul good.
-Utilize Employee Assistance Program to help the team address practical strategies for dealing with secondary trauma.
-Laughter… use it often to help us stay positive
Sonia Flores, Supervisor for the Texas Tech Lubbock Team also shared some ideas:
-Making it a point to have laughter and humor in the workplace. This is a must as it always makes things not so serious, and laughter is good for the soul.
-Being healthy. The team has had weight loss challenges/contests. In their last contest, the team lost a total of 70 pounds. They share recipes and bring them to work for everyone to taste.
-Emotionally refueling quarterly. With support from their administrator, the Lubbock tea participated in “Painting With a Twist,” pedicures, manicures, massages, movies, making pottery, taking a self-defense class, swimming, team building exercises, and gatherings at team members homes.
-Having team meals once a month. These aren’t mandatory, but the majority of the time all team members attend.
-Planning happy hours.
-Encouraging flexible scheduling. This allows nurses to work longer hours (at their discretion) and take a Friday off.
-Encouraging nurses to take vacation time, and if needed “Mental Health days” off from work. If nurses are taking vacation or days off from work, it is policy that they have all work and loose ends completed prior to taking off from work in order to have a clear mind so they can relax on their vacation.
-Incorporating relaxation time. The team recently started incorporating “Relaxation” into our team meetings.
-Having accountability partners. The team has accountability partners that each nursepairs up with. The pair discuss personal and professional goals and progress towards those goals on a monthly basis.
-Adding a Zen Room. The Lubbock team is working on a Zen Room in their office area in order to get away and relax during the day as needed. The room will include a nice big chair/pillow, a diffuser with relaxing essential oils, puzzles, stress balls, fidget spinners, colors and coloring book etc.
Supervisor Sonia Flores also encourages her staff, by modeling her own self-care including standing and walking away from her desk hourly, getting away from her desk at lunch, listening to music, increasing her water intake, opening the blinds to enjoy the scenery, positive self-talk, addressing stressful situations as soon as they arise, concentrating on her family and relaxing after hours, and walking during 1:1 supervision. Each year, the team also completes the Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue survey and they start the week off with “Mellow Mondays” without too many meetings to ease into the week.
Here’s a picture of our team at The Spirit Ranch here in Lubbock. It was a day of Refueling which included team building exercises, a GREAT lunch, shopping, and massages afterward. This was definitely a GREAT DAY!
Introducing the Texas State Advisory Board
In September, the National Service Office team in Texas was excited to re-launch the Texas State Advisory Board. The State Advisory Board members provide a sounding board for the strategic direction of Nurse-Family Partnership in Texas. The Board will assist with advocacy on behalf of NFP and its public policy priorities, assist with creating more awareness of NFP, and help with fundraising efforts in the state. The current Board members include:
Traci McLester Arellano, Vice President of Public Finance at Frost Bank
Dr. Fred Buckwold, Retiree
Beth (Ellis) Dexter, Development Officer at Parkland Foundation
Cheryl Weise, RN, BSN, Former Nurse-Family Partnership Supervisor and San Antonio Community Advisory Board Chair
We are grateful for their support and will introduce each member through the Texas Blog.
Congratulations to Dr. Fred Buckwold on his Recent Retirement!
We want to extend our congratulations to Texas SAB member, Dr. Fred Buckwold, on his recent retirement from Community Health Choice, Inc., a community owned non-profit managed care organization that provides programs focused on low-income families, including Medicaid, CHIP and the subsidized individual Health Insurance Marketplace. In his last role there, Dr. Buckwold was Senior Vice President for Clinical Policy and Partnerships and his areas of responsibility included clinical advocacy, regulatory affairs and healthcare policy activities in the region and the state. He also oversaw provider credentialing functions and supported clinical issues related to quality improvement and accreditation programs. Dr. Buckwold has served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Health Services Authority since its inception in 2008, having been appointed and reappointed by Governors Perry and Abbott. He will be retiring from this board at the end of this year.
With Dr. Buckwold’s extensive experience in the managed care industry, as well as his former experience as a practicing Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases physician, he brings a wealth of knowledge to the Texas SAB, and we are grateful for his service.