Nurse Managers Lead Innovation from the Frontline: How THMA’s Nursing Catalyst Labs Program Accelerates Change Leadership
The Health Management Academy
We Power Our Community to Drive Health Forward.
By Kayla Tarlton | Sr. Director, Nursing Catalyst
Today’s nursing workforce faces unmatched challenges, and the role of the nurse manager has never been more important. Frontline nursing leaders are the lynchpin of the healthcare delivery system and the critical change agents of care delivery transformation. The THMA Nursing Catalyst Labs team is committed to supporting nurse managers as change leaders through the Nurse Manager Labs program.
Below are the three core pillars of the Nurse Manager Labs Program that support frontline managers as nursing innovators and enable them to solve healthcare’s biggest challenges, one test of change at a time.
1: Peer Support and New Perspective Re-Invigorates Nurse Managers
The unique professional networking and peer learning opportunities that come from participating in a national cohort are unmatched - and irreplicable through internal training and development programs.
Each cohort of the Nurse Manager Labs program is comprised of 50-100 frontline leaders from health systems with national representation. Participating managers are carefully selected by enterprise leadership for their high performance and growth potential.
The unique benefits of the national peer network:
- Nursing leaders break out of the echo chamber of what is hard, what is possible – and return to work with new ideas and inspiration to impact positive change.
- Moments of connection and vulnerability help an often-isolated leadership layer reconnect with purpose and lean on peers for accountability and support.
2: Structured Pilot Launch Support Accelerates Nurse-Led Innovation
The Labs program reinforces core change management skills to support successful individual pilot launches and implementation – and elevate the leadership platform of participating managers. Individual pilots range from implementing virtual nursing to revamping new nurse onboarding or refocusing personalized staff recognition programs.
The experience is bolstered by high-visibility moments with intra-system nursing executive leadership and exposure to new perspectives from the broader Nursing Catalyst community.
How it works:
- Participating leaders practice critical change leadership skills including root cause analysis, stakeholder mapping and engagement, collaborative brainstorming, persuasive communication, vision-setting, and storytelling.
- Intra-system mentorship, exposure to executive leadership perspectives, peer support, and facilitated sessions provide additional support during the innovation sprint.
- Each participant formally pitches their innovation project idea(s) to internal nursing executive leadership for approval and organizational support for the next steps.
The result:
supported nurse managers are not only responding to the day-to-day challenges of care delivery – they are paving the way forward as champions of care delivery transformation.
3: Leadership 2.0 Learning Opportunities Elevate the Platform of Participating Nurse Managers
Beyond the Nurse Manager Labs structured innovation sprint and related cohort activities, Nursing Catalyst offers ongoing professional development support for our active cohort participants and alumni.
Nursing Catalyst’s level-up leadership offerings focus on learning and development areas core to the nurse manager role, including building self-awareness as a people leader, effective coaching and delegation, establishing cultural norms at the unit level, growing your leadership shadow, and more.
Ready to Learn More?
Hundreds of nurse managers have graduated from the Nurse Manager Labs program since its inception in 2022. The journey towards transformative care and sustainable workforce solutions continues, and it is through programs like the Nurse Manager Labs that we gain the collective knowledge and motivation to advance.
We invite you to join us for our upcoming dialogue in July 2024 to learn more about the Labs and shape the future of nursing leadership. Together, we can champion nurse-led innovation and build the workforce of tomorrow.