Novato, CA-June 1, 2006: On May 18 and 19, some of the nation’s most prestigious nurse leaders came together at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA for the annual Catalyst Client Academy. Here, in the company of their peers, including chief nursing officers, directors, managers, staffing coordinators, project managers, and others, they immersed themselves the latest approaches to workforce development, nurse staffing, care delivery, and patient safety.

The Science of Staffing: Balancing Budgets and Patient Safety theme inspired each speaker to take a different approach to this timely topic. On the first day, keynote speaker, Grant Campbell, BSN, RN, Catalyst Systems' Business Development Director, focused on evidence-based workforce development and its role in nursing's future. To see highlights of his talk, click here.

Patricia Button, EdD, RN and Director, Nursing Content at Zynx Health, who presented remotely via WebEx spoke about the evidence-based plan of care as a tool for patient safety, quality, and efficiency.

Stephanie Ruh Mearns, MN, RN and Vice President/Chief Nursing Office at Century City Doctors Hospital, described the challenges of building an all-digital hospital.

Christopher Daute, Active Staffer Design Specialist at API Software, Inc. and Cynthia Mar, Staffing Resource Analyst at Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, co-presented an informative session on integrating a patient classification system with an automated staffing and scheduling system.

The second day opened with a presentation on multidisciplinary workload measurement by Karen Wunch, MS, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, Director Professional Services at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center and Holly A. De Groot, PhD, RN FAAN, Chief Executive Officer at Catalyst Systems.

Next, Nancy Fahey, RN, MSSN, BC, Intellectual Property Strategist for Cerner Corporation, spoke about the challenges of moving from paper to the electronic medical record in an all-digital hospital.

After lunch Catalyst Senior Consultant, Bette Rohrback, BA, RN, gave a "how-to" presentation on position control and the building blocks of precision staffing.

Joan P. Smith, BSN, MPA, Director of Patient Care Services at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Marie W. O’Rourke DNSc, RN, FAAN, CHC, President and CEO of Maria W. O'Rourke, Inc., co-presented a lively talk on professional role accountability as it relates to the Magnet journey.

Closing both days, Catalyst CEO Holly A. DeGroot spoke about the current issues and future challenges facing the nursing profession in a talk entitled Power, Precision and Patient Safety.

Here are some comments from our guests:

If you missed out on this year's Client Academy and would like to be included in announcements of the '07 event, please drop us a note with your email address and we'll make sure to invite you to next year's conference.

Nurse-owned and operated, Catalyst Systems has provided hospitals and other healthcare organizations across the nation with its leading EVALISYS^® Patient Classification System and objective workload studies for more than 20 years. Catalyst’s staff are recognized experts in evidence-based staffing methods, research, legislative and policy issues, and health care leadership. For more information on Catalyst, please email info@catsys.com, call 415-893-7600 or visit the website at www.catsys.com.