Nurses were among the crowd of 700 employees, Johns Hopkins Medicine leaders, local officials, and community members gathered outside All Children’s Hospital on a sunny April morning to celebrate its 90th anniversary and its new name: Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH). The name reflects the hospital’s role as an academic medical center within Johns Hopkins Medicine. It also reflects the progress made in advancing nursing at JHACH since the hospital joined Hopkins Medicine five years ago.
Providing high-quality, compassionate family-centered care for children has long been the priority for the nursing team at JHACH. The name change solidifies excellence and the promise of even better outcomes for children.
“When one of our nurses asks me, ‘What does this name change mean to me?’ I tell them it means that you are part of a world-renowned organization with a name that is recognizable and well respected across the globe,” says Cherilyn Ashlock, MSN, RN, magnet manager at JHACH. “It means you’ve earned it. This is an exciting time for all of us.”
“For me personally,” Ashlock continues, “our becoming the only Johns Hopkins children’s hospital outside the Baltimore area has been so meaningful. One Tuesday morning in April, I woke up a Johns Hopkins nurse. That is not something I ever dreamed I would get to say here in St. Petersburg, FL. Our name honors the work that’s been done here by our nurses over the years, and being part of Hopkins brings added strengths that benefit our nurses and, of course, our patients.”
“It means that you are part of a world-renowned organization with a name that is recognizable and well respected across the globe.”
— Cherilyn Ashlock, MSN, RN
The transformation brings opportunities that extend far beyond the hospital’s campus, Ashlock notes. “For instance, Sondra Boatman, a clinical nurse leader in the CVICU, is traveling to South Africa with a team from Johns Hopkins Medicine International to share expertise with staff at Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.”
“I became a nurse to help sick children get better,” explains Neuroscience clinical nurse leader Kentlee Battick, MSN, RN. “Being a part of such a widely known and diverse health care system brings more opportunity, more research, more networking, and more sharing—all aimed at helping children get better. Being part of Johns Hopkins expands the knowledge base we pull from and allows us to share the clinical nurse leader role with others on the team.”
An important next step is the hospital’s journey to achieve magnet designation. Fewer than 10 percent of hospitals across the country hold this quality designation awarded by the American Nurses’ Credentialing Center. Johns Hopkins All Children’s aims to achieve this gold standard by 2018.
“We are not becoming a magnet organization and achieving nursing excellence because we are Johns Hopkins, we are doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” Ashlock adds with pride. “It is the evolution of an organization and the people within it.”
Photo Courtesy of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital
Cherilyn Ashlock (left) and Kentlee Battick of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. “One Tuesday morning in April, I woke up a Johns Hopkins nurse,” says Ashlock. “That is not something I ever dreamed I would get to say here in St. Petersburg, FL.”
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