Army, Navy and Air Force nurses listened to Army and Navy nursing leaders outline the future of nursing at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) at Bethesda, scheduled to open in 2011, during a meeting Sept. 17 at Walter Reed.

The current Walter Reed campus will close due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) the day WRNMMC opens, but quality of care at WRAMC will be maintained at todayís levels until closing of the D.C. facilities. Staffing at WRNMMC, including the nursing department, will be integrated between the services.

The meeting, the second of a planned series hosted alternately by NNMC and WRAMC, provided an overview of services provided at Walter Reed, brought nursing counterparts from different facilities together, and began the mission analysis process, according to Col. Susan Annicelli, deputy commander for Nursing and Health Services.

Maj. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, chief of the Army Nurse Corps, said the actions of the nursing community in the National Capital Region will shape how health care is provided at the joint medical center in Bethesda and the hospital under construction at Fort Belvoir, Va., for years to come. ìWhat you are doing is something very unique in military health care,î Horoho told the nurses gathered in Vorder Bruegge Auditorium. ìYou are designing what the nursing profession will look like, how it will perform, and the way patient care will be delivered, both at the new Walter Reed as well as the [Fort] Belvoir facilityî

Horoho said nurses of all services should consider their missions. ìWe arenít moving toward a ëpurple suit,íî Horoho said, referring to a blending of the services. ìWeíre moving toward a joint facility with a joint mission. That is truly taking the very best of our services and defining how the nursing profession needs to be aligned.î

The BRAC decision has focused the eyes of the nation on the medical care in the National Capital Region, according to Horoho, ìbecause each of our institutions has a long history of serving our Warriors and their Family members, and all those who support them and are entrusted to our care. They are going to look to see how you define how nursing care should be delivered in the future. What will these two facilities look like?î

Capt. Kathleen Pierce, Navy Nurse Corps deputy director, said while much of the attention paid to the new health care facilites in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir focuses on the buildings, the key is the people staffing those facilities. ìYou know the magic that happens in any organization is the people,î Pierce said. ìThe magic is what nurses do every day.

ìThis [medical center integration] is about how we bridge between world class science, research and care to the patient. The answer is in this room; itís nursing.î

Pierce called on military nurses at Bethesda and Walter Reed to communicate across facilities and services and hailed the nursesí leadership ability as crucial to the transition. ìThe world is watching, but I say, ëBring íem on,íî Pierce said. ìBecause we have the best of both (services) in this room and represented in our facilities. You are the principal advocate for that patient and that family. If we, as nurses, kept the patient and the family in the center and take out the parochial aspects of the corps weíre in, what services we represent, then weíll get it right.î

Annicelli said a major point of the meeting was for key personnel of the different facilities to meet. ìWe wanted to give an opportunity to sit with our colleagues with whom weíre going to be merging and look at how tasks are organized, what our scope of responsibility in the department of nursing is here.î

Nurses of the two facilities analyzed site-specific mission. ìWeíve started putting all the different missions we have on the table,î Annicelli said. ìWe have a whole host of things in our mission that they donít have, and vice-a-versa. Identification of the site-specific factors will go into a gap analysis. Once we have that, weíll know whoís doing what that the other may not ñ things weíll have to roll together once we do this merger.î

The vehicle for integration of organizations is meeting the standards of the American Nurses Associationís Magnet Recognition Program. The Magnet Program is the highest national recognition for excellent nursing practice in hospitals. It stresses quality patient care, nursing excellence, and innovations in professional nursing practice. The program provides a benchmark to measure the quality of patient care esteemed both by nurses and physicians.

ìIt really defines excellence in clinical practice, research and education,î Annicelli explained.

Annicelli said many policies and practices will be replicated at both facilities. ìIf a person was working at National Navy you would be looking at the same forms, the same processes, the same procedures, so that when there is the merger, what will change is the location where somebody is working, not the way they do business.î