Beating the mandatory blues: using the FOCUS PDCA process.

By October 1995, a total of 863 nursing employees fulfilled their annual requirements, for a compliance rate of 94.4%. Additionally, 178 employees from various ancillary departments such as radiology, dietary and food service, rehabilitation, and social service also attended. Therefore, we were able to use our program beyond the nursing department and provide a hospital-wide educational service. Overall, the poster presentations were highly successful and the benefits to the institution included the following: 1. An increase in employee satisfaction because the average time spent away from the patient care unit was substantially decreased. 2. An increase in instructor availability to meet the educational needs of the nursing staff on individually assigned units. 3. An increase in instructor accessibility to identify and meet the learning needs of new staff members.