Shared Leadership, Mexico
As part of a plan to strengthen nursing within Mexico’s healthcare system, a collaborative multidisciplinary group including nursing leaders, representatives of health services, educational institutions and civil nursing organisations, assisted in the creation of a national nursing programme.
Led by the General Coordinator of the Permanent Commission of Nursing and strongly supported by the Ministry of Health, the Deputy Minister of Health and Inter-Institutional Commission for Training of Human Resources in Health, it has been successful in improving nursing capabilities and competencies, promoting the professional development of nursing and has contributed to better quality health services and ultimately, better health outcomes for the patients.
There are many examples of how this shared leadership amongst nurses has empowered the profession and improved patient safety. One example is the creation of more than 250 Catheter Clinics at the national level, which have been a substantive support for the reduction of infections related to vascular accesses. Another of the projects through which nurses have been empowered has been the standardization of the care of people with wounds, through the implementation of over 200 Wound Clinics where patient care is coordinated by the nursing leader. These clinics have innovated the care of these patients and have generated benefits in terms of quality of life, expenses in patient care and decrease in hospital stay days.