MRH Foundation Disbursement to Support Bariatric Care Education
| Date Posted: 6/5/2012
PINEHURST – Later this month, five members of the FirstHealth Bariatric Surgery team will travel to San Diego, Calif., for five days of “gold standard” education on the care of weight-loss surgery patients.
Support for the unique educational opportunity will come from a $15,000 disbursement from the Bariatric CARE Fund of the Moore Regional Hospital Foundation. The fund is supported by contributions from the community.
“The Moore Regional Hospital Foundation has a long history of supporting nursing education to ensure that FirstHealth clinicians have access to the most up-to-date best practices,” says Howie Pierce, who chairs the MRH Foundation’s Grant Review Committee. “That translates into high-quality patient care at the bedside and throughout the hospital.”
The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) is offering the upcoming seminar, which will focus on evidence-based educational opportunities that cover the spectrum of bariatric care.
“Based on that education, we will continue to establish standards of bariatric care that will produce exceptional outcomes, shorter lengths of stay, increased patient satisfaction and greater collaboration among disciplines,” says Karen Klish, R.N., clinical director of 1st Surgical/Outpatient Services and Preadmission Services at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital.
At Moore Regional, weight-loss surgery patients go to1st Surgical for their post-operative care.
Seminar course work will cover such areas as bariatric nutrition, challenges and optimal outcomes as well as pharmacology and post-operative care. Professional networking groups will focus on exercise and physical fitness, nursing, nutrition, practice management and behavioral health.
Armed with this new information, the seminar participants will return to Moore Regional to share what they have learned with the rest of the hospital’s bariatric team. By providing the funds to send four registered nurses and a registered dietitian to the conference, says Klish, the Foundation demonstrates its commitment to the community to provide the highest quality of bariatric care possible.
“Attendance at the ASMBS conference will provide educational opportunities specific to each discipline, but will also promote greater collaboration among physicians, the nursing staff, program managers and nutritionists,” Klish says. “This will give us a valuable opportunity to come together as a group to expand our knowledge of bariatric care and to apply that knowledge to the promotion of excellence in our delivery of bariatric care.”
The goal is to create the “extraordinary patient experience” for every bariatric patient served.
“We want to become the destination location for bariatric services by providing excellent multidisciplinary care that addresses the global needs of patients and their families,” says Klish. “The ASMBS is the definitive voice in bariatric care, and our goal is to meet and exceed those high standards.”
For more information on the work of the Moore Regional Hospital Foundation, call (910) 695-7500.
