Nursing Excellence

The Online Newsletter for Children's Nurses
e-Edition, Issue 9

Alphabet Soup in the Ambulatory Division
- APPC and APCC

By Mary (Liz) Solis, MA, BSN, RN

Ambulatory staff governs their practice through a structure that supports the outcome of quality patient care. Two of these committees are the Ambulatory Professional Practice Council (APPC) and the Ambulatory Patient Care Committee (APCC).

APPC is new to the ambulatory division at Children’s Hospital Central California. This council provides an opportunity to address nursing practice, recognize nurses and best practice in the division, and raise awareness of the roles and accountabilities of the ambulatory nurses. Chaired by Anna Kern, RN, this committee is working on a policy for telephone triage to create a more standardized process across the ambulatory division.

APCC is the ambulatory patient care committee, which includes the division’s hand hygiene committee. This committee is currently focusing on the implementation of customized hand hygiene surveys for patients to note if they observed their providers and clinical staff “gel in and gel out” during their visit. The goal is to allow this to be a more interactive process that involves families visiting the ambulatory division clinics. In APCC “talking points” have also been developed and implemented; this provides our representatives with the highlights of the meeting for them to share at their department staff meetings. APCC has restructured the chair position to provide a registered nurse from the ambulatory division an opportunity to serve in a leadership role; Katherine Ehresman, RN, is the new chair.

The author, as a clinical general manager in the ambulatory division, facilitates both the APPC and the APCC at Children’s.