Quality improvement has always been of interest to Nikita Baker, and she aims to integrate this into nursing. Since becoming a nurse, her goal has been to provide appropriate, sustainable, and evidence-based care. She believes our healthcare system provides good care, but there’s always an opportunity for growth and improvement which is why she decided to pursue further education.
Improving healthcare quality and safety is a growing focus for the nursing field and healthcare systems as a whole, as medical institutions aim to achieve efficiency, reduce healthcare costs and ensure high-quality patient outcomes.
Nikita was awarded the Florence and Lloyd Cooper Alberta Registered Nurses Educational Trust (ARNET) Scholarship for the excellence she’s shown in pursuing her Master’s in Quality Improvement. Education advancement and research is one of Calgary Health Foundation’s priority areas in enhancing healthcare for our community.
“The scholarship really changed things for me. I was working full-time when I was awarded the scholarship and it took off the burden of needing to pick up extra shifts to pay for tuition. I can’t express my gratitude enough,” Nikita said.
Through the education she’s received, the largest impact she’s had is being able to support many quality improvement initiatives.
“I want to pay it forward and offer as many learning opportunities as I can. I have so much gratitude for this scholarship, and it makes me want to do more to support advanced learning.”
After graduating last November, Nikita is now a Quality Improvement Nurse Clinician for the department of Hospital Medicine. Nikita works out of all four of the acute care sites in Calgary as well as several long-term facilities. She works on physician-oriented quality improvement initiatives that help foster best practice and quality care for patients. Her main purpose in this role is project planning and implementation. She has found that pursuing further education in her program has been instrumental to bedside nursing as well.
Nikita still works casually in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Rockyview General Hospital because it’s a place that’s very special to her.
“While I’m there, I can partake in quality improvement initiatives that are happening in the NICU. It changes the conversation that you have with families and widens your lens a little bit.”
Taking care of critically ill babies is still something that’s important to Nikita because of the five years she spent working in the NICU at Rockyview General Hospital, Peter Lougheed Centre, and Foothills Medical Centre.
During her time in the NICU, a colleague inspired her to find one of her biggest passions, caring for newborns.
“The opportunities in nursing are endless. I think working bedside, it’s almost next to impossible to not find something you’re passionate about. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work in the NICU and work in quality improvement at the same time.”
After completing the program, Nikita finds herself looking at things on a more granular level which has made her a stronger advocate for her patients and the diverse patient populations she cares for.
“The program has helped me develop my confidence and have better conversation skills.”
She sees herself growing both personally and professionally because of the different healthcare disciplines the program offered her to be involved in.
Her day-to-day role is variable because of the different sites she works at. She often does environmental scans of projects that vary from shift restructuring for physicians, to sleep optimization in patients. Having different projects to work on has kept her role exciting and engaging.
For Nikita, what’s been most rewarding about her career in nursing is establishing patient voice, and forming connections. Through her 10 years working in healthcare, she’s been able to gain a lot of patient and family perspective, and hopes to continue furthering conversations on how to improve care.
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