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Seattle Children's Professional Practice Model

Diagram of Seattle Children's Professional Practice Model

Our professional practice model, using the acronym CHILD, has five focal points:

    • Care delivery
    • Healthy work environment 
    • Innovations and improvements
    • Leadership and governance
    • Development of nurses

Care Delivery

As we provide nursing care at Seattle Children’s, we develop family-centered relationships, where all patients are treated ethically, with respect for diversity, while advocating for health equity, without regard for ability to pay.

To ensure excellence in patient care, we base our care on the most current evidence-based practices as well as the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses.

Healthy Work Environment

We advocate for the well-being of the mind, body and spirit for ourselves, our colleagues and our patients and families, both at the point of care and in the broader community, by creating healthy, caring environments. Relationships with multidisciplinary colleagues are collaborative and supportive.

Innovations and Improvements

As a premier research and teaching facility, Seattle Children’s offers nurses the opportunity to work with outstanding faculty and the latest – often newly emerging – therapies, treatments and technologies.

To improve our care and generate new knowledge, we use Continuous Improvement and Innovation (CII) methods, apply evidence-based practices (EBP) at the bedside and provide genuine opportunities for nurses to lead research that leads to important improvements in care.

Nursing research

The Center for Pediatric Nursing Research provides resources for nurses in every position to lead and participate in research so they can contribute to new knowledge. We provide support for protocol development, Institutional Review Board approval, grant applications, statistical analysis and dissemination of findings through presentations and publication.

Leadership and Governance

Through shared governance, our nurses collaborate with management on decisions that affect nursing care.

Developing strong leaders – both in clinical nurse and management roles – is integral to achieving our goal of being leaders in pediatric nursing.

Diagram of Seattle Children's Share Governance ModelShared governance

We are committed to nursing shared governance because we believe that nurses closest to the patient, providing direct patient care, are in the best position to make decisions related to nursing practice.

Shared governance provides a framework whereby staff and management collaborate to develop and improve nursing care practices and create an environment of mutual trust and respect.

Professional Development of Nurses

We are dedicated to the advancement of pediatric nursing practice through the development of every nurse, from nursing students to executive nursing leaders.

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