Advanced practice nurse entrepreneurs in a multidisciplinary surgical-assisting partnership

AORN Journal,  Sept, 2005  by Linda DeCarlo

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MARKETING. After the partnership is formed, the next step is to market the group to the community. If the community assessment identifies that multiple calls are being made by surgeons, their office staff members, and hospital staff members to schedule assistants, the option of calling only one telephone number to meet all of their scheduling needs would be an answer to their problems. If facilities have a problem finding an assistant for after-hours or weekend procedures, a community-wide call schedule staffed by the partnership members would meet their needs. Implementing these concepts sends a message to the surgeons and hospitals that the partnership members are collaborating to improve the health of the community. (18)

The call calendar is sent to surgeons' offices and to hospital ORs and labor and delivery departments. It serves as a written reminder to all of the group members, as well as the health care facilities, that the APNs assigned to each day of the week are partners with each other, the surgeons, and the hospitals in the community. In a multidisciplinary surgical-assisting partnership, all members take equal amounts of on-call responsibility. An informal dinner meeting to compile the call calendar and discuss group business can strengthen the connections among the partners.

If group members are unable to attend a meeting, they can submit dates that they are available to take call to a meeting coordinator. Information can be communicated by fax or e-mail. The completed call calendar then can be sent to the group members by e-mail or posted to a web site that is accessible to group members, surgeons, and hospitals.

A multidisciplinary partnership with a wide variety of services may be more attractive to consumers (eg, surgeons, schedulers) than trying to coordinate with several individual APNs. (15) Partnerships that include APNs with complementary skills have the greatest opportunity for success. (19) Assembling a group of APN surgical-assisting entrepreneurs with a variety of special talents and using their skills efficiently results in success for all individuals and increases the strength of the partnership. Surgeons prefer the ease of one-number scheduling when they know that their regular assistant or an assistant with expertise in their specialty will be present in the OR during their procedure.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

Success is measured differently by each individual. Financial achievement, personal satisfaction, and contributions to the community are examples of potential goals. Specific achievements for each of these goals are listed in Table 3.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

The needs of the community should be reassessed on a routine basis as the marketplace changes. (11) This includes assessing economic trends and potential clients and competitors. Business changes can be made to keep the practice viable. The addition of group members with expertise in different specialties or different educational backgrounds adds strength to the entire group. Additional procedure volume may result from expanding services to new geographic territories, additional facilities, or new surgeons who move to the area. The goals are to keep the scheduling telephone ringing and to satisfy customers' needs. Advance practice nurse entrepreneurs should stay abreast of current trends in order to adapt and implement business plans that responding to changing developments. (17)