Sandy Holman can’t stop talking. An ER nurse manager at Baptist Golden Triangle, Sandy holds a particular passion for training within industry (TWI), which propelled her to an international stage in The Netherlands.
She traveled there to present “TWI in the Real World of Health Care” before an audience of 150 healthcare professionals at a TWI Institute. Her invitation came as a result of a presentation she made at an earlier TWI Institute in February in California.
“A TWI representative saw that and asked Skip Steward if I might be interested in speaking in Europe,” said Sandy. “After getting approval from my administrative team, I was ready to go and very excited, because sharing the Baptist Golden Triangle story about how TWI has worked for us was something I very much wanted to do.”
More than 500 attended the event held at Leiden University Medical Center.
Sandy specifically discussed two Baptist Golden Triangle initiatives:
- How to decrease the blood culture contamination rate
- How to reduce unplanned pneumonia readmissions.
“The audience seemed to really appreciate that I was coming from a real-world setting—that our hospital had invested in TWI because we believe in it and we are using it to make important changes,” said Sandy. “I was very transparent and told them what worked, and what did not work. It’s important to give the whole story, and tell them slower is better, and that it is OK not to conquer every challenge in three months. While TWI can help you accomplish great things, it is not a magic wand. It takes time.”
Specific points covered included:
- Setting up training
- Scheduling
- Where to start within a hospital
- How to build armies of people in a department to address multiple goals simultaneously.
Having a peer relate the details of TWI had a huge impact on the audience. “This was a true eye-opener for them, that yes, this can be done,” said Sandy. “Most often, TWI is found in a manufacturing setting, but we have applied it to health care with great success.”
Sandy is already on the speaking roster for a TWI Institute conference in Atlanta in February. “I love talking about TWI, and it’s easy for me to do. It’s a great story to share.”
