Inside Duke Medicine

First Person: Mary Ann Fuchs, R.N.

Mary Ann Fuchs, M.S.N, R.N., has 23 years of experience as a registered nurse in various roles. Now, she is the chief nursing and patient care services officer for both Duke University Hospital and Duke University Health System.

Recently, we sat down with her to talk about a subject of great importance to her and to the health system - professional development.

Where does professional development fit into nursing practice?

It’s very important. Each year, the nursing executive team sits down, at a system level, to establish what our goals will be. The goals are in four broad categories: human resources, clinical practice, work environment, and, managing and operations. Obviously, all these areas are important. But what we’re really focusing on is human resources and clinical practice. They fit together: we need human resources to be able to care for our patients.

What perspective does Duke take on that?

More than merely recruiting nurses, we need experts. We need our nurses to be experts at delivering care because we are a specialty-based organization. We need to make sure that people have what they need to take care of our patients.

How are these experts created?

Through professional and career development opportunities. We’ve developed a comprehensive system that recruits and retains staff, and then develops that staff by providing opportunities to learn new skills and progress in their careers. We call it the clinical ladder.

How does it work?

It is really driven by bedside staff by what they feel they need to professionally develop. The ladder is designed so that a nurse can be an expert clinician and stay at the bedside, or they can choose an education path or they can pursue a management path. There are special things they can do along that way to develop themselves, which are in line with unit or organizational goals. We’re receiving recognition for this. Duke Hospital was ranked by readers of Advance for Nurses magazine for the Southeast in the Oct. 20 issue as a workplace that excels in opportunities for continuing education, tuition reimbursement and rewards and recognition.

How does Friends of Nursing fit into this?

It’s integral to it, and invaluable. We are so lucky and proud to have a program like Friends of Nursing, which as you can see when you read about this year’s recipients, recognizes achievement and provides support for the continuing professional development of Duke Medicine nurses.

—Interview by Mark Schreiner