Southwestern Vermont Medical Center Emergency Department

Bennington, Vermont

The team at the Kendall Emergency Department at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center exemplifies the hospital’s mission to provide exceptional care and comfort to the people in the community. As a five-time Magnet-designated hospital, SVMC’s culture of shared governance means that providers, nurses, technicians, and the interdisciplinary team work together to identify and implement strategies that address not only patient care and outcomes but staff safety, engagement, and satisfaction.

In addition to influencing care within the organization, SVMC emergency staff are empowered to be leaders beyond the health system. Through the department’s nursing advisory council, clinical nurses organized an on-site meeting with state legislators to discuss the impact of workplace violence. This meeting led to the introduction and passage of legislation at the state level that strengthened law enforcement’s ability to intervene in situations of violence against healthcare workers. In the last three years, SVMC’s ED nurses have presented at local, regional, and national conferences on topics including cultural humility, harm reduction, design considerations for emergency psychiatric care, and orientation strategies for new emergency RNs.

The staff also showed ingenuity and flexibility in meeting temporary challenges caused by a multi-year ED construction and renovation project, which was scheduled for completion in the summer of 2024.