OSF St. Joseph Medical Center has designed a financial incentives program specifically to retain and recruit bedside nurses. It’s called Best at the Bedside, and it celebrates the most important aspect of nursing … hands-on patient care. You can advance your career and remain in bedside nursing.

The Best at the Bedside program works like this:

• There are four clinical ladder levels, each with their own established standards.

• Established standards are based on practice and professional growth.
• Nurses may review their level yearly to help determine advancement opportunities.
• Financial incentives are incorporated into advanced levels so nurses can stay at the bedside and still advance in their career professionally and financially.

To find out how you can join the Best at the Bedside team and receive financial rewards for bedside nursing excellence, call our OSF St. Joseph Medical Center Director of Professional Practice at 309-665-4714.

Staff Nurse is any newly hired RN who is completing her/his basic competencies on orientation. A Staff Nurse, demonstrating satisfactory performance, advances to Professional Staff Nurse upon the completion of orientation.

Professional Staff Nurse is an individual who has maintained all his/her competencies and has met all the requirements of the Staff Nurse. The Professional Staff Nurse is a competent RN who effectively provides quality patient care and ensures patient and family satisfaction.

Senior Professional Staff Nurse is an individual who has maintained all of his/her basic competencies and has met all the requirements of the Professional Staff Nurse criteria. A Senior Professional Staff Nurse is able to view the patient holistically and anticipates the needs of the clinical situation. He/she promotes quality patient care and superior patient and family satisfaction.

Nurse Care Coordinator is an expert RN who has developed a level of expertise normally achieved by working with the same patient population for several years. He/she is an individual who has maintained all of his/her basic competencies and has met all the requirements of the Senior Professional Staff Nurse criteria. She/he has developed expertise in her/his field of specialty developing a vast background of experience. He/she is a leader, teacher, professional communicator, and provides an example for staff with less experience. She/he intuitively provides exceptional quality patient care that leads to superior patient satisfaction.

1. A participating professional may advance in the Clinical Ladder once per year into the appropriate level once criteria are met. A RN may move from Professional Staff Nurse to Senior Professional Staff Nurse or Nurse Care Coordinator if the criteria are met.
2. Yearly financial incentives for staff RN are as follows:

• To recognize and reward clinical expertise by establishing standards for nursing practice and professional growth. To acknowledge responsibility, accountability, autonomy and collaboration resulting in increased professional satisfaction and organizational commitment.
• To promote excellence in nursing practice thus enhancing quality patient care.
• To create an environment that promotes the professional behaviors and attitudes that exhibit the greatest love and compassion for all persons.
• To provide a structured tool to define role expectations within each practice level incorporating the Values, Goals and Mission of The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis.