By: Kelly Guzman
The Yellow Brick team is delighted that the World Health Organization has designated 2020 as the “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.” Nurses and midwives play a vital position in transforming healthcare around the world.” 2020 marks a significant year for the nursing profession as it is the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.
Florence Nightingale said, “The object and color in the materials around us actually have a physical effect on us, on how we feel.” As Design Strategy and Transition and Activation Planning specialists, our role in influencing patient outcomes has taken us on a non-traditional path in the nursing profession. We work side-by-side with design teams to influence the physical structure of healthcare facilities and with the operations team to implement the basis of design into operational planning. As a nurse, I am honored to work in a profession in which there are so many opportunities to apply the skills and critical thinking processes learned in nursing school.
When I started Yellow Brick, my team and I modeled our approach to Transition and Activation Planning after the Yura and Walsh Nursing Model knows as APIE (Assess, Plan, Implement, and Evaluate) (1967), and Jeff Hiat’s ADKAR model for change management that includes Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement (2003). It is impressive that a model created in the 1960s fits so well with the newer model and remains relevant to the work we do today.
As we reviewed the literature and industry standards, we realized that there wasn’t a standard approach or model for Transition and Activation Planning. Last year we challenged ourselves to establish and publish a model that can be applied to any Transition and Activation Planning project based on our experience and lessons learned that we have gathered over the past 15 years. We are thrilled that our book “Simplifying the Complex- A Guide to Transition and Activation Planning” will be published and available to the public on April 28, 2020.
A true pioneer, visionary, and role model to all of us, Florence Nightingale stated that it would take 150 years to realize the type of nursing that she was imagining. At Yellow Brick, our team is committed to providing incredible service to our client partners, to life-long learning and furthering the profession of Transition and Activation Planning. Our work challenges us to be nimble and adjust to our environment. Our role as nurses, project managers, change agents, and consultants is to work together with our client teams to support the job that we get to do every day, a job that we take great pride in. We are honored to be able to do the work that we are passionate about with a team that we love.
“Live life when you have it. Life is a splendid gift-there is nothing small about it.” – Florence Nightingale
As we plan for 2020 and the future of Yellow Brick, we look forward to this new decade full of possibilities. We wish you and your families, friends, and colleagues a wonderful and prosperous year!