TCU nursing student saves lives at Baylor Hospital

Fort Worth, TX

3/12/2010

By Allie Kobs, Schieffer School of Journalism

A nurse at Baylor University Medical Center seeks her doctorate in nursing practice at TCU to implement changes that are proven to save lives. Mae Centeno, clinical nurse specialist and program manager at Baylor for 19 years, educates heart failure patients to decrease readmission.

It wasn’t always easy for Centeno. She went back to school at TCU to be more confident in approaching hospital administrators and get her voice heard, and it worked.

Centeno received a $20,000 grant from Baylor Hospital to give patients at-home scales to monitor weight gain due to retaining fluid. The grant also gives patients one-on-one education to recognize symptoms before they become dangerous.

Before this program, one in every four heart failure patients had to be readmitted. With Centeno’s help, Baylor has reduced its readmission rate to 15.9%, the lowest in the nation. This has saved each heart failure patient, on average, $1,800.

Dr. Kathy Baker, associate professor and director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at TCU, said Centeno has become “very persuasive.”

“She is not only articulate, but through her DNP preparation (at TCU) she has learned how to utilize the best evidence to help others catch her vision of ‘what could be,’ ” Baker said.

Centeno said the best thing she has learned at TCU is “how to drive change, overcome barriers, evaluate if the change will be successful or not, and collect information necessary to make decisions when implementing change.”

This program could work for other hospitals around the nation. Centeno believes hospitals need to “find someone willing to implement projects and talk to people and explain why they want to do it. You need a champion.”

Centeno is not only a champion at TCU or Baylor Medical Center, but also a champion saving the lives of heart failure patients across Texas.

 

Learn more about Mae from a CBS News story.