Abu Dhabi, Jan 14, 2021:   Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), the UAE’s largest healthcare network, has won two prestigious nursing awards: the Nursing Informatics Unit of the Year 2020-2021 award, announced at the GCC eHealth Workforce Development Conference, and the Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI) Award for Outstanding Nursing Quality, presented to SEHA’s Ghayathi Hospital.

Aysha Al Mahri, Group Chief Nursing Officer at SEHA, said: “Nurses are the foundation of our network. Representing the largest portion of our workforce, they play a crucial role in elevating the patient experience. Beyond their multifaceted and continuously evolving role, it is the care and compassion of nurses which often leaves a lasting impression on our patients. We are incredibly proud that our nurses’ commitment to excellent patient care is being recognized through these awards; they are a testament to our world-class nursing team’s hard work, devotion, and dedication.”

SEHA’s Nursing Unit was awarded the title of Nursing Informatics Unit of the Year 2020-2021 at the GCC eHealth Workforce Development Conference. Nursing Informatics is part of SEHA’s nursing services and was established to focus on the future use of technology within nursing practice and its benefits for patients. The award aims to promote nursing informatics and the future of nursing within a new era of technology and innovation, utilizing big data and artificial intelligence within healthcare services.

In the past few years, SEHA’s nursing informatics team was involved in training for different electronic medical records (EMR) applications and devices for utilization across functional areas and operational uses. The teams were actively involved in building input forms and addressing the patient surge during the pandemic. Additionally, the nursing informatics team evaluated innovative technologies utilized for process enhancement and improving patient safety and quality outcomes. These specialty roles have since been adopted by many nurses who are then employed for clinical documentation and technology adoption requirements owing to their advanced knowledge within their respective fields. 

The second recent achievement for the SEHA nursing team was Ghayathi Hospital, a SEHA Healthcare Facility in the Al Dhafra Region, receiving the NDNQI Award for Outstanding Nursing Quality. This is an annual award that honors nursing excellence and recognizes the best-performing hospital in each category. Achieving and maintaining overall excellence in nursing performance measures shows the significant commitment of the organization to enhancing patient-centered care quality.

Samah Mahmoud, Group Deputy Chief Nursing and Allied Health Director at SEHA, said: “We are incredibly proud to demonstrate the rich capabilities of SEHA’s nurses. SEHA’s Nursing Unit focuses on structured practices, highlighting innovation and digital health as we look towards the future of nursing and healthcare. To have won these awards is an inspiring achievement and testament to our nursing team’s continuous time, effort, and investment into the success of SEHA, in addition to their tireless efforts in delivering world-class patient care.”

NDNQI combines nursing quality indicators with patient experience and nurse engagement data to provide team leaders with a single, comprehensive source of information. It measures nursing quality, improves engagement, strengthens the work environment, and assesses staffing levels on a local, national, and regional level. NDNQI implementation in all SEHA healthcare institutions is one of the nursing plans for 2022, and in line with SEHA’s vision that nurses must be at the forefront of the mission to enhance patient-centered care. The NDNQI RN Survey, which is conducted yearly by Press Ganey, captures the voice of over 300,000 nurses and provides hospitals with insights to drive engagement with those directly responsible for the patient experience.