Educational support during organizational transition: half-day workshops for nurses and leaders

The integration of the Intensive Care Unit and Coronary Care Unit at the Brant Community Healthcare System (Brantford General Site) in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, was carefully planned. As part of the planning efforts, much attention was given to effective transition management. An educational program was designed to assist the nurses from these units to begin to disengage from old ways of planning and delivering care, provide support to help them through the period of uncertainty (neutral zone) associated with this type of transition, and help them adapt to the new realities that the integrated Critical Care Unit demanded. This article describes the workshops designed to assist nurses and leaders through this transition.