A Self-Organized Agile Team is currently in place in Prairie Lakes 52 -bed medical-surgical unit.   Planning, testing, and implementation took two years.

Frontline staff drove the development of this model; they were organized into staff design teams of 10 to 12 individuals who collaborated with other individuals as needed.

Resource nurses were selected from the house supervisor group because house supervisors had the expertise needed to mentor staff as well as the organizational skills to support a streamlined admission process.

Care technicians were all trained initially for the skill set they did not have with their original roles.  For example, a care tech who had been hired as a nursing assistant was trained for the duties of a unit secretary and vice versa.  All unit staff were informed how the team admission was designed and the basic patient care team roles.  Most learning occurred through doing, and the team learned how to make the model work through ongoing experimentation and testing.

A Self-Organized Agile Team contains many elements that could be implemented broadly in hospitals throughout the country.