Advancing the Science of Nursing at Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Nurses at Missouri Baptist Medical Center find out quickly when a nursing colleague’s research has been selected for national publication. 

An email from Patti Crimmins Reda, MSN, RN, CENP, Missouri Baptist Medical Center Chief Nursing Officer, Vice President Patient Care, arrives in their inboxes—along with one of her signature exclamations.

“Woo-wee!”

“Over the moon!”

“This is really fabulous!”

These messages exemplify the energetic momentum the Missouri Baptist nursing team has developed since Patti and her leadership team issued a challenge three years earlier.

Nurses’ top priority is always to provide exceptional care. But why, leaders asked, should Missouri Baptist nurses stop there? Why not also help shape the future of that care to make nursing better, faster, and more efficient? Why not set a standard for nursing departments across the nation?

“We sharpened our focus on the development of our environment of practice,” Patti says. “That includes the professional development of every single one of our team members. Nursing is a profession that is supported by a body of science, and we have embraced our place in this world and in our community. We’re focused on the development of each one of our nursing care team members and using the science to make sure each one of us practices at the top of our game.”

Missouri Baptist nurses embraced the goal, and the impressive results continue to arrive.

They include:

• Earning Magnet with Distinction® for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
• Earning two Premier Recognition in the Specialty of Medical-Surgical (PRISM) Awards from the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurse for exemplary performance among medical-surgical units
• Missouri Baptist nurses publishing research and traveling to nursing conferences across the country to present their findings

Making history

In January, Missouri Baptist achieved Magnet with Distinction® for nursing excellence that exceeds national benchmarks across multiple categories. Magnet with Distinction is the highest honor achievable in the Magnet® designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The honor marked MoBap’s third consecutive Magnet designation since 2016 and made MoBap the first adult hospital in Missouri to achieve the Magnet with Distinction designation.

“This is what nursing excellence is all about,” says Tommye Austin, PhD, MBA, RN, BJC HealthCare East Region Chief Nursing Executive. “This is history. And it takes the entire team. Hard work pays off.”

The Magnet Recognition Program® evaluates nursing practices worldwide. Hospitals are required to collect data reflecting the quality of care being provided and benchmark it against a national database. For previous Magnet winners, redesignation is even more strenuous, as hospitals must demonstrate sustained excellence.

Magnet with Distinction, which became eligible for hospitals to attain in 2023, recognizes hospitals that exceed scoring thresholds required to attain Magnet designation. The honor, according to the ANCC, is for hospitals that achieve “the highest levels of nursing excellence while addressing emerging challenges and changes in health care moving forward.” About 650 U.S. hospitals—less than 10%—have Magnet designation. As of December 2025, only 68 had achieved Magnet with Distinction.

In addition to being recognized for exceeding national benchmarks in clinical outcomes, patient care coordination, patient education, and patient satisfaction, the ANCC also recognized Missouri Baptist for going above and beyond in both nursing education and nursing innovation—the two elements the hospital’s nursing leadership spent recent years prioritizing. 

“I’ve spent my career trying to shift the focus on nursing,” Patti says. “It should be about nursing clinically and physiologically impacting healing and recovery. The science of nursing impacts every one of our patients and their families.”

Another important honor soon followed, when two Missouri Baptist nursing units received Premier Recognition in the Specialty of Medical-Surgical (PRISM) Awards from the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN).

The awards celebrate units that have been proven to exemplify excellence, teamwork, and exceptional patient care.

Read more about Missouri Baptist’s Magnet with Distinction recognition. 

Empowering innovation

When Olawunmi Obisesan, PhD, MPH, RN, who is now a senior clinical program manager of research and outcomes for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, first began working with Missouri Baptist nurses in her previous role as a manager of research and outcomes, she wanted MoBap nurses to feel empowered.

Her role included helping plan, develop, and execute research that improved clinical outcomes at the hospital and beyond.

“You are clinical experts,” she recalls telling nurses. “Every day, nurses wake up and take care of their patients. My job is to help pair evidence and research with the work they’re already doing. Together, our goal was to help create a transition from reactive nursing to proactive nursing.”

Olawunmi encouraged nurses to look for spots where innovation could improve patient care.

“They need to ask questions,” she says. “Why are we doing this? If the answer is because that’s how we’ve historically done it, is there a better way now? Ask the right questions, then change things for the better.”

The data is in. The approach works. Missouri Baptist nurses regularly publish clinical best practices in evidence-based journals and present their findings at nursing conferences nationwide.

Examples include:

• A checklist and class created by Missouri Baptist nurses that improved the care of hospitalized patients with diabetes. By establishing clear guidelines about patient conditions to monitor and when to communicate symptoms to doctors, data showed the approach helped improve blood sugar levels of hospitalized diabetic patients and increased the overall confidence of nurses monitoring these situations.
• A study determined the use of automated technology to pre-fill certain patient details in the hospital’s computer system made nurse shift changes safer, faster, and smoother.
• A study determined a simple saline flush of a patient’s implanted IV port works just as well as using heparin, a blood-thinning medication that introduces increased risk and cost.

Over the last three years Missouri Baptist has developed one of the largest and most active nursing research programs in the area.

“You can own this,” Kara Cincotta, MSN, BS, RN, Missouri Baptist’s clinical program director for professional practice and development, says she tells nurses.

“You’re the one who’s in control here by driving your practice. Who wouldn’t want to be setting the standards for nursing? The expectation is to perform, practice, and professionally develop to the highest expectation.”

See more examples of published and presented Missouri Baptist research. 

Encouraging professional growth

Brittany Stone, DNP, AGACNP-BC, a critical care nurse practitioner at Missouri Baptist, adopted a why-not-me view after seeing her nursing colleagues dive into their own research interests.

In addition to her work focusing on clinical outcomes for the hospital’s critical care service line, she has published research focused on improving care for Emergency Department and heart surgery patients. She also recently accepted a two-year appointment as a leadership fellow on the Missouri Nurses Association (MONA) board, which will allow her to gain experience across an organization that advocates for nursing statewide.

“There can be a disconnect between nursing policy discussions and what’s happening in practice,” she says. “I want to bring real-world experience to the table and help bridge that gap.”

She’s heard the same, steady encouragement from her leaders at Missouri Baptist as her career continues to expand: “Go for it.”

“Our leadership is pro-nursing,” she says. “We’re encouraged to own our practice. This is a place where we want innovation. We want nursing to think outside the box. It’s beneficial to nurses, because you may have an idea you’re passionate about and you need the right environment to get it started. When you have that leadership in place, you can pave your own way and do things no one else is doing.”

There’s another data point worth mentioning beyond awards earned and reports published. It’s Missouri Baptist’s impressive nursing retention rate since the team’s culture of innovation was implemented.

“Every hospital wants to attract the best nurses,” says Amy Robinson, MSN, RN, NE-BC, System Director, Professional Practice & Clinical Education. “We can bring them here, but if we don’t have a strong practice environment, why would they want to stay? We’re seeing them flourish here. We’re seeing them want to stay here. And we’re attracting nurses who want to be in this environment.”

You can help Missouri Baptist Medical Center advance nursing excellence by thanking a nurse with a DAISY Award nomination, or by joining our team of dedicated nurses.