Editor's note: In this guest column, Heather Forbes, RN, BSN, CEN, CSHA, HACP, clinical education program coordinator for Maine Medical Partners, describes her first several months as an accreditation and regulatory coordinator.

Less than five minutes after I was offered the position of accreditation and regulatory coordinator, panic set in. I was joining a world that I knew very little about, and a role that would impact the care patients received every single day.

Prior to accepting my newly created position, I spent 10 years as a nurse working in both the pediatric ICU and emergency department. My knowledge of The Joint Commission and its surveyors were limited to the stories passed on to me by the day shift. Without a doubt, there was a lot to learn in a short amount of time. I needed to get creative while tapping into the knowledge I had and leveraging the people and resources available to me.

This is an excerpt from an article in the monthly training resource Briefings on Accreditation and Quality. To read more, click here to log in or subscribe.