What do nurse managers say about nurses' sickness absenteeism? A new perspective.

AIM: To explore nurses' sickness absenteeism from the perspective of nurse managers. BACKGROUND: Sickness absenteeism among health-care providers, especially nurses, remains a significant problem in an era of challenges to provide high quality care with the required skill mix. This in turn compromises the quality of care and adds to the costs of an organisation. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive design was used. Data were collected from a governmental academic hospital in Lebanon. In-depth tape-recorded interviews were conducted with a total of 20 nurse managers. Data were analysed through a content analysis approach. RESULTS: Data analysis yielded three domains as follows: work-related, individual and organisational factors that lead to nurses' sickness absenteeism. CONCLUSION: This study conceptualised nurses' absenteeism from the nurse managers' perspective, and it revealed absence antecedents that are rarely reported elsewhere in the literature. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The findings from this study can be utilised to design reform initiatives concerned with nurses' absenteeism and to decrease its negative consequences in terms of quality and cost.

Prophylactic administration of doxycycline reduces central venous catheter infections in patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Hematopoietic stem cells are generally transfused through a central venous catheter (CVC), which also facilitates administration of medications and intravenous fluids. We had observed a high rate of CVC infections at our Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) unit. Accordingly, we evaluated the impact of administration of doxycycline as a prophylactic strategy to reduce CVC infection rates. Data was collected retrospectively on 54 consecutive patients, 26 who received doxycycline (doxycycline group), and we compared their outcomes to a previous cohort of 28 subjects who did not receive doxycycline (comparison group). The groups were comparable in regards to age, gender, transplant type, and CD34 cell dose. No (0%) CVC infection was observed in the doxycycline group, while 5 infection episodes (18%) occurred in 4 patients in the comparison group (p<0.001). Isolated organisms included: Escherichia-coli (EC)=1, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus-spp (CNSS)=2, both EC & CNSS=1. Notwithstanding the non-randomized comparative nature of our study, results suggest that CVC infection rate was reduced significantly after adding doxycycline for prophylaxis. A randomized controlled study is warranted to confirm these findings.