A comparative analysis of work-family conflict among staff, managerial, and executive nurses.

BACKGROUND: Nurses frequently are caught between the demands of work and family. While studies have explored this issue among staff nurses, none have compared nurse leaders to staff nurses. This study compares work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC) among staff, managerial, and executive nurses. METHODS: In this survey design, 20% of registered nurses were randomly sampled across Florida with a 9% response rate. Survey questions included personal, professional, and work environment characteristics and perceptions of WFC/FWC. Analyses of variance tested the differences between- and within-group scores for WFC/FWC for staff, managerial, and executive nurses. Ordinary Least Squares regressions tested the relationships between personal, professional and work environment measures, focusing on the three different nursing roles, and WFC/FWC scores. FINDINGS: Nurses experienced more WFC than FWC. Staff nurses experienced significantly less WFC than nurse managers and nurse executives (analysis of variance mean difference -0.881 and -2.693, respectively). Nonwhite nurses experienced more WFC and FWC than white nurses. Longer shift length predicted greater WFC. FWC was lower with paid leave for childbirth. DISCUSSION: Higher WFC among nurse managers and executives may discourage nurses from taking on or staying in leadership roles. Efforts must be taken to decrease WFC/FWC among nurses in these roles.

Utilizing telemedicine in oncology settings: Patient favourability rates and perceptions of use analysis using Chi-Square and neural networks.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine is an alternative to traditional face-to-face doctor-patient office visits. Although telemedicine is becoming more prevalent, few studies have looked at the perceived favorability rate among patients utilizing telemedicine over the traditional office visit to a provider's office considering data samples from more than 5 clinics in northern Louisiana. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to measure patient favorability of using telemedicine to receive care. This study looks at the perceived positive and negative favorability rates of patients in the oncology settings. The researchers analyzed how age, income level, and education level influenced the perceived patient favorability rates and their willingness to utilize telemedicine. METHODS: The investigators used Chi-Square analysis to identify favorability with respect to age education and income levels. In addition to this Artificial Neural Networks were used to identify the threshold for favorability with respect to age, income, and education. RESULTS: Chi-Square tests of association showed that of the variables analyzed, only education level had a statistically significant relationship with a patient's favorability rate of telemedicine utilization. While our neural network analysis indicated that the threshold for income, age, and education are $34,999, 66 years, and a college degree. CONCLUSION: In this article the investigators have successfully demonstrated the use of Artificial Neural Networks in identifying favorability of telemedicine used in addition to the traditional statistical methods such as Chi-Square. Thereby, creating a path for future research using advanced computational techniques like Artificial Neural Networks in analyzing human behavior.

Identifying the readiness of patients in implementing telemedicine in northern Louisiana for an oncology practice.

This study identified the readiness factors that may create challenges in the use of telemedicine among patients in northern Louisiana with cancer. To identify these readiness factors, the team of investigators developed 19 survey questions that were provided to the patients or to their caregivers. The team collected responses from 147 respondents from rural and urban residential backgrounds. These responses were used to identify the individuals' readiness for utilising telemedicine through factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha reliability test, analysis of variance and ordinary least squares regression. The analysis results indicated that the favourable factor (positive readiness item) had a mean value of 3.47, whereas the unfavourable factor (negative readiness item) had a mean value of 2.76. Cronbach's alpha reliability test provided an alpha value of 0.79. Overall, our study indicated a positive attitude towards the use of telemedicine in northern Louisiana.

Work-Family Conflict Among Newly Licensed Registered Nurses: A Structural Equation Model of Antecedents and Outcomes.

Conflict between work and family is a human resource management issue that is particularly relevant for nurses. Nursing is a demanding profession, and a high proportion of nurses are women, who tend to have greater family responsibilities than men. Little is known regarding work-family conflict among nurses, and even less is known about how this affects newly licensed registered nurses (NLRNs), who can be stressed from their new jobs and careers. This study empirically tests a model of antecedents and outcomes of work-family and family-work conflict among a sample of NLRNs. We developed a model of the relationships between personal and work environment characteristics, work-family and family-work conflicts, job satisfaction, and intent to leave the job and profession. We used structural equation modeling (Amos, IBM SPSS) to test the model with data from.a survey of NLRNs. We examined a number of latent variables, as well as direct and mediating relationships. The measurement models for all latent variables were validated. The final model indicated that age, health, and family responsibilities are antecedents of family-work conflict; job demands lead to work-family conflict; family-work conflict contributes to job difficulties, which lowers job satisfaction, which, in turn, increases the intent to leave the job and profession; and work-family conflict increases the intent to leave the job and profession (but does not directly affect job satisfaction). Policies to help NLRNs with family responsibilities could reduce family-work conflict, which might reduce job difficulties and improve satisfaction and retention. In addition, policies to reduce job demands could reduce work-family conflict and improve retention.

The effect of information technology on hospital performance.

While healthcare entities have integrated various forms of health information technology (HIT) into their systems due to claims of increased quality and decreased costs, as well as various incentives, there is little available information about which applications of HIT are actually the most beneficial and efficient. In this study, we aim to assist administrators in understanding the characteristics of top performing hospitals. We utilized data from the Health Information and Management Systems Society and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid to assess 1039 hospitals. Inputs considered were full time equivalents, hospital size, and technology inputs. Technology inputs included personal health records (PHR), electronic medical records (EMRs), computerized physician order entry systems (CPOEs), and electronic access to diagnostic results. Output variables were measures of quality, hospital readmission and mortality rate. The analysis was conducted in a two-stage methodology: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Automatic Interaction Detector Analysis (AID), decision tree regression (DTreg). Overall, we found that electronic access to diagnostic results systems was the most influential technological characteristics; however organizational characteristics were more important than technological inputs. Hospitals that had the highest levels of quality indicated no excess in the use of technology input, averaging one use of a technology component. This study indicates that prudent consideration of organizational characteristics and technology is needed before investing in innovative programs.