[Health projects managed by Nursing Coordinators: an analysis of contents and degree of success]. / I progetti gestiti dai Coordinatori: analisi del loro profilo e successo.

AIM: To describe the evolution and results of health projects run in hospitals and managed by Nursing Coordinators. METHODS: A convenience sample of 13 north Italian hospital, and a sample of 56 Nursing Coordinators with a permanent position from at least 1 year, was contacted. The following information was collected with a structured interview: projects run in 2009, topic, if bottom up or top down, number of staff involved and state (ended, still running, stopped). RESULTS: In 2009 Nursing Coordinators started 114 projects (mean 1.8±1.2 each): 94 (82.5%) were improvement projects, 17 (14.9%) accreditation, and 3 (2.6%) research. The projects involved 2.732 staff members (73.7%; average commitment 84 hours); 55 (48.2%) projects were still running, 52 (45.6%) completed, for 5 (4.4%) there was no assessment and 2 (1.8%) had been stopped. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses are regularly involved in several projects. A systematic monitoring of the results obtained and stabilization strategies are scarce. Due to the large number of resources invested, a correct management and the choice of areas relevant for patients' problems and needs are pivotal.

[Effectiveness of retraining after basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation courses: a literature review]. / L'andamento delle performance e l'efficacia del retraining dopo il primo corso di rianimazione cardiopolmonare di base: revisione della letteratura.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is one of the compulsory skills for health care professionals. Health professionals (and lay people) are offered CPR courses to learn this skill that may be implemented after a long time. Is a course enough to learn and retain this skill? Are retraining courses effective? And after how long should retraining courses be offered? These are some of the questions that guided the search of the literature. Three database were searched (medline, cinahl and healthstar) with the key-words cardiopulmonary resuscitation, retention skills, psychomotor performance, refresh course and retraining and the references of the articles were manually searched to identify further articles. After the exclusion of the articles on pediatric and advanced resuscitation and whose objective was the evaluation of the effectiveness of teaching methods 8 studies were finally identified. No clear indications are proposed. Resuscitations skills deteriorate quickly and theoretical knowledge is retained longer than practical skills. The retraining should be offered frequently but no time intervals are proposed. The main suggestion is that no standard approach should be adopted and the learning needs and preferences of the learner should be considered.