Identifying Potentially Preventable Reasons Nurses Intend to Leave a Job.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the relationships between intent to leave, reasons nurses intend to leave, and the nursing work environment in military hospitals. BACKGROUND: Intention to leave is a precursor of nurse turnover. The reasons nurses intend to leave may be influenced by leader interventions and potentially preventable. METHODS: This descriptive, correlational secondary analysis included 724 nurse survey responses from 23 US Army hospitals. Bivariate correlations and predictive modeling techniques were used. RESULTS: Forty-nine percent of nurses indicated they intended to leave, 44% for potentially preventable reasons. Dissatisfaction with management and the nursing work environment were the top potentially preventable reasons to leave. Nurses who intended to leave for potentially preventable reasons scored aspects of the nursing work environment significantly lower than those intending to leave for nonpreventable reasons. CONCLUSIONS: Identifying potentially preventable reasons in conjunction with intent to leave can provide leaders opportunities to intervene and influence turnover intention.

Relationships between Army nursing practice environments and patient outcomes.

Favorable nursing practice environments have been associated with lower patient mortality, failure to rescue, nurse-administered medication errors, infections, patient complaints, and patient falls. Favorable environments have also been associated with higher nurse-reported care quality and patient satisfaction in civilian hospitals. However, limited information exists on the relationship between favorable nursing practice environments and positive outcomes in military facilities. Using 4 years of secondary data collected from 45 units in 10 Army hospitals, generalized estimating equations were used to test the associations between nurses' scores on the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and patient outcomes of falls with and without injury, medication administration errors with and without harm, and patient experience. Four significant associations were found between the PES-NWI subscales and the patient outcomes under study. The Staffing and Resource Adequacy subscale was significantly associated with patient falls, the Collegial Nurse Physician Relations subscale was significantly associated with the rate of nurse-administered medication errors, and the Nursing Foundations for Quality Care and Collegial Nurse Physician Relations subscales were both significantly associated with patient experience with nursing care. As in civilian hospitals, favorable nursing practice environment was associated with improved patient outcomes within these military nursing units.

A program evaluation of the Patient CaringTouch System: A pre- and postimplementation assessment.

BACKGROUND: The Patient CaringTouch System (PCTS) is an innovative, strategic and patient-centric framework developed by the Army Nurse Corps for nursing care delivery that is designed to reduce nursing care variation and improve patient and nurse outcomes. PURPOSE: This manuscript describes a program evaluation of the PCTS. METHODS: A pre and post design was used to describe changes in patient and nursing measures following PCTS implementation. DISCUSSION: Overall there was a good uptake of the PCTS; however, concurrent with initiation of the PCTS, declines in staffing levels and increases in patient acuity were noted. Medication administration error rates declined, but fall with injury rates increased. Pain reassessment following pain medication administration improved, as did several aspects of the nursing practice environment. Nurses' job dissatisfaction and intent to leave increased; however, potentially preventable losses decreased. CONCLUSIONS: The program evaluation results will be used to target areas for improvement so that the PCTS may be sustained.

Building a Unit-Level Mentored Program to Sustain a Culture of Inquiry for Evidence-Based Practice.

PURPOSE: This study tested the effectiveness of a dynamic educational and mentoring program, facilitated by unit-level mentors, to introduce, promote, and sustain an evidence-based practice (EBP) culture among nurses in a military healthcare setting. BACKGROUND: The need to identify gaps in practice, apply principles of EBP, and advance scientific applications in the pursuit of quality nursing care is as important to military healthcare as it is in the civilian sector. DESCRIPTION: The Advancing Research through Close Collaboration Model guided the intervention and study. Three instruments were used: the Organizational Readiness for System-wide Integration of Evidence-Based Practice, EBP Beliefs, and EBP Implementation scales. The study took place in 3 military hospitals simultaneously undergoing facility and staff integration. Data were collected from staff nurses in the inpatient nursing units before and after a facilitated education and mentoring intervention. OUTCOME: Three hundred sixty nurses (38%) completed baseline, and 325 (31%) completed follow-up surveys. Scores improved on all 3 measures following implementation of the program; however, the differences were statistically significant only for the Organizational Readiness for System-wide Integration of Evidence-Based Practice scale (70.96 vs 77.63, t = -3.95, P < .01). In the paired individual pretest/posttest subsample (n = 56), scores improved significantly on all 3 instruments. CONCLUSIONS: Despite typically high turnover rates of military personnel and restructuring of 3 facilities during the study period, the readiness for, beliefs about, and implementation of EBP improved. This study suggests that a commitment to an EBP culture may diffuse among individuals in an organization, even while experiencing significant change. It also demonstrates that a unit-level mentored EBP program is sustainable despite changes in organizational structure and workforce composition.

Improving the adoption of evidence-based practice among nurses in Army outpatient medical treatment facilities.

This quality improvement project implemented and evaluated an evidence-based practice (EBP) program at two Army outpatient health care facilities. The EBP program consisted of five implementation strategies that aimed to inculcate EBP into organizational culture as well as nursing practice and culture. A conceptual model of the "Diffusion of Innovations" theory was adapted to explain the application of the program. The Institutional Review Boards at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Duke University School of Medicine reviewed and exempted this quality improvement project. A pretest-posttest design was used with four instruments at each facility. The EBP program was successful in enhancing organizational culture and readiness for EBP (p < 0.01) and nursing staff's belief about the value of EBP and their ability to implement it (p < 0.05). Another indicator that the EBP program achieved its goals was the significant difference (p = 0.002) in the movement of the outpatient health care facilities toward an EBP culture. These results suggest that this EBP program may be an effective method for empowering outpatient nursing staff with the knowledge and tools necessary to use evidence-based nursing practice.