Building on Early Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Orientation Modifications to Improve Competency Validation for Newly Hired New-to-Practice and Experienced Nurses.

Nursing professional development and human resource leaders revised general nursing orientation content and structure based on changes because of COVID-19 in length, focus, and platforms from the early stages of the pandemic. The aim of this quality improvement project was to incorporate best of pandemic modifications with key stakeholders and new-to-practice and experienced nursing hire needs emerging from COVID-19 realities on the workforce. The benefit for nursing professional development practitioners is relatability of general nursing orientation revisions for sustainability of clinical excellence and safety.

Impact of a Telephonic Outreach Program on Patient Outcomes Within the Heart Failure Community.

BACKGROUND: Telephonic outreach programs (TOPs) can be an effective measure to improve 30-day readmissions and self-management behaviors. LOCAL PROBLEM: Our health care providers identified that patients admitted with heart failure (HF) were among those with the highest readmission rate, so we implemented a TOP specific to HF. METHODS: This project evaluated retrospective data from a convenience sample of adult patients admitted to our hospitals between January 2015 and June 2017, with a primary diagnosis of HF, and discharged home (N = 6271). Of those, 1708 patients also had at least partial TOP data, and a subset had timestamped TOP data (n = 1524). INTERVENTIONS: The TOP program included patient education and personal follow-up via an automatic voice calling system that employed a series of 4 phone calls over a 27-day period. RESULTS: Results showed that the TOP enhanced our hospital discharge process and contributed to program outcomes when the patients completed all 4 of the calls, with those patients having 11 times lower odds of having a 30-day readmission. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of patients who completed the program reported more use of self-management behaviors compared with those who answered fewer than 4 calls. Our findings related to the lower frequency of self-management behaviors of patients who did not complete all vendor calls stress the important issue of vendor management.

The Effect of Nurse Practice Environment on Retention and Quality of Care via Burnout, Work Characteristics, and Resilience: A Moderated Mediation Model.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the influence of nurse work characteristics, resiliency, and burnout on retention, and patient quality and safety. BACKGROUND: With an ongoing nursing shortage, maintaining qualified nursing staff is critical. We explored the direct and indirect effects of practice environment, nurse work characteristics, and burnout on retention, and perceived quality and safety. METHODS: Responses from 507 RNs were collected via an anonymous online survey. Theorized relationships were explored via path analysis and invariance testing. RESULTS: Positive practice environment and favorable work characteristics lowered burnout and improved outcomes. The indirect effects of work characteristics and burnout were dependent upon individual level of resilience. Social capital minimized the effects of burnout for participants reporting below-average resilience. CONCLUSIONS: Leader support was critical in shaping positive perception of the practice environment. A nurse leader's visibility and actions impact intent to stay. Results of this study may inform healthcare systems struggling to retain a robust, engaged nursing workforce.

Innovative Evaluation of the Graphic Depiction of a System Professional Practice Model.

Nursing professional development practitioners led the evaluation of the graphic representation of a health system's professional practice model (PPM) based on evolving expectations and key constructs of a PPM. The aim was to capture direct care nurse perceptions to guide adoption of a revised graphical depiction of the PPM. The specific benefit for nursing professional development practitioners is the ongoing relatability of the PPM to nursing for sustainability of clinical excellence.