ABSTRACT
The Magnet® journey has increased in relevance as the sources of evidence reflect the complex role of the nurse in quality, safety, and the patient care experience. Creating a business case to secure the resources required to embark and travel on the Magnet journey is an essential tool for the chief nurse. Identifying expenses, cost savings or avoidance, and return on investment for nursing services are all important elements of a business case.
Subject(s)
Nursing , Humans , Nursing/organization & administration , Nursing/standardsABSTRACT
Background: The majority of states have legalized medical cannabis. Nurse leaders must be prepared for an increase in patients' use of the drug across all care settings. Objectives: To explore nurse leaders' attitudes towards, knowledge of, and experiences with medical cannabis. Design: : Descriptive qualitative study design. Participants: 28 nurse leaders-19 in four focus groups of 3-7 participants and another 9 in interviews. Methods: Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews and focus groups of nurse leaders about their attitudes towards and experiences with patients' use of medical cannabis. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes and subthemes. Results: Four major themes were identified: overwhelming support for legalized medical cannabis; importance of overcoming the stereotype of a gateway drug; problematic mismatch between federal and state cannabis policies; and nursing needs to be move involved. Conclusions: There was strong support for legalized medical cannabis to meet patients' needs; yet, respondents reported little discussion about or education regarding medical cannabis among nurses. Inconsistent federal and state cannabis policies were viewed as especially problematic and in need of alignment.
ABSTRACT
The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) grant was launched over 5 years after the Institute of Medicine's report that shared the stark truth about medical errors. The 4 phases of QSEN have provided a roadmap for nursing prelicensure and graduate students to integrate quality improvement and safety content into educational programs. By fully aligning the resources of academic programs with health care organizations, a more robust and comprehensive approach could be taken to ensure that all nurses receive the benefit of the most up-to-date and thorough education about quality and safety.
Subject(s)
Education, Nursing , Patient Safety , Quality Assurance, Health Care , Humans , United StatesABSTRACT
This article shares the results of a 4-year project to reduce work intensity for hospital nurses and create a human caring environment in the acute care workplace. The research consisted of a two-phase interventional study using four medical units and four surgical comparison units at four hospitals within the Inova Health System. Key caring interventions were selected for implementation into professional nursing practice with measurement of patient satisfaction, nurse satisfaction and turnover, and registered nurses' vacancy rates on the pilot units. Results revealed a statistically significant increase in the nurses' perception of the health care environment overall, improvement in relationships with coworkers, and improvement in workload perception. Qualitative data revealed themes of improvement in nurses' job fulfillment because of the ability to spend time caring for their patients.
Subject(s)
Empathy , Models, Nursing , Nursing Staff, Hospital/organization & administration , Personnel Administration, Hospital , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Multi-Institutional Systems , Nursing Staff, Hospital/supply & distribution , Pilot Projects , Virginia , WorkloadABSTRACT
In October 2003, over 200 nurse leaders from education and practice met at the invitation of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. A newly released white paper, describing the role of the clinical nurse leader, was discussed at the conference. This article outlines a response to that white paper from one practice setting. The article shares information about another role, that of team coordinator, that is similar to clinical nurse leader and has been implemented at an integrated not-for-profit health care system in 5 hospitals. The comparison of the team coordinator role to the clinical nurse leader role might assist in visualizing such a role in practice. Although the roles are not identical, many of the driving forces for change were similar; these included the need to meet the changing demands for improved patient outcomes and nurse retention. The team coordinator role has 4 domains of practice that are crosswalked against the clinical nurse leader 15 core competencies. An evaluation of the team coordinator role showed changes that need to be made, such as placing more emphasis on clinical progression of patients. Lessons learned are shared, including keeping the scope of the role manageable, providing documentation standards for new roles, and the leadership required of the nursing executive to implement change.
Subject(s)
Nursing Staff, Hospital/organization & administration , Nursing, Supervisory/organization & administration , Patient Care Team/organization & administration , Humans , Leadership , Models, Organizational , Nurse's Role , Task Performance and Analysis , VirginiaABSTRACT
A critical responsibility of nurse executives is to lead and manage in times of crisis and disaster. Preserving open lines of communication, ensuring quality patient care, providing current education, influencing policy and financial decisions, and providing security for staff, patients, and families are among a few of the tasks that need to be monitored during a disaster situation. In part 1 (September 2002), the authors discussed the use of the nursing process as a framework to prepare for an all-hazards threat to disaster and mass casualty possibilities. In this article, part 2, the authors discuss the executive nurse's role in preparing a facility for disaster situations, including 8 areas of assessment for planning, implementation, and evaluation stages of readiness.
