Sharing Nurses' Voices in Challenging Times.

It is easy to get lost in a sea of negativity about everything that is going wrong with healthcare and nursing today. Nurses' Voices (https://nursesvoices.ca/) was launched to amplify the voices of Canadian nurses in challenging times. We listened to amazing stories of nurses making a difference in our healthcare system despite the difficult situations they faced. Our guests talked about their experiences, their aspirations, their challenges, what brings them joy in tough situations and their determination to deliver the best care possible to Canadians despite everything. Talking with these nurses reaffirmed for us that if we want to grow and thrive as a profession in an ever-changing healthcare system, where the new normal is uncertainty, then we need to listen and learn from each other. This is what we heard, and this is what we learned.

Nurse staffing models as predictors of patient outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Little research has been conducted that examined the intended effects of nursing care on clinical outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of different nurse staffing models on the patient outcomes of functional status, pain control, and patient satisfaction with nursing care. RESEARCH DESIGN: A repeated-measures study was conducted in all 19 teaching hospitals in Ontario, Canada. SUBJECTS: The sample comprised hospitals and adult medical-surgical and obstetric inpatients within those hospitals. MEASURES: The patient's functional health outcomes were assessed with the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and the Medical Outcome Study SF-36. Pain was assessed with the Brief Pain Inventory and patient perceptions of nursing care were measured with the nursing care quality subscale of the Patient Judgment of Hospital Quality Questionnaire. RESULTS: The proportion of regulated nursing staff on the unit was associated with better FIM scores and better social function scores at hospital discharge. In addition, a mix of staff that included RNs and unregulated workers was associated with better pain outcomes at discharge than a mix that involved RNs/RPNs and unregulated workers. Finally, patients were more satisfied with their obstetric nursing care on units where there was a higher proportion of regulated staff. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that a higher proportion of RNs/RPNs on inpatient units in Ontario teaching hospitals is associated with better clinical outcomes at the time of hospital discharge.