Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety at primary healthcare units: Effect on patients' outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of application of team strategies and tools to enhance performance and patient safety at primary healthcare units on patients' safety and outcomes. Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (Team STEPPS) are specially intended to enhance patient safety through effective communication and teamwork skills. To examine, a quasi-experimental (pre-posttest) design was utilized. Six primary healthcare centers in Egypt were selected. The subjects included composed of two groups: (1) All-available healthcare providers (114) and (2) convenience sample of 108 clients. Four questionnaires were used, namely; the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC), Perception of Teamwork Questionnaire, the Short Assessment of Patient Satisfaction Scale, and Patient's Adverse Events Questionnaire. Results showed that there was a highly significant decrease in the level of weakness and the need for potential improvement of all 11 domains of the HSPSC survey except the staffing domain (p < 0.001). The teamwork perceptions scores showed significant improvement post intervention (p < 0.001). In addition, a highly significant decrease in the frequency of patient-reported adverse events compared to a significant increase in patient satisfaction level was proved (p < 0.001). It may, hence, be concluded that Team STEPPS implementation had improved patient safety culture among healthcare providers and significantly improved patient outcomes.

Challenges facing nurse managers during and beyond COVID-19 pandemic in relation to perceived organizational support.

AIM: To explore challenges facing nurse managers during and beyond coronavirus disease, 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its relation to perceived organizational support. BACKGROUND: When faced with high-pressure situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that nurse managers be equipped with the support they need to successfully surpass these hard times. METHODS: Descriptive correlational design was utilized. The study was conduct at different health care settings across Egypt. Convenience sampling technique was employed to recruit (214) nurse managers. Two instruments were used; questionnaire of challenges faced by nurse managers and survey of perceived organizational support. Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's correlation, and regression analysis were utilized. RESULTS: The highest percentage of managers reported being faced with high level of challenges. There was a highly statistically significant negative correlation between challenges currently faced by managers and their perception of organizational support. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic had placed additional challenges on nurse managers and these challenges are expected to persist in the future. Higher perception of organizational support minimizes managers' perception of being challenged in times of pandemics. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Better training focused on disaster management, ethical decision making, leading in times of uncertainty, and maintaining well-being will help nurse managers lead better their teams.

Developing Strategy: A Guide For Nurse Managers to Manage Nursing Staff's Work-related Problems.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess nursing staff's work-related problems as perceived by their managers and thereafter develop strategies that would serve as a guide for nurse managers to manage these problems. METHODS: A descriptive research design was used. The participants included in the study consisted of the following two groups: Group 1-a convenience sample of 150 first-line managers working at three different hospitals; and Group 2-a panel of experts for the Delphi technique, selected using the Snowball sampling technique. Tools for data collection included the following: Tool 1-questionnaire about nursing staff's problems; Tool 2-Delphi technique to develop strategies for managing nursing staff's problems; and Tool 3-opinionnaire format. RESULTS: The recruited first nurse managers were of the opinion that job stress, work overload, conflict, workplace violence, poor performance, staff turnover, demotivation, lack of empowerment, and staff absenteeism were among the common problems faced by staff nurses at work. CONCLUSION: From the expert panelists' perspectives, the newly developed strategy in this study was considered valid; the researchers recommend the strategy developed in this study to be universalized in different health care settings and used as a guide for nurse managers.