The impact and perception of nursing certification in pediatric nursing.

Nursing certification is an assessment and formal recognition of specialized knowledge, and is awarded through achievement of standards identified by a nursing specialty (Niebuhr & Biel, 2007). This recognition is a method of not only assessing competency, but knowledge and skills, and has been linked to an increase in patient satisfaction and nurse retention (Kleinpell, 2009). For these reasons, a heightened focus has been on identifying the value of nursing certification and outcomes related to patient care. This study explored nurse perception of certification and measured response to a high fidelity simulated scenario by certified and non-certified pediatric nurses to a deteriorating patient through simulation and self-assessment.

Nursing portfolio study: the use in annual performance reviews.

Professional portfolios allow staff to document their participation in areas of education, certification, shared governance councils, national nursing organizations, and community outreach. In this study, nurses tracked their professional development in a virtual electronic portfolio. A preperception/postperception questionnaire for both staff and unit directors revealed that nursing portfolios proved to be a valuable tool during annual performance reviews to acknowledge accomplishments and encourage continued professional growth of individual direct-care staff nurses.

Brief report: Creating a culture of evidence-based practice and nursing research in a pediatric hospital.

Evidence-based practice and nursing research are fundamental to the profession of nursing. However, enculturating these processes into daily nursing practice presents challenges. In an effort to identify these challenges specific to our organization's nursing division, the Barriers to Nursing Research survey was distributed to staff nurses (n=239) to assess barriers in utilizing evidence-based practice and research in their daily practice. Based on these findings, our Evidence-Based Practice/Research Council developed a dissemination plan to be implemented over a 1 year time period that provided staff resources to implement evidence-based practice and nursing research. Upon completion of the year long implementation period, the same Barriers to Nursing Research survey was redistributed to staff (n=157). Pre and post survey results were compared for significance. Outcomes included an increase in projects, nurse driven research, and national presentations and publications.

Wireless telephone systems and the impact on patient satisfaction scoring: a pilot study.

UNLABELLED: A review of patient and family satisfaction measures on one pediatric acute care inpatient unit of 27 beds rated the nurses' promptness in responding to patient call bells in the 40%-50% excellence range. As a process improvement initiative, a wireless telephone system was implemented on the unit for enhancing communications between caregivers. INTERVENTIONS: During this 6-week trial, each registered nurse (RN) and patient care technician (PCT) was assigned a wireless telephone at the beginning of their shift, thus becoming their communication vehicle for 12 hours. As patient requests came to the nurses' station via the current nurse call system, the health unit coordinator was instructed to call either the RN or PCT on his or her wireless telephone, depending on the patient request. OUTCOMES: After the 6-week trial, data revealed an increase of 10% to 60% excellence. Both patient and families revealed a faster response time to their need with the implementation of the wireless telephone system pilot.