Key Flow Processes on Wards.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to test a new nurse movement route analysis (NMRA) method for measuring nurses' traffic volume between rooms on wards. BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization calls for urgent investment in nurses. On the other hand, the challenges in the availability, direct care activity, and staffing of registered nurses make increasing the quality of care by process improvement a central objective for nursing. METHOD: The method is based on cellular operations with from/to matrix that describes nurse movements between rooms on a ward. The NMRA can be implemented by traditional manual observation or with a novel internet-of-things solution named SKAnalysis. RESULTS: The greatest nurse flows led to patient rooms, nurses' stations, and medicine rooms. The manual NMRA recorded a total of 3,040 room visits by nurses; visits to patient rooms accounted for 33% of all room visits, while visits to nurses' stations accounted for 28%, and visits to the medicine room for 10%. The internet-of-things NMRA recorded a total of 25,841 room visits by nurses; patient room visits accounted for about 43% of all room visits, while nurses' station visits accounted for 26% and medicine room visits for about 8%. Based on the results, researchers present the development examples and priorities for nursing. CONCLUSIONS: NMRA works and is a new universal method for analyzing nurses' traffic which is a basic premise for improving working methods and productivity on the wards. Internet-of-things solution makes the implementation of NMRA six times more efficient than by the manual NMRA.

Health science student teachers' perceptions of teacher competence: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Health science teacher competence is multifaceted and continuously changing according to national and international healthcare standards. Organizational restructuring and emphasis on cost effectiveness is changing the scope of health science teachers' practical work and their role in healthcare (worldwide). AIM: This study aimed to describe student teachers' perceptions of the competencies needed to work as an educator in the healthcare field. Objective of study was to gain new knowledge which can be used in the development of teacher education programs in nursing science and to define a broader definition of the health science educators. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted. Data were collected from 23 Finnish students completing a master's degree in teaching in the healthcare context using focus group interviews. The data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. RESULTS: The student teachers identified eight main categories of teacher competence: leadership and management competence; evidence-based practice competence; subject competence; ethical competence; pedagogical competence; collaboration competence; internationalization competence; and continuous professional development competence. CONCLUSION: This study identified essential teacher competencies that can be evaluated among students to develop health science teacher curricula. The findings can be used in follow-up studies or comparative research to investigate competence differences between novice and experienced teachers.