Recommendations For Enhancing Quality Improvement Efforts In Health Care

A newly released paper from the Urban Institute reviewed the evolution of QI initiatives, the current evidence about whether QI interventions work, QI’s promise for the future, and how to help it find success in health care. The paper, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson's Quality/Equality Portfolio, made numerous recommendations geared towards a variety of stakeholders that can improve quality improvement efforts and thus, lower costs while improving patient care.

Click here to access the article summary and brief.

New RWJF Video Highlights Health Providers Working in Teams To Provide High-Quality Patient Care

Earlier this month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Human Capital Portfolio released a video highlighting the positive impact multidisciplinary collaboration can have on patients' lives. This video features Children's Medical Services in Southeast Florida, where interprofessional collaboration has been highly effective in treating medically fragile children.



Click here to read more about this video and other similar projects being funded by RWJF's Human Capital Portfolio.

Nursing Workforce Education Efforts Honored

Last week, the Midland Daily News reported that MidMichigan Health, a healthcare provider located north of Lansing, has been recognized for its overall workforce strategies that promote advanced education of nurses. MidMichigan Health has recently established a regional collaboration with Mid Michigan Community College to launch the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) to Registered Nurse (RN) Step Up program. These efforts, which have been recognized by RWJF's FUND project, align with reccomendations made by the IOM's Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health report.

Click here to read the full news article.

Click here to access other blogposts relating to the IOM's Future of Nursing campaign.

Click here to find out more information about available funding opportunities related to the Future of Nursing's Campaign for Action.

Georgia Perimeter College' Nursing Capstone Project Addresses Patient Diversity

With patient-centered care being a topic of interest in health care as of late, Georgia Perimeter College's School of Nursing has embraced this concept, and integrated patient-centered care into its curriculum. Yesterday, Laura Raines, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, detailed the implementation of a senior capstone project to make nursing students more culturally aware of the multicultural population nurses work with on a daily basis.

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to read other blogposts with news stories from the AJC (they cover nursing issues on a consistent basis and are regularly featured on our blog).

"Saving By the Bundle" - An Op-Ed by Ezekiel Emanuel, Keynote Speaker at INQRI's Upcoming National Meeting

Last week [yes we know we are a bit behind], renowned bioethicist and newly appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., wrote a fascinating Op-Ed in the New York Times discussing how savings in health care can be achieved through the use of a bundled payment system.

Dr. Emanuel will be serving as the keynote speaker at INQRI's national conference, slated to take place on April 26-27 2012, at the Madison Hotel in downtown Washington D.C. Please join us for this FREE event that will celebrate INQRI's work over the past six years; registration information will be available soon. For more information about the event, please contact Heather Kelley-Thompson at hkelley@nursing.upenn.edu or by phone at 215-573-2981.

Click here to read Dr. Emanuel's Op-Ed.

Interdisciplinary Group of Students at the University of Kansas Collaborate To Improve Patient Care

Last week, Donna Peck, writing for the Kansas University Medical Center news, reported on a collaborative intiative being undertaken by students at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy that utilizes all three students expertise at a family clinic. The interdiscplinary clinic, which launched in August 2011, allows third-year medical students, senior nursing students, sixth-year pharmacy students and KU law students to work together as a team, with faculty supervision, to diagnose and recommend treatment to patients at the KU family medicine clinic. This innovative program fosters interdisciplinary collaboration that these students can continue to develop as they progress throughout their career.

Click here to read the full news article.

Click here to read other blogposts about interdisciplinary collaboration.

Adding A Nurse Practitioner To Hospital Staff Can Reduce Unnecessary Emergency Department Visits

With national nurse practitioner week coming to an end, we thought it would be appropriate to share with all of you research that demonstrates the positive impact nurse practitioners can have on patient care and efficiency.

Last week, in a newly released study published in Surgery, researchers at Loyola University Health System found that adding a nurse practitioner to a busy hospital staff can decrease preventable emergency department visits. Additionally, the researchers also found that the addition of the nurse practitioner to the hospital staff resulted in an improved use of resources and financial benefits for the health system.

Click here to read the full news article.

The Need for Cost Information

Last week, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) program posted a new video that examines three different perspectives on the need for cost data. The video analyzes the need and potential impact of cost data on patients, providers, and employers' decision making.

Click here to access the video.

INQRI Program Officer, Lori Melichar, PhD, Featured In This Month's Journal of Nursing Education

It is with great pleasure to share with all of you a guest editorial by Dr. Lori Melichar, Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the INQRI program. The editorial, which is featured in the November edition of the Journal of Nursing Education, detailed previous RWJF initiatives that have transformed care at the bedside, and how continuous quality improvement can transform nursing education.

Click here to read Dr. Melichar's guest editorial (subscription required).

National Council of State Boards of Nursing Launches Interactive APRN 'Map'

Earlier this morning, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) launched a new feature on their website that contains information regarding states' laws and regulations that affect Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. The website, which is a graphical depiction of the United States, includes information about APRN's scope of practice, certification requirements and title used to represent APRNs in each respective state.

Click here to access the interactive map.

Click here to read more about the NCSBN's consensus model for APRN regulation.

Facilitating The Use of Research Evidence

A new issue of the Milbank Quarterly has recently been made available free of charge that is focused on facilitating the use of research evidence. This issue, which includes articles from 2002 - 2011, discussed the importance of research translation and dissemination, as well as the application and use of comparative effectiveness research. INQRI grantee, Dr. Robin Newhouse, and her colleagues' work, which discussed a transdisciplinary model of evidence-based practice, are also featured in this issue.

Click here to access the full list of articles.

Click here to directly access the article that included the work of INQRI grantee, Dr. Robin Newhouse.

Study: Nurse Safety, Patient Safety Linked

While we have previously dedicated numerous blogposts to this issue, we feel as though new studies that provide further insight into the topic of nurse and patient safety should continue to be shared.

Yesterday, UPI.com detailed a recently published study that found that a safe working environment for nurses is also a safe environment for the patients in their care. The study, which can be found in the October edition of the BMJ Quality and Safety, was conducted by Dr. Jennifer Taylor of the Drexel University School of Public Health.

Click here to read the news article.

Click here to read the journal article (subscription required).

Click here to read other blogposts relating to nurses' work environment and patient safety.

INQRI Grantee Awarded Episteme Laureate Award From Sigma Theta Tau International

It is with great honor to share with all of you that last week, Kathleen R. Stevens, EdD, RN, FAAN, received the Episteme Laureate award from the honor society of nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Dr. Stevens, who was a co-PI of a previously funded INQRI study, is nationally recognized for her involvement in improvement science and the dissemination of evidence-based practices. Dr. Stevens is also the founding director of the Academic Center for Evidence-Based Practice (ACE) at the University of San Antonio Health Science Center where the Star Model of Knowledge Transformation was created.

Click here to read the full recap of Dr. Steven's award presentation.

Click here or here to read more about Dr. Steven's INQRI work.

Click here to find out more information about the ACE.

A New Tool to Compare Hospital Performance

Last week, Tom Avril and Dylan Purcell, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, reported on the Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services' hospital performance measurements for Philadelphia area hospitals. The Inquirer has created its own health portal for Philadelphia area residents to obtain performance data on eight serious, generally preventable conditions that may influence which facility they chose to obtain health services from when necessary.


Click here to access the Philadelphia Inquirer's hospital performance data.

Click here to read the news article regarding hospital performance measurements.

Click here to read more about INQRI teams' work addressing quality/performance measurement.

Click here to access the CMS hospital compare website.

Nurses Key to Reducing Readmissions

Yesterday's article on HealthcareITNews.com, "Readmissions have hospitals stymied," discussed a recent Dartmouth Atlas Project report which indicated that little progress has been made in reducing hospital readmissions for Medicare patients over a five-year period. In addition, the report demonstrated that readmissions for patients with some conditions are actually increasing.

The work of INQRI researchers at Marquette University suggests that increasing the number of nurses involved with discharge might reduce some of those readmissions. Marianne Weiss, Olga Yakusheva and their team found that having more registered nurses working on a hospital unit and reducing the amount of nurses' overtime hours are correlated with fewer patients being readmitted or visiting the emergency department within the first 30 days after hospital discharge. They also found a positive correlation between the number of nurse staffing hours and patients’ satisfaction with the quality of discharge teaching and subsequent readiness to go home.

Click here to learn more about the Marquette study.

Hospital Delirium, Another Hospital Hazard for the Elderly

Yesterday, Susan Seliger wrote about her personal and family's experience with hospital delirium. Hospital delirium, a brain dysfunction characterized by sudden confusion and inattention, is not very well known yet very common in elderly patients who are admitted to a hospital. Each year 20% of all elderly patients in hospitals develop delirium and this serious illness is still not being identified or treated as effectively as it can be. The article, which appeared in the New York Times' New Old Age blog section, is not only related to the work of INQRI grantee, Dr. Michele Balas, but also included a quote from her regarding this serious topic.

Click here to read the full article.

Breastfeeding Tied To Lower Blood Pressure Risk

Following up on our post from Monday, a new study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that mothers who breastfeed for the recommended period of time, at least six months exclusively, may have a somewhat lower risk of developing high blood pressure later on in life. The study, which observed over 55,000 women, adds to evidence that breastfeeding might have benefits for mothers as well as babies.

Click here to read Reuters' coverage of the study.

Click here to read the journal article (subscription required).

Click here if you missed Monday's blogpost and want to find out more information about online communities that encourage the sharing of breast milk.

Remembering Joyce Clifford

A little over a week ago, Joyce C. Clifford, PhD, RN, FAAN, a respected nurse researcher and colleague of many INQRI grantees, passed away at age 76. Dr. Clifford advocated a partnership of equals between doctors and nurses in the treatment of patients, and introduced the "primary nursing" model in 1975 at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.

Yesterday, Paul Vitello, of the New York Times, wrote a fascinating piece detailing the accomplishments Dr. Clifford achieved throughout her respected career.

Click here to read the story.