INQRI Team Finds that Better Environments for Nurses Mean Fewer Medication Errors

The findings of an INQRI study led by Linda Flynn were published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship recently.  The article explains that nurses’ error interception practices—including independent comparisons between the medication administration record and patient record at the beginning of a nurse’s shift; determining the rationale for each ordered medication; requesting that physicians rewrite orders when improper abbreviations are used; and ensuring that patients and families are knowledgeable regarding the medication regimen so that they can question unexplained variances—are associated with lower rates of nonintercepted medication errors, further quantifying the important role of nurses in enhancing patient safety.

Click here to read more about the study.

Click here to read coverage on this study by Equities.com.

Click here to read the coverage on PharmaLive.

The Role of Informatics Nurses

A recent article in the Boston Herald depicts the work of informatics nurses which bridges the gap between care delivery and IT technology.  These nurses ensure that hospital computers will have accurate and current patient information available to fellow clinicians.

Click here to read the article.

Nurses as Effective Case Managers

A new Advance for Nurses article describes the impact nurses can have as effective case managers.  The task of ensuring seamless, high-quality, cost effective care across the care continuum is daunting one made easier, author Caitlin Nalley notes, by employing evidence-based practices and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Click here to read the article.

Click here to read about INQRI's view on the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Register Now: NAQC Event on Patient Engagement

Early registration is open for the Nursing Alliance for Quality Care's upcoming event, "Nurses' Contributions to Fostering Successful Patient Engagement" which will be held November 12 - 13, 2012 in Washington, DC.

The goal of this conference is to focus attention on the roles and strategies nurses can employ to strengthen the partnership among nurses and patients, as patients and families engage with the health care system to achieve the best health outcomes possible for themselves.This conference is designed for attendees to interactively engage with speakers and consumers to acquire knowledge and skills for implementation upon return to their own work settings.

Register Now.

ANF: Rest Important for Nurses

A new Health Leaders Media article details an important message from the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) to nurses who may struggling with shift work disorders: "Get some sleep." Kate Judge, the ANF's executive director, is quoted in the article and she cites the growing body of research which shows the impact that rest has on cognitive function and decision making. The ANF is concerned that shift work disorders can have negative effects on nurses and patient safety.

Click here to read this article.

For more information about the impact of nurses working when they are unwell, check out the INQRI project led by Susan Letvak and Christopher Ruhm. Their project outlines some of the negative outcomes associated with nurse presenteeism (attending work when sick).

Click here to learn about the Letvak-Ruhm project.

Virginia Nursing Program Allows Students to Obtain BSN for Under $17,000

A recent partnership between the Virginia Community College System and Western Governors University will allow for nursing students to obtain a BSN for less than $17,000. With the Affordable Care Act expanding coverage and the nursing workforce continuing to age, this step will be important in filling the gap of qualified nurses to provide care to the United States' population.

To read more about this partnership, click here.

Solving Many of the United States' Primary Care Challenges

With the Affordable Care Act being upheld earlier this summer, there will a large flux on individuals with insurance coverage that require primary care. As many of our previous blog posts have already discussed, there is already a primary care provider shortage and this shortage is expected to grow even further after 2014.

The most recent Charting Nursing's Future, published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, highlighted how nurses can help solve many of primary care’s most pressing challenges, including access and cost.

Gene Steuerle, writing for his own blog, The Government We Deserve, also focused on the role of nurses in reducing costs while providing the same level, or even better care than physicians for many basic services. Mr. Steuerle, who is a renowned economic and tax expert, argued that the current primary care provider shortage is a result of an uncompetitive industry unwilling to relinquish control over services that many non-physicians have the training and education to provide.

Finally, a collaborative group of scholars published a thorough article in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlighting how our health system can reduce costs while improving care. The utilization of nurses and other allied health professionals was highlighted by the authors as an integral piece of reforming our broken health system.

Op-Ed In The Huffington Post Highlights the Significance of Nurses

Earlier this morning Brian Secemsky, M.D., a resident physician in internal medicine at UCSF Medical Center, emphasized the importance of recognizing nurses' integral role in the delivery of team-based care. Dr. Secemsky highlighted just a few of the roles that nurses play in the delivery of care, and how these roles improve the patient and provider experience.

To read Dr. Secemsky's full Op-Ed, click here.

The Importance of Wellness In the Workplace

For those of you who follow the INQRI blog, you may be familiar with our coverage of issues addressing the health of the nursing workforce. Earlier this summer, a group of health care, human service, and education providers in Northeast Ohio created an innovative nursing initiative, which is currently undergoing rigorous external evaluation, to support health, satisfaction and the quality of care delivered by front-line nurses. Pamela A. Maidens, MA, CPM wrote a fantastic summary of how this initiative came about, why it is important, in addition to describing how the educational program works.

To read more about this wellness initiative, click here.

California Nurses' Union Advocates for Setting Minimum Charity Care Levels for Non-Profit Hospitals

Over the past few decades, many health care professionals have expressed their concern regarding non-profit facility's tax-exempt status and the amount of charitable care they deliver. To this point, the California Nurses Association has called for California legislatures to institute a minimum level of charitable care non-profit institutions must deliver if they are to continue receiving government financed subsidies and benefits. With much of the charitable care delivered in California falling on financially restricted public hospitals, the CNA has requested for stringent requirements for non-profit hospitals to utilize at least 8% of their revenue for the delivery of charitable care.

To read more about the CNA's efforts, click here.

Nurses Utilize Training and Education Outside of Health Care Sector

With nursing shortages being reported nationwide and new nurse graduates having difficulty finding clinical positions, nurses are now turning to other industry to utilize their training and education in the workplace. Lyn Dowling, reporting for Florida Today, detailed how nurses are being entrepreneurs as consultants, trainers, risk auditors, etc. outside of the health care sector.

To read more about nurses working outside of health care, click here.

Ohio Medicaid Program Incentivizes High Quality Care For Nursing Homes

Starting last month, Ohio' Medicaid program altered its payment procedures to reflect the current trend of moving slowly away from a fee-for-service scheme to adapt to pay-for-performance reimbursement schemes. Ohio's new payment policy links approximately 10% of all Medicaid reimbursements for nursing homes to a wide range of quality measures including, patient satisfaction, rate of errors and nurse staffing levels.

To read more about this initiative, head over to Kaiser Health News for a more thorough explanation of this, and similar programs.

Free Webinar Highlighting Healthcare Transitions and Coordination

Next week, former INQRI grantee, Gerri Lamb, PhD, FAAN, RN, is the featured guest for a webinar focusing on how healthcare transitions and coordination affect early readmissions, care effectiveness and the economics associated with the two. This is the second webinar in this two part series that highlights the importance of care transitions.

To register for the upcoming webinar, click here.

To view the first webinar of the two part series, which featured INQRI director, Mary D. Naylor, PhD, RN, click here.

New Research Highlights Advances of Fetal Surgery for Spina Bifida

A nursing research team at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has reviewed and summarized the history of fetal surgery for Spina Bifida from inception to current practice in order to highlight the advances of this science and its effects on the vulnerable children's population.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/10/4714540/nurses-from-the-childrens-hospital.html#storylink=cpy

To read more about this research team's work, click here.

Nurses Save Patients Time and Hospital Money

The local CW affiliate for the Dallas Fort-Worth area, KDAF-TV, detailed how a group of nurses tasked with obtaining detailed history for patients has helped improve care and patient satisfaction. The team of five full-time nurses, better known as DART (discharge, admission, resource, transport), also play a crucial role in the discharge process, ensuring patients understand the medications and instructions given to them by hospital physicians.

To read more about the DART team, click here.

Massachusetts' Governor Signs Bill Banning Mandatory Overtime

Earlier this week, Governor Deval Patrick's signed new health care cost containment legislation that included a ban on mandatory overtime at acute care hospitals. Since the Institute of Medicine's focus on preventable deaths related to mandatory overtime on patient care in their 2004 report: "Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses", many states have enacted similar legislation to ban the practice of mandatory overtime.

To read more about the passage of this integral piece of patient safety legislation, click here.

Nurses' Adverse Work Schedules Linked to Obesity

A recently published study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that nurses who work long hours, have a high work burden, are required to be on-call/ utilize overtime, and/or lack of rest are more prone to risk factors associated with obesity. The research team associated 'adverse work schedules' with less restful sleep, and less exercise, thus increasing the likilihood of obesity among nurses working these type of schedules.

To read more about the research, click here.

To read the research publication, click here (subscription required).

Aging Baby Boomers Face Home Health Care Challenge

Over the weekend, John Seewer, reporting for the Associated Press, addressed the current and growing shortage of home health care aides. With geriatric care services being shifted from institutional settings to home-based care, the need for qualified home health care aides will be critical to care for the aging baby boomer population. Current pay scales for home health aides are equivalent to that of fast food employees, which is making it difficult for this health care sector to attract qualified applicants. Coupled with the cost of having to travel to patients' homes, home health care companies are predicting that there will be a greater deficit of workers in the next ten years as the economy improves and other sectors become more financially attractive.

To read the full AP article, click here.

Nursing Schools Brace For Faculty Shortage

Earlier this morning, National Public Radio's Morning Edition program discussed the looming faculty shortage facing nursing schools nationwide. The nurse faculty shortage issue was highlighted in the Institute of Medicine's report "The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health" and has been a major focus of the Campaign for Action and other organization's efforts to bolster nursing faculty numbers. With nearly 8% of all nursing school faculty positions remaining vacant, continued efforts are needed to ensure that there will be educators for tomorrow's nurses.

To listen to the story as heard on Morning Edition or read the transcript, click here.

New Study Examines Link Between Nurse Burnout and Care

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (INQRI's home) examined the relationship between nurse-burnout and potential harm to patients. The study, which was published on Monday in the American Journal of Infection Control, utilized 2006 infection data linked with two separate surveys examining hospital work environments and nurse burnout. The research team found that by adding a single patient to a nurse's workload, there was an increase of nearly one infection per 1,000 patient. Additionally, the authors also found that a 10 percent increase in a hospital's proportion of burned-out nurses raised urinary tract infections about the same amount but surgical site infections more than 50 percent, from 4.2 per 1,000 patients to more than six.

To read more about the study, click here.

To read the research article, click here (subscription required).