The purpose of the study was to explore unregistered health care staff's perceptions of 12 hour shifts on work performance and patient care.
Many unregistered health care staff work 12 hour shifts, but it is unclear whether these are compatible with good quality care or work performance.
Twenty five health care assistants from a range of care settings with experience of working 12 hour shifts took part in interviews or focus groups.
A wide range of views emerged on the perceived impact of 12 hour shifts in different settings. Negative outcomes were perceived to occur when 12 hour shifts were combined with short-staffing, consecutive long shifts, high work demands, insufficient breaks and working with unfamiliar colleagues. Positive outcomes were perceived to be more likely in a context of control over shift patterns, sufficient staffing levels, and a supportive team climate.
The perceived relationship between 12 hour shifts and patient care and work performance varies by patient context and wider workplace factors, but largely focuses on the ability to deliver relational aspects of care.
Nursing managers need to consider the role of other workplace factors, such as shift patterns and breaks, when implementing 12 hour shifts with unregistered health care staff.
To measure and model Australian, Cypriot and Italian nurses’ beliefs about what care is missed and how frequently it occurs within their settings.
This study expands on previous MISSCARE research but now applies and predicts missed care within three countries.
Multivariate analysis was performed to estimate 1,896 nurses’ consensus scores about missed care activities based on Alfaro-Lefevre's conceptual framework of care priorities.
Five latent variables have direct predictor effects on missed care frequencies. Another four variables including the nurses’ age, highest qualifications, absenteeism rate and workplace type, contributed to explaining the overall variance of missed care scores. The nurses’ gender had no influence on missed care.
Cross country comparisons of missed nursing care allow for a more refined identification of strategies for remediation for both managers and clinicians.
Reliable consensus estimates about the types and frequencies of missed care can be scaled with variables identified to predict missed care across three different countries. Comparative international studies build on the foundations for understanding missed care in terms of nursing practices, policies and related social policies.
To evaluate operating room nurses' perception of teamwork performance and their level of mental stress and to identify related factors.
Little is known about the factors affecting teamwork and the mental stress of surgical nurses, although the performance of the surgical team is essential for patient safety.
The questionnaire survey for operation room nurses consisted of simple questions about teamwork performance and mental stress. Multivariate analyses were used to identify factors causing a sense of teamwork performance or mental stress.
A large number of surgical nurses had a sense of teamwork performance, but 30–40% of operation room nurses were mentally stressed during surgery. Neither the patient nor the operation factors were related to the sense of teamwork performance in both types of nurses. Among scrub nurses, endoscopic and abdominal surgery, body mass index, blood loss and the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status class were related to their mental stress. Conversely, circulating nurses were stressed about teamwork performance.
The factors related to teamwork performance and mental stress during surgery differed between scrub and circulating nurses.
Increased support for operation room nurses is necessary. The increased support leads to safer surgical procedures and better patient outcomes.
Kanter's structural empowerment model was used to assess the influence of access to opportunities, resources, information and support on core burnout through global empowerment in a nursing sample in Portugal.
The empowerment experience increases the levels of nursing professionals’ satisfaction and performance preventing the emergence of burnout. However, the relationship between structural empowerment and burnout has been scarcely studied in Portugal.
We conducted a cross-sectional correlational study assessing a final sample of 297 participants (62.13% response rate, 63.64% women). Model fit and mediation test were examined using structural equation modelling (path analysis).
Access to opportunities and access to support had direct impact, through global empowerment, on core burnout, whereas access to resources had both direct and indirect impact on core burnout.
The results validated the structural empowerment model and its application in nursing staff in Portugal.
Professional training plans, the development of formal and informal support networks, and the availability of resources increase the levels of empowerment and decrease the likelihood of experiencing burnout in nursing professionals.
To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of modified brief assertiveness training (with cognitive techniques) for nurses.
Most assertiveness training takes a long time to conduct; thus, briefer training is required for universal on-the-job training in the workplace.
In this single-group study, nurses received two 90-min training sessions with a 1-month interval between sessions. The degree of assertiveness was assessed by using the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule as the primary outcome, at four time points: pre- and post-training, 3-month follow-up and 6-month follow-up.
A total of 33 nurses received the training, and the mean Rathus Assertiveness Schedule score improved from −14.2 (SD = 16.5) pre-training to −10.5 (SD = 18.0) post-training (p < .05). These improvements were maintained until the 6-month follow-up. The pre–post effect size of 0.22 (indicating small effect) was larger than the effect sizes ranging from −0.56 to 0.17 (no effect) reported in previous studies that used brief training.
Modified brief assertiveness training seems feasible and may achieve long-term favourable outcomes in improving assertiveness among nurses.
The ease of implementation of assertiveness training is important because creating an open environment for communication leads to improved job satisfaction, improved nursing care and increased patient safety.
To explore nurses' views on future priorities for the profession and to examine social media as an engagement tool to aid policy discussion and development.
Nurses are often not directly involved in policy creation and some feel it is a process they cannot easily influence.
A descriptive mixed methods study of a Twitter chat hosted by the Chief Nursing Officer for Scotland was undertaken. Data were gathered using an analytics platform and NCapture software. The framework approach aided thematic analysis to draw out themes.
Sixty-four people took part in the Twitter chat (#CNOScot) and posted 444 tweets. Nurses called for investment in technology, nursing research, education and mental health. Primary care and advanced practice roles to support older adults with complex health and social care needs were also seen as vital to develop further.
Social media can help reach and engage nurses in policy discussion and ensure there is better continuity between policy and practice but some groups risk being excluded using this digital medium.
Nursing leaders should consider social media as one of many engagement strategies to ensure nurses and other stakeholders participate in policy debate that informs health strategy development.
To investigate relationships between first-line managers’ ratings of structural and psychological empowerment, and the subordinates’ ratings of structural empowerment, as well as their ratings of the managers’ leadership–management performance.
Work situations in elderly care are complex. To date, few studies have used a longitudinal, correlational and multilevel design to study the working life of subordinates and managers.
In five Swedish municipalities, questionnaires were answered twice during 2010–12 by 56 first-line managers and 769 subordinates working in nursing homes or home-help services.
First-line managers’ empowerment at Time 1 partially predicted subordinate's structural empowerment and ratings of their managers’ leadership–management performance at Time 2. Changes over time partially revealed that the more access managers had to structural empowerment, i.e. increase over time, the higher the ratings were for structural empowerment and managerial leadership–management performance among subordinates.
Findings strengthen research and theoretical suggestions linking first-line managers’ structural empowerment to their subordinates’ structural empowerment and ratings of their manager's leadership–management performance.
Managers with high access to structural empowerment are more likely to provide subordinates access to structural empowerment.
To analyse the association between psychological, labour and demographic factors and burnout in palliative care nursing.
There is a lack of published research evaluating burnout in palliative care nursing.
This observational cross-sectional study involved 185 palliative care nurses in Mexico. The primary variables were burnout defined by its three dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment). As secondary variables, psychological, labour and demographic factors were considered. A binary logistic regression model was constructed to determine factors associated with burnout.
A total of 69 nurses experienced high emotional exhaustion (37.3%), 65 had high depersonalization (35.1%) and 70 had low personal performance (37.8%). A higher proportion of burnout was found in the participants who were single parents, working >8 hr per day, with a medium/high workload, a lack of a high professional quality of life and a self-care deficit.
Our multivariate models were very accurate in explaining burnout in palliative care nurses. These models must be externally validated to predict burnout and prevent future complications of the syndrome accurately.
Nurses who present the factors found should be the focus of interventions to reduce work stress.
Developments in the community health nursing sector have resulted in many changes in the activities of these nurses. The concepts of patient-centred care and co-creation of care are gaining importance in the work of community health nurses. Whether patient-centred care also contributes positively to nurses' well-being and job satisfaction is not known.
In 2015, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 153 community health nurses employed by 11 health care organisations in the southern part of the Netherlands. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to identify relationships among patient-centred care, co-creation of care, background characteristics, job satisfaction and well-being of community health nurses.
Patient-centred care and co-creation of care were correlated positively with community health nurses' well-being and job satisfaction. Both variables were predictors of well-being, and patient-centred care was a predictor of job satisfaction. The length of time in the present position was related negatively to community health nurses' job satisfaction and well-being.
Investment in patient-centred care and co-creation of care is important for the well-being and job satisfaction of community health nurses.
To safeguard or improve job satisfaction and well-being of community health nurses, organisations should pay attention to the co-creation of care and patient-centred care.
To describe fluctuations in patient numbers, patient acuity and the need for nurses in neonatal intensive care units based on population data.
Neonatal intensive care units are difficult to staff appropriately due to fluctuations in patient volume and acuity. Staffing guidelines have been developed and applied in some countries to offer the neonatal population safe patient care.
National data were used to describe patient load and acuity for two consecutive years. The need for nurses was calculated by combining these data with guidelines for nurse staffing.
A total of 11.3% of all neonatal patients in Norway were categorised as intensive care patients. There were no differences in the need for nurses in weekends vs. weekdays or during summer holidays vs. days in the rest of the year. Small units have increased variability in staffing needs, and sufficient staffing is more challenging compared to that of larger units.
Planning for reduced staffing for weekends and summer seasons is ineffective. Staffing planned for most of the days in a year instead of the median need for nurses will result in a greater increase in the need for nurses in small units compared to larger units.
To determine whether night shift workers have a poorer diet quality and sleep quality when compared with day shift nurses.
There is a dearth of research investigating the association between diet quality and sleep quality of day and night shift nurses.
Data on nurses (n = 103) working either a day or night shift from two Midwestern hospitals were obtained from August 2015 to February 2016. The instruments used were the Diet History Questionnaire and the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. Independent samples t-tests were used to examine differences in diet and sleep quality by work shift schedule.
There were no statistically significant differences between nurses working day or night shift and sleep quality (P = 0.0684), as well as diet quality (P = 0.6499). There was a significant difference between both body mass index (P = 0.0014) and exercise (P = 0.0020) with regard to diet quality. Body mass index and sleep quality were also significantly associated (P = 0.0032).
Our study found no differences between day and night shift with regard to sleep and diet quality among nurses.
Deliberate health initiatives and wellness programmes specifically targeting nurses are needed to increase knowledge about maintaining a healthy lifestyle while working as a nurse, whether it is day or night shift.
The aim was to evaluate the impact of staff training and wearing safety vests as a combined intervention on interruptions during medication preparation and double-checking.
Interruptions and errors during the medication process are common and an important issue for patient safety in the hospital setting.
We performed a pre- and post-intervention pilot-study using direct structured observation of 26 nurses preparing and double-checking 431 medication doses (225 pre-intervention and 206 post-intervention) for 36 patients (21 pre-intervention and 15 post-intervention).
With staff training and the introduction of safety vests, the interruption rate during medication preparation was reduced from 36.8 to 28.3 interruptions per hour and during double-checking from 27.5 to 15 interruptions per hour.
This pilot-study showed that the frequency of interruptions decreased during the critical tasks of medication preparation and double-checking after the introduction of staff training and wearing safety vests as part of a quality improvement process.
Nursing management should acknowledge interruptions as an important factor potentially influencing medication safety. Unnecessary interruptions can be successfully reduced by considering human and system factors and increasing both staff and nursing managers’ awareness of ‘interruptive communication practices’ and implementing physical barriers. This is the first pilot-study specifically evaluating the impact of staff training and wearing safety vests on the reduction of interruptions during medication preparation and double-checking.
To describe factors facilitating or inhibiting the development of registered nurses’ competency and nurse leader's role in knowledge management.
Nurses’ competency directly influences patient safety and the quality and effectiveness of patient care. Challenges of nurse leaders in knowledge management include acquiring, assessing and utilising current knowledge and assessing and enhancing competency.
A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, SCOPUS and ERIC databases in April 2015. The search identified 18 relevant research articles published between 2009 and 2015. The quality of the studies was appraised in accordance with study designs.
Knowledge management is facilitated by an organisation culture that supports learning, sharing of information and learning together. Leader commitment and competency were factors related to leadership facilitating knowledge management.
Nurse leaders need evidence-based interventions to support shared learning and to create infrastructures that facilitate competence development. Future research is especially needed to evaluate connections between knowledge management and patient outcomes.
The results of this review can be utilised in enhancing factors to facilitate knowledge management in clinical practice and identifying nurse leaders’ role in strengthening nurses’ competency.
To test the associations of safety practices as reported by nurses and their respective unit supervisors with job satisfaction.
Psychosocial workplace factors are associated with job satisfaction; however, it is unknown whether nurses and supervisors accounts of safety practices are differentially linked to this outcome.
Cross-sectional study design including nurses (n = 1052) nested in 94 units in two hospitals in Boston (MA, USA). Safety practices refer to the identification and control of occupational hazards at the unit. Safety practices were measured aggregating nurses' responses per unit, and supervisory levels. Individual's job satisfaction for each nurse was the response variable.
Supervisors assessed safety practices more favourably than their unit nursing staff. Adjusted random intercept logistic regressions showed that the odds of higher job satisfaction were higher for nurses at units with better safety practices (OR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.68) compared with nurses at units that averaged lower safety practices. Supervisors' reports of safety practices were not correlated with the job satisfaction of their staff.
Adequate safety practices might be a relevant managerial role that enhances job satisfaction among nurses.
Nursing supervisors should calibrate their safety assessments with their nursing staff to improve nurses' job satisfaction.
To inform countermeasures against nurses' workplace violence by reviewing the experience of violence.
Violence is an important issue in medical settings that influences turnover intention of nurses. However, few studies have dealt with the effects of violence experienced by nurses on professional quality of life and turnover intention.
A descriptive study using a structured questionnaire and data were analysed using t-test, one-way anova and hierarchical multiple regression analysis.
Of 358 nurses 95.5% reported that they had experienced workplace violence during the previous 1 year. Findings indicated that turnover intention was positively associated with years worked as a nurse, functional nursing delivery system, exposure types of violence with physical threats, and mild or severe burnout.
Nurses experienced diverse workplace violence, which could decrease their professional quality of life and be a factor affecting their turnover intention.
Role of leadership in creating a positive work environment is needed. Prevention of workplace violence should focus on at-risk groups to reduce workplace violence. Workplace violence should be communicated regularly and feedback should be given if there is unintentional non-physical violence. In particular it is important to investigate post-violence management in nurses who have experienced violence to reduce secondary trauma.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the administrative supervisors’ perspective of their managerial practices and how these practices contribute to nurse and patient safety.
The position of administrative supervisor, often referred to as house supervisor on the evening and night shifts, lacks empirical data supporting efficacy.
A focused ethnographic study was conducted with 30 administrative supervisors from acute care hospitals, using in-depth interviews and job descriptions.
Regardless of the size, location or type of hospital, the interviews revealed the administrative supervisor as the hospital shift leader, who achieves nurse and patient safety when performing his/her role responsibilities, despite being disconnected from the nursing management team.
To support patient care quality and safety, the administrative supervisor competencies need to be developed along with role-specific education programmes. Additionally, there is a need to recognise these off-shift leaders as a key stakeholder on the nursing leadership team.
Although nurse leaders in many countries may believe they understand this role, this is among the first empirical studies. These results can lead discussions on enhancing nurse and patient safety with additional support for administrative supervisors, along with the discussion of a best practice model for off-shift leadership.
To explore interruptions during medication preparation and administration and their consequences.
Although not all interruptions in nursing have a negative impact, interruptions during medication rounds have been associated with medication errors.
A non-participant observational study was undertaken of nurses conducting medication rounds.
Fifty-six medication events (including 101 interruptions) were observed. Most medication events (99%) were interrupted, resulting in nurses stopping medication preparation or administration to address the interruption (mean 2.5 minutes). The mean number of interruptions was 1.79 (SD 1.04). Thirty-four percent of medication events had at least one procedural failure, while 3.6% resulted in a clinical error.
Our study confirmed that interruptions occur frequently during medication preparation and administration, and these interruptions were associated with procedural failures and clinical errors. Nurses were the primary source of interruptions with interruptions often being unrelated to patient care.
This study has confirmed that interruptions are frequent and result in clinical errors and procedural failures, compromising patient safety. These interruptions contribute a substantial additional workload to medication tasks. Various interventions should be implemented to reduce non-patient-related interruptions. Medication systems and procedures are advocated, that reduce the need for joint double-checking of medications, indirectly avoiding interruptions.
Relationships exist between aged care nurses’ perceptions of psychosocial work characteristics, job satisfaction and mental health, suggesting these characteristics may be important for the management of aged care services.
An expanded demand–control–support model that included justice perceptions was examined to determine its impact on multiple types of psychological and organisational well-being outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, psychological distress and depression).
Data were collected from a sample of 173 aged care nurses using a self-report survey and analysed using hierarchical multiple regression.
A significant proportion (27–28%) of the variance in aged care nurses’ satisfaction, depression and psychological distress was explained by the psychosocial factors included in the model. Job control had the most consistent impact with direct effects on job satisfaction, psychological distress and depression. Informational justice was associated with both psychological distress and depression.
Targeting job control may provide the biggest response for nurse managers in aged care, as it is likely to influence nurses’ job satisfaction, psychological distress and depression.
Facility managers should implement organisational policies and procedures that promote higher levels of control over how nurses perform their work in order to improve nurse well-being in aged care settings.
This study investigated the extent to which the job demands and job control of nurses were related to their work–life balance.
The inability to achieve work–life balance is one of the major reasons for the declining retention rate among nurses. Job demands and job control are two major work domain factors that can have a significant influence on the work–life balance of nurses.
The study measured the job demands, job control and work–life balance of 2040 nurses in eight private hospitals in Taiwan in 2013.
Job demands and job control significantly predicted all the dimensions of work–life balance. Job demands increased the level of work–life imbalance among nurses. While job control showed positive effects on work/personal life enhancement, it was found to increase both work interference with personal life and personal life interference with work.
Reducing the level of job demands (particularly for psychological demands) between family and career development and maintaining a proper level of job control are essential to the work–life balance of nurses.
Flexible work practices and team-based management could be considered by nursing management to lessen job demand pressure and to facilitate job engagement and participation among nurses, thus promoting a better balance between work and personal life.
To test the psychometric properties of the Slovenian version of the Person-centred Climate Questionnaire – staff version.
Person-centredness can be a quality care indicator, but there are no valid and reliable instruments in the Slovene language aimed at exploring the person-centred care climate from a nursing staff perspective.
Content validity based on expert agreement was evaluated by calculating content validity indices. A cross-sectional survey design using a convenience sample of 790 nurses and nursing assistants from medical and surgical wards in 11 hospitals was used to test the construct validity and internal consistency reliability.
The average content validity index for the scale was 0.97, all items had content validity indices higher than 0.78, showing satisfactory content validity. Three components, climate of safety, community and everydayness explained 71.22% of the variance in the data and thus confirmed scale dimensionality. Cronbach's α was acceptable for whole scale (0.90) and for subscales (0.89, 0.89 and 0.86).
The Slovene version of the Person-centred Climate Questionnaire – staff version is valid and reliable and can be further used in surgical and medical wards in hospital settings.
The instrument enables further exploration of the relationships between perceived person-centredness and organisational outcomes.
To explore nurses' use of the World Health Organization safety checklist in the perioperative setting.
Promoting quality and safety in health care has received worldwide attention. The World Health Organization surgical safety checklist (2009) is promoted for reducing postoperative morbidity and mortality. The checklist has been introduced in Irish perioperative settings.
A descriptive, qualitative approach was utilised. A purposeful sample of ten nurses participated in individual, semi-structured interviews.
Participants were committed to promoting safety in navigating challenges in introducing, complying and accepting the value of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist in concordance with best practice. Participants moved from task completion to embracing the checklist as an effective surgical safety checking tool. Challenges were identified around roles and responsibilities in overseeing the completion of the checklist.
The management of processes is critical when implementing any safety initiative. This paper highlights the complexity and challenges in implementing the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist, contributing to global discussions around translating policy into practice.
The effective implementation of a checklist requires a coordinated management approach in collaboration with team members. These approaches will support learning experiences contributing to a shared understanding of the change being implemented by all team members.
To assess the frequency, intensity and level of moral distress perceived by nurses working in medical, surgical and intensive care units.
Moral distress among nurses compromises their ability to provide optimal patient care and may cause them to leave their job.
A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 283 registered nurses was conducted to evaluate the frequency, intensity and levels of moral distress. A revised version of the Moral Distress Scale (MDS-R) was used.
The highest level of moral distress was associated with the provision of treatments and aggressive care that were not expected to benefit the patients and the competency of the health-care providers. Multivariate regression showed that nurses working in medical settings, nurses with lower levels of experience working in medical, surgical or intensive care settings, and nurses who intend to leave their job experienced the highest levels of moral distress.
The present study indicates that nurses experience an overall moderate level of moral distress.
Gaining further insight into the issue of moral distress among nurses and the clinical situations that most frequently cause this distress will enable development of strategies to reduce moral distress and to improve nurse satisfaction and, consequently, patient care.
To describe the presence and operationalisation of organisational strategies to support implementation of pressure ulcer prevention programmes across acute care hospitals in a large, integrated health-care system.
Comprehensive pressure ulcer programmes include nursing interventions such as use of a risk assessment tool and organisational strategies such as policies and performance monitoring to embed these interventions into routine care. The current literature provides little detail about strategies used to implement pressure ulcer prevention programmes.
Data were collected by an e-mail survey to all chief nursing officers in Veterans Health Administration acute care hospitals. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were used to summarise survey responses and evaluate relationships between some variables.
Organisational strategies that support implementation of a pressure ulcer prevention programme (policy, committee, staff education, wound care specialists, and use of performance data) were reported at high levels. Considerable variations were noted in how these strategies were operationalised within individual hospitals.
Organisational strategies to support implementation of pressure ulcer preventive programmes are often not optimally operationalised to achieve consistent, sustainable performance.
The results of the present study highlight the role and influence of nurse leaders on pressure ulcer prevention program implementation.
The public sector is facing turbulent times and this challenges nurses, who are expected to serve both patient interests and the efficiency drives of their organisations. In the context of implementing person-centred health policy, this paper explores the evolving role of front-line nurses as leaders and champions of change.
Nurses can be seen to have some autonomy in health-care delivery. However, they are subject to systems of social control. In implementing person-centred policy, nurses can be seen to be doing the best they can within a constrained environment.
A survey of nursing practice in person-centred health-policy implementation is presented.
Despite much being written about managing health-professional resistance to policy implementation, there is a gap between what is being asked of nurses and the resources made available to them to deliver. In this milieu, nurses are utilising their discretion and leading from the front-line in championing change.
Empowering nurses who seek to lead patient involvement could be the key to unlocking health-care improvement.
Health services tend to be over-managed and under-led and there is a need to harness the potential of front-line nurses by facilitating leadership development through appropriate organisational support.
This study validates the Portuguese version of the psychological effects of the relational job characteristics scale among hospital nurses in Portugal and Brazil.
Increasing attention has been given to the social dimension of work, following the transition to a service economy. Nevertheless, and despite the unquestionable relational characteristics of nursing work, scarce research has been developed among nurses under a relational job design framework. Moreover, it is important to develop instruments that study the effects of relational job characteristics among nurses.
We followed Messick's framework for scale validation, comprising the steps regarding the response process and internal structure, as well as relationships with other variables (work engagement and burnout). Statistical analysis included exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.
The psychological effects of the relational job characteristics scale provided evidence of good psychometric properties with Portuguese and Brazilian hospital nurses. Also, the psychological effects of the relational job characteristics are associated with nurses’ work-related well-being: positively with work engagement and negatively concerning burnout.
Hospitals that foster the relational characteristics of nursing work are contributing to their nurses’ work-related well-being, which may be reflected in the quality of care and patient safety.
To analyse the cost-effectiveness of care provided to patients in need of peripheral venous access by comparing the traditional approach with a nurse-based ultrasound-guided programme.
Letting nurses insert ultrasound-guided catheters is a promising cost-saving approach, but there are few data available to document the efficiency of this type of programme.
A cost-efficiency evaluative research design was used. Data were collected over a 6-year timeframe, before and after the implementation of the nurse-based programme.
Results show that the evaluation conducted by nurses ensures the right choice of catheter for each patient based on the patient's needs, which decreases costs. The programme also shortens the waiting period between consultation and insertion of the catheter, which reduces costs related to prolonged hospitalisation.
The nurse-based programme puts nurses’ skills to good use as part of a new practice and helps enhance the efficiency of care and services provided to patients.
In addition to the significant cost savings this programme offers, the evaluation leads to an effective use of resources while ensuring optimal care.
To describe nurses’ use of power to influence the incorporation of standardised nursing terminology within electronic health records.
Little is known about nurses’ potential use of power to influence the incorporation of standardised nursing terminology within electronic health records.
The theory of group power within organisations informed the design of the descriptive, cross-sectional study used a survey method to assess nurses’ use of power to influence the incorporation of standardised nursing terminology within electronic health records. The Sieloff–King Assessment of Group Power within Organizations© and Nursing Power Scale was used. A total of 232 nurses responded to the survey.
The mean power capability score was moderately high at 134.22 (SD 18.49), suggesting that nurses could use power to achieve the incorporation of standardised nursing terminology within electronic health records. The nurses’ power capacity was significantly correlated with their power capability (r = 0.96, P < 0.001).
Nurses may use power to achieve their goals, such as the incorporation of standardised nursing terminology within electronic health records.
Nurse administrators may use their power to influence the incorporation of standardised nursing terminology within electronic health records. If nurses lack power, this could decrease nurses’ ability to achieve their goals and contribute to the achievement of effective patient outcomes.
To examine the nature and characteristics of both received and provided mutual support in a social network within an acute care hospital unit.
Current evidence regarding the social network in the health care workforce reveals the nature of social ties. Most studies of social network-related support that measured the characteristics of social support used self-reported perception from workers receiving support. There is a gap in studies that focus on back-up behaviour.
The evaluation included a social network analysis of a nursing unit employing 54 staff members. A 12 item electronic survey was administered. Descriptive statistics were calculated using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Social network analyses were carried out using ucinet, r 3.2.3 and gephi.
Based on the study findings, as providers of mutual support the nursing staff claimed to give their peers more help than these peers gave them credit for. Those who worked overtime provided more mutual support.
Mutual support is a key teamwork characteristic, essential to quality and safety in hospital nursing teams that can be evaluated using social network analysis.
Because of a discrepancy regarding receiving and providing help, examining both receiver and provider networks is a superior approach to understanding mutual support.
This research was conducted in a descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional design to determine whether personality traits of nurses have an effect on conflict management strategies.
It is known that integration, avoidance and compromise conflict management strategies are the most frequent strategies used among nurses and obligation and domination are the least frequent. However, the reasons behind their strategy choice are not known. It is predicted that one of the reasons is the personality characteristics of the nurses.
The study was conducted with the participation of 237 nurses working in three different hospitals. Research data were collected by using the ‘Personal Information Form’, ‘Rahim Organisational Conflict Inventory-II’ and ‘Five Factor Personality Inventory’ between December 2013 and February 2014. Ethical approval and the organisations’ approvals were obtained before data collection. The collected data were analysed using frequency and percentage distributions, descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation analysis, t-test, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and simple linear regression analysis tests.
The majority of nurses had conflict especially with patients’ relatives several times a month. It was found that the personality traits of nurses were mostly ‘conscientiousness’ and ‘openness’ and when they had a conflict, they tended to use ‘integration’ strategy. It was also found that the personality traits of nurses had an effect on some of the conflict management strategies adopted by them.
It was found that the personality traits of nurses had an effect on some conflict management strategies adopted by them.
Nurse managers should support nurses who adopt appropriate conflict management strategies and there should be conflict management programmes that can teach appropriate skills to other nurses.
To validate the Brazilian version of the Practice Environment Scale.
The Practice Environment Scale is a tool that evaluates the presence of characteristics that are favourable for professional nursing practice because a better work environment contributes to positive results for patients, professionals and institutions.
Methodological study including 209 nurses. Validity was assessed via a confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling, in which the correlations between the instrument and the following variables were tested: burnout, job satisfaction, safety climate, perception of quality of care and intention to leave the job. Subgroups were compared and the reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and the composite reliability.
Factor analysis resulted in exclusion of seven items. Significant correlations were obtained between the subscales and all variables in the study. The reliability was considered acceptable.
The Brazilian version of the Practice Environment Scale is a valid and reliable tool used to assess the characteristics that promote professional nursing practice.
Use of this tool in Brazilian culture should allow managers to implement changes that contribute to the achievement of better results, in addition to identifying and comparing the environments of health institutions.
The objective of this paper is to identify attribute patterns of influential individuals in intensive care units using unsupervised cluster analysis.
Despite the acknowledgement that culture of an organisation is critical to improving patient safety, specific methods to shift culture have not been explicitly identified.
A social network analysis survey was conducted and an unsupervised cluster analysis was used.
A total of 100 surveys were gathered. Unsupervised cluster analysis was used to group individuals with similar dimensions highlighting three general genres of influencers: well-rounded, knowledge and relational.
Culture is created locally by individual influencers. Cluster analysis is an effective way to identify common characteristics among members of an intensive care unit team that are noted as highly influential by their peers. To change culture, identifying and then integrating the influencers in intervention development and dissemination may create more sustainable and effective culture change. Additional studies are ongoing to test the effectiveness of utilising these influencers to disseminate patient safety interventions.
This study offers an approach that can be helpful in both identifying and understanding influential team members and may be an important aspect of developing methods to change organisational culture.
This study analysed nurses' perceptions of authentic leadership and safety climate and examined the contribution of authentic leadership to the safety climate.
It has been suggested and emphasised that authentic leadership should be used as a guidance to ensure quality care and the safety of patients and health-care personnel.
This predictive study was conducted with 350 nurses in three Turkish hospitals. The data were collected using the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire and the Safety Climate Survey and analysed using hierarchical regression analysis.
The mean authentic leadership perception and the safety climate scores of the nurses were 2.92 and 3.50, respectively. The percentage of problematic responses was found to be less than 10% for only four safety climate items. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that authentic leadership significantly predicted the safety climate.
Procedural and political improvements are required in terms of the safety climate in institutions, where the study was conducted, and authentic leadership increases positive perceptions of safety climate.
Exhibiting the characteristics of authentic leadership, or improving them and reflecting them on to personnel can enhance the safety climate. Planning information sharing meetings to raise the personnel's awareness of safety climate and systemic improvements can contribute to creating safe care climates.