The Role of Nurses in Hospital Quality Improvement

Center for Studying Health System Change, Research Brief No.3, March 2008
by Debra A. Draper, Laurie E. Felland, Allison Liebhaber, Lori Melichar.

Here are a few interesting quotes for consideration:
"...hospitals confront challenges with regard to nursing involvement, including: scarcity of nursing resources; difficulty engaging nurses at all levels—from bedside to management; growing demands to participate in more, often duplicative, quality improvement activities; the burdensome nature of data collection and reporting; and shortcomings of traditional nursing education in preparing nurses for their evolving role in today’s contemporary hospital setting."

“Within the realm of nursing education, there is not the strength or emphasis on patient safety and understanding change as there should be.” ..Through academic experience, they should have the opportunity to hear about change models and understand some of the basics of the need for good information in making decisions. Data are all around nurses and they are using data for clinical decisions. We need them to understand how to use data to change practice.”
Click on the title to access the full paper.

Scope of Practice Laws in Health Care: Rethinking the Role of Nurse Practitioners

"The UCSF Center for the Health Professions have produced several items that examine the results of a national survey of NP scope of practice laws, recent legislative attempts to rework California's statutes, and opportunities for expanding California's use of NPs to address physician shortages and rising health care costs."
Click on title to access the resources.

Health Policy Reform in the 2008 Election Season

"With the 2008 presidential election dominating headlines; health policy reform and the candidates' health plans are also making news. The Commonwealth Fund has published a number of pieces that explain and analyze the candidates' proposals, as well as the issues at stake in the campaign and beyond."
Click on the title to access the documents.

Hello from Arizona

IUON BSN student reports back from her affiliate placement at Grand Canyon University. Michelle Martinez is pictured here with Dr. Jean Watson, Nursing Theorist, GCU College of Nursing.
"I met her on Monday, it was our very 1st clinical there... I loved it, it was a 12 hour shift but I was totally comfortable with it. I can definitely see myself doing this."
A special hello from all of us back on island to Michelle and our special BSN cohort in Phoenix, and thanks to Dean O'Dea and Dean Garner for sharing this.

ICHRN Interviews ILO's Director-General

In the March Spotlight Interview, Juan Somavia states:

..."the health care work force hasn't been expanding fast enough to meet the ever-growing demand for health services. Four million more health workers are required globally to meet people's essential health care needs."

Juan Somavia is the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). ICHRN recently spoke to Mr Somavia, an advocate of social justice, about the need for decent work for the global health workforce.
Click on title for interview transcript.

Clinical Skills Refresher

Interactive clinical skills learning resources:
from UC Davis Health System, Center for Nursing Education

Adult Basic Dysrhythmia Review Strips with Key
Review your skills by interpreting sample EKG strips and completing self-test.

Adult First Response Bag
Click on the different compartments of the bag to see their contents.

Crash Cart Contents
Review standard contents of a crash cart. Interactive images let you open drawers and review crash cart contents.

Pediatric First Response Bag
Click on different compartments of the bag to view contents.

Restraints
Information about restraints, including photographs demonstrating proper technique.

Number of Nursing School Graduates -- Including Minorities -- on the Rise But Applications to RN Programs Dip, Reflecting Impact of Tight Admissions

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 3, 2008 -- The National League for Nursing's much anticipated annual Nursing Data Review Academic Year 2005-06 has been released, and this year's is a decidedly good news/bad news report. It casts a wide lens on all types of pre-licensure nursing programs, including those offering diploma, associate and baccalaureate degrees, to determine rates of application, enrollment and graduation. The review also provides a comprehensive demographic profile of the current student population, documenting ethnic-racial identity, gender, and age...
Click title to read the news report from PR Web News Wire and watch for the full reports availability on NLN's website.