Nursing Newsletters

Briefings on Evidence-Based Staff Development (formerly The Staff Educator) HCPro's Advisor to the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® Strategies for Nurse Managers

Strategies for Nurse Managers is a 12-page monthly how-to newsletter that was created exclusively to help you save time performing your job successfully. Each monthly issue provides nurse leaders like you with field-tested ideas, tips, and how-to's on managing effectively, gaining the respect of your peers and employees, recruiting and retaining the best staff, making the best of employee relations, and avoiding the number one pitfall of nurse managers: burnout.

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Strategies for Nurse Managers

Issue 12, December 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Measuring the effects of nursing education

  Years ago, while working in nursing professional development and education, consultant Gen Guanci...

• New campaign focuses on CAUTI reduction

  Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) are the most common hospital-acquired...

• Study shows surgical teams still at risk for accidental sharps injuries

  It’s time for hospitals to adopt preventive measures to protect all the members of surgical...

• Multidose vials: Follow the 28-day rule

  On one hand, multidose vials are a great way to get more for your money with expensive medications...

• Hospital nearly doubles medication scanning rates

  In April 2008, Baystate Medical Center (BMC), a 653-bed teaching hospital in Springfield, MA, began...

• Effective communication for nurse managers

  Often we feel that we should be able to spontaneously make magic by providing the right words for...

• Important notice to subscribers

  Important notice to subscribers

Issue 11, November 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Helping nurses climb the clinical ladder

  Does your organization have a process for clinical advancement? Do many nurses pursue advancement...

• Commitment from senior leadership will help nurses understand just culture

  Prevention of adverse events is a part of working in a hospital environment, and when an event does...

• Specialist nurses trained to obtain informed consent

  If a procedure has been shifted from the physician to the nurse, can informed consent then be...

• Six steps to ensure new nurse manager success

  How are vacant nurse manager positions filled at your hospital? Too often, nurses are promoted to...

• New York hospital's PICU celebrates one year without central line infections

  On July 7, staff members in the pediatric ICU (PICU) at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s...

• Navigating discussion and behavior at staff meetings

  Most managers would rather deal with a patient complaint than conduct a staff meeting. But a little...

Issue 10, October 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Strategies to include preceptors in charge nurse training

  Before you can start your new charge nurses on the leadership journey, you will need to assign them...

• Success in a fall reduction strategy

  Systemic change requires visionary leadership. The board of trustees for our facility established a...

• Strengthen shared governance hospitalwide

  When Athens (GA) Regional Medical Center (ARMC) implemented shared governance five years ago, the...

• Simplifying documentation provides nurses more time at the bedside

  Nursing documentation is an overcomplicated process. Although many Joint Commission standards...

• Seeing the big picture: Facilitating critical thinking in new nurses

  Nurses beginning their first job after graduation need help developing critical thinking skills...

• There's no excuse for not delegating

  If any of the excuses below sound familiar to you—if they’re excuses you’ve used...

Issue 9, September 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Indiana hospital involves patients and families in shift change bedside report

  Until 2007, nurses at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis relied on traditional shift...

• Hospital uses pocket-sized handout to improve core measures compliance

  Core measures are a part of the fabric of hospital life, particularly given their connection to CMS...

• Improve the focus of your PPR

  The Periodic Performance Review (PPR) is an annual self-assessment process designed to enhance...

• New technology could replace the traditional pencil and paper method

  If you have an iPhone® or an iPod touch®,you’ve probably already downloaded a number...

• The verdict is in: Mock trials are guilty of teaching learners

  Mock trials are similar to debates since learners must review literature, gather evidence, and...

• Encouraging staff to stay committed to change

  When a manager hears the word “change,” what typically comes to mind are thoughts like...

Issue 8, August 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Nursing excellence program provides framework for patient safety initiatives

  Engaged nurses who feel their organization values their efforts and opinions have an incredibly...

• SUD reprocessing: Balancing cost savings, patient safety

  At a time when hospitals are continually searching for ways to reduce costs while maintaining or...

• Staff development challenge: Best practices for dealing with resistant learners

  All staff development specialists face the challenge of motivating learners who are reluctant to...

• Success in a fall reduction strategy

  Systemic change requires visionary leadership. The board of trustees for our facility established a...

• Establishing ethical boundaries among staff

  How often do we hear leadership comment on the lack of ethics in the workplace? We think of ethical...

Issue 7, July 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Checklist tool helps staff evaluate the entire patient, identify readmissions

  Healthcare professionals tend to focus on the reason patients present to the hospital and sometimes...

• Quilt, staff brainstorm contest help promote patient safety

  Next time you’re brainstorming a way to engage staff in a patient safety–related fair...

• Prepping presenters: Helping nurses develop poster presentations

  When Cheryl Burnette, MEd, BS, RN, CPLP, nurse retention coordinator at Centra in Lynchburg, VA...

• A culture of trust: Staff development's role in enhancing organizational culture

  As an educator, how many times have you been asked to participate in changing a culture? The...

• Encouraging employees to remain engaged

  As managers, we recognize the association of employee buy-in to outcomes. The Baptist Leadership...

Issue 6, June 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Combating the nurse shortage

  Market-savvy healthcare organizations have implemented workforce development strategies to address...

• Colorado hospital evaluates 'missed opportunities’ in rapid response teams

  Over the past five years, rapid response teams (RRT) have been brought to the forefront of American...

• Interpreters help overcome linguistic and cultural barriers

  Nearly half of U.S. physicians say language and cultural barriers are at least minor obstacles to...

• To blog or not to blog: CNO connects with staff nurses

  There are a number of methods organizations can use to help demonstrate visibility of their CNO...

• Improving hand hygiene compliance rates with marketing, accountability, and incentives

  The perennial problem in healthcare facilities around the country usually comes back to a very...

• Promoting performance excellence

  As managers and leaders, we all want to improve our patient outcomes while balancing staff...

Issue 5, May 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• See the discharge process through the patient’s eyes

  The most important people in a hospital are not the physicians, the nurses, or the executives; they...

• Ohio hospital keeps TABS on patients

  In October 2008, staff members at Riverside Methodist Hospital (RMH) in Columbus, OH, approached...

• EBP and nursing research: Avoiding confusion

  The ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® requires hospitals to have evidence-based practice...

• Staffing effectiveness in 2010: The interim standards

  Originally introduced by The Joint Commission to the standards in July 2002, staffing effectiveness...

• Growing the emerging field of simulation in healthcare

  Simulation in healthcare is often considered an emerging field. In the past 10–15 years, we...

Issue 4, April 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Getting the job done: Matching the right people to the right responsibility

  Nurse managers are used to having to do morewith less, and finding staff to take on new duties to...

• New code of conduct improves employee outlook, patient satisfaction

  When it comes to certain policies, it’s all about the details. In 2006, Pam Harmon, RN...

• Daily flash rounds improve interdepartmental communication

  The “silo effect” can be very damaging to a hospital system. It occurs when hospital...

• Nurse scheduling software increases nurse satisfaction

  Staffing and scheduling is a tiresome process for most organizations. Nothing causes more arguments...

• Meeting challenges when building and implementing a successful orientation program

  A successful new hire orientation requires planning, execution, and follow-up of learning...

• Tip of the month: Progress is a powerful staff motivator

  Just when you think we understand our staff, their needs, and how to motivate them, someone comes...

Issue 3, March 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Voice recording technology improves patient handoff process

  When Kathleen Mikos, RN, MSN, CNO and vice president of patient care, came to Ingalls Memorial...

• RapidView provides real-time snapshots of the facility; improves patient access

  A small room just off the admissions area at Tufts Medical Center in Boston contains what many in...

• Developing the next generation of leaders

  It takes a special person to be a mentor. It takes time, energy, and commitment. “I became a...

• FDA warning forces alternative sterilization methods

  On December 3, 2009, the FDA issued a safety alert to healthcare providers concerning adverse...

• Keeping up in a down economy: Fixing employee morale

  More than 90% of companies have instituted some form of cutbacks of late and, as a result, employee...

• Simplifying medication storage

  In November 2006, CMS changed its requirement for security of medications, stating that...

• Tip of the month: Best practices for employee terminations

  No manager wants to terminate an employee, but sometimes performance issues require you do so. As...

Issue 2, February 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Hand hygiene rates improved through variety of reinforcement styles

  It takes more than one method to bring a hospital’s hand hygiene compliance rate above 90...

• Multiple interventions reduce VAP rates

  Although The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals force many organizations to...

• Pilot program identifies the cause of frequent ED visits; patients overcome barriers

  Coughing children, teens with gunshot wounds, patients with broken bones; for many facilities, the...

• Study: Nurses use repetitive processes to catch medication errors, improve patient care

  Each year, medication errors are responsible for 7,000 patient deaths and cost the healthcare...

• Nurses save time and prevent frustration with addition of new computer carts in patient rooms

  When the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) moved to a new facility in July 2007, it saw an...

• Tip of the month: Office safety: Protecting yourself from workplace violence

  The complexities of healthcare delivery systems require communication tools that are effective and...

Issue 1, January 1, 2010 - VIEW THE FULL ISSUE

• Debating the evidence: A hospital sparks an argument to get nurses engaged

  When nurses hear the word “research,” they often run in the opposite direction. But...

• Simulation learning modalities: Going beyond the basics

  The phrase “simulation modalities” may conjure up a variety of images. For example...

• Educating visitors about isolation precautions: Visitor education will help control transmission, especially during flu season<

  With Joint Commission standards requiring patient and visitor education on healthcare-associated...

• Joint Commission’s role in internal quality data

  In a world where consumers can collect encyclopedic knowledge on a car or home electronics...

• Experts: Hospitals not the place for social networking sites

  Covered entities and business associates can protect themselves against the dangers of unsecured...

• Tip of the month: Healthy work environments boost nurse retention

  Although we are in the midst of great financial challenges, do not let this mislead you regarding...