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Nurse Leader Weekly

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Nurse Leader Weekly

Issue 21, May 28, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Perception versus practice in quality of care

  Patients' perceived quality of care varied greatly from the actual quality of care as defined by...

• Website spotlight: Grand-Aides make nursing go further

  When I'm sick, there are a handful of people who I'd want to take care of me, and my grandmother is...

• News brief: Concerns grow for nurses’ safety when handling heavier patients

  The rising weight of the population has hospitals and clinics across the country investing in...

• Ask the expert: Active listening and accountability

  This week, Eileen L. Dohmann, RN, BSM, MBA, NEA-BC, explains the merits of active listening and...

Issue 20, May 21, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Nurse salary survey reveals differences based on experience and region

  Physicians Practice released the results of its 2012 Staff Salary Survey last month, revealing...

• Website spotlight: Grow your own nurse leaders

  Nurse leaders are hard to come by. The solution? Create them yourself. That's the strategy of...

• News brief: Minnesota nurses vote to strike

  Healthcare workers in Minnesota have voted to authorize a strike that will affect eight hospitals...

• Ask the expert: Communicating expectations for quality improvement

  This week, Cynthia Barnard discusses the relationship between communication and quality improvement.

Issue 19, May 14, 2012

• HCPro celebrates Nurses Week: Contest to win a free webcast on preventing CAUTIs!

  We're marking the last day of HCPro's Nurses Week celebration with a fun nursing quiz! Entrants...

• Tool of the month: Plan, do, study, act table

  One of the simplest tools to implement successful change is Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA). You might...

• Website spotlight: VA finds large gaps in RN telemetry training, retraining

  Patient deaths at VA hospitals in Denver and New York City, as well as an overall indictment of...

• News brief: Statement from HHS secretary praises nurses for National Nurses Week

  Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released...

• Ask the expert: Activities to facilitate change efforts

  This week, Vivian B. Miller, BA, CPHQ, LHRM, CPHRM, FASHRM explains the importance of data...

Issue 18, May 7, 2012

• HCPro celebrates National Nurses Week!

  May 6 through May 12 marks the celebration of National Nurses Week, an annual event to recognize...

• Blog spotlight: Nursing uniforms: What do nurses think?

  We recently posted about designated scrub colors to distinguish the various roles of hospital...

• Website spotlight: Oregon medical center uses real-time location solution to track patients and monitor workflow

  A decade ago, Portland's Providence St. Vincent Medical Center surgeons and other surgery staff...

• News brief: Competency assessment review raises concerns at VA hospitals

  An assessment of 29 Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities by the VA inspector general has raised...

• Ask the expert: Activities to facilitate change efforts

  This week, Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN advises on staff behavior and accountability.

Issue 17, April 30, 2012

• Blog spotlight: CAUTIs still a problem

  Bit of a plug, but I think my visitors will find HCPro's webcast on CAUTIs (catheter-associated...

• Website spotlight: Curbing ED dangers requires strong leadership

  Most people in most professions don't feel threatened when they go to work every day. But for...

• News brief: Nursing excellence designation leads to improved neonatal care

  Underweight newborns are less likely to suffer infections and more likely to survive their first...

• Ask the expert: Activities to facilitate change efforts

  This week, Pamela Hunt, BS, MSN, RN and Deborah Laughon, RN, BSM, MS, DBA, CCRN discuss common...

Issue 16, April 23, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Nurse uniforms: Should nurses be required to wear prescribed colors?

  According to a recent news article, Allina Health System, a Minneapolis-based hospital group, will...

• Website spotlight: Closing the nurse safety gap

  The safety of nurses is always a hot topic, but there is a group that sometimes gets left behind...

• CDC report show national reduction in infection rates

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 32% national reduction of central...

• Ask the expert: Activities to facilitate change efforts

  This week, Patty Kubus, RN, MBA, PhD, offers tips for improve staff readiness in the face of...

Issue 15, April 16, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Men in nursing remain a rare breed

  An article in The New York Times last month reported an apparent trend of men who have lost jobs...

• Website spotlight: Nurse leaders key to hospital sustainability efforts

  But there's often a disconnect between what happens at home and what happens at work, and that...

• Tool of the month: Nurse residency program session evaluation form

  Just like any good nurse would not give IV narcotics to a patient in pain and not reassess the...

• Ask the expert: Engaging nurses in quality improvement

  This week, Cynthia Barnard, MBA, MSJS, CPHQ, and Barbara J. Hannon, RN, MSN, CPHQ, recommend ways...

Issue 14, April 9, 2012

• Does the solution to the nursing shortage start with education?

  There has been a lot of discussion in recent months of a looming nursing shortage caused by the...

• Advanced practice nurses battle for autonomy

  As advanced practice nurses gain ground in their battle for autonomy, the Missouri State Medical...

• Nurse leadership training program from AACN

  The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is introducing a hospital-based nurse...

• Involving all departments in quality improvement

  This week, Pamela Hunt, BS, MSN, RN, and Deborah Laughon, RN, BSN, MS, DBA, CCRN, offer tips on...

Issue 13, April 2, 2012

• Transparency...are we there yet?

  Public reporting of surgical site infections is required in only eight states. That fact was...

• Don’t take low nurse turnover rates for granted

  The nursing shortage is over and a survey published in the American Journal of Nursing shows that...

• ANA president testifies on need for investment in nursing

  Karen Daley, president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), testified before Congress on the...

• Involving all departments in quality improvement

  This week, Cynthia Barnard, MBA, MSJS, CPHQ, and Barbara J. Hannon, RN, MSN, CPHQ, recommend steps...

Issue 12, March 26, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Board membership and the role of nurses in healthcare decision making

  Nurses hold leadership roles in healthcare organizations, yet nurses are not perceived as leaders...

• Live program: Time-saving tips for nursing professional development

  Join Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN, and Barb Brunt, MA, MN, RN-BC, NE-BC, for a live program on...

• Website spotlight: Errors and error prevention: A look at recent developments

  Fatigue has recently been recognized in the medical literature to increase the incidence of...

• News brief: Correlation between nurses’ work environment and quality ratings

  Improved work environments and smaller ratios of patients to staff led to increased  quality...

• Ask the expert: Engaging in accountability conversations with the nursing staff

  This week, Eileen Lavin Dohmann, RN, MBA, NEA-BC, discusses the three levels of conversation...

Issue 11, March 19, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Room for improvement remains in preventing sharps injuries

  Although there has been substantial progress in reducing needlestick injuries in U.S. healthcare...

• Live program: Time-saving tips for nursing professional development

  Join Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN, and Barb Brunt, MA, MN, RN-BC, NE-BC, for a live program on...

• Website spotlight: IV catheter risks to nurses frequent, unreported

  Over the past decade, needlestick safety has become de rigueur, but according to a new study...

• News Brief: Healthcare jobs grow in February

  A report from the Bureau of Labor statistics revealed that the healthcare industry added 49,000...

• Ask the expert: Giving specific and timely feedback to reinforce positive behaviors

  This week, Patty Kubus, RN, MBA, PhD, advises on ways to structure feedback so as to reinforce...

Issue 10, March 12, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Can you head off nurse burnout by hosting a nursing salon?

  Communication is a key part of the nursing profession, and successful nurses must effectively...

• Live program: Time-saving tips for nursing professional development

  The 90-minute webcast will help you conquer four of the biggest challenges in nursing education...

• Nursing borrows a trick from manufacturing

  It can take a lot of courage to do the right thing. To speak up when something's wrong or to...

• Tool of the month: Example of a breakeven analysis

  A breakeven analysis or return on investment allows you to determine the point at which your...

• Ask the expert: Meeting the challenges of on-demand training and inservices

  This week, Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN, suggests several ways to meet training needs such as...

Issue 9, March 5, 2012

• Ask your staff: How can we earn your trust?

  Every time I explore a quality improvement initiative with a hospital for Patient Safety Monitor...

• Nurses get pushed around, again

  Aggression involving nurses is at the center of a he-said-she-said dispute that pits Douglas...

• Nurses essential in helping new cancer patients cope

  Nurses can help newly diagnosed cancer patients come to terms with the impact of their disease on...

• Nurse residency programs and self-directed learning activities

  This week, Jim Hansen, MSN, RN-BC, explains the need for self-directed learning as part of a nurse...

Issue 8, February 27, 2012

• All I’m asking is for a little respect

  It's no secret that nurses and physicians do not always maintain the friendliest interactions, and...

• CMS 30-minute rule: How does this affect your facility?

  In late 2011, CMS issued a memo to its state survey agency directors regarding updated guidance on...

• Nurse practitioners key to healthcare reform

  Nurse practitioners could play an essential role in minimizing the impact of a shortage in primary...

• Discussing financial topics with department staff members

  This week, Pamela Hunt, BS, MSN, RN, and Deborah Laughon, RN, BSN, MS, DBA, CCRN, advise on the...

Issue 7, February 20, 2012

• Blog spotlight: Technology and healthcare: Nurses’ use of mobile devices

  New technology has been steadily working its way into all aspects of daily life, and healthcare is...

• How to sidestep hospital flu shot mandates

  Should vaccinations against influenza be mandatory for healthcare workers? A debate is currently...

• Study explores nurses’ views on patient rounding

  Nurses identify rounding as a useful and valuable process, but find the documentation aspect of...

• Ask the expert: Structuring nurse residency programs for new graduate nurses

  This week, Jim Hansen, MSN, RN-BC, gives advice on developing a nurse residency program that uses...

Issue 6, February 13, 2012

• Tool of the month: Sample summary tool supporting capital justification

  This month's tool will help you develop the justification you need for purchasing new equipment...

• Designing a hospital? Ask nurses first

  When the nurses at Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville, Missouri, got to pitch in on the...

• Nursing poised for largest increase among U.S. occupations

  Registered nursing will add more than 700,000 new jobs by 2020, representing the largest growth...

• How can I help my staff nurses achieve a greater level of clinical expertise?

  This week, Tammy L. Berbarie, BA, RN, RN-BC, discusses the benefits of a clinical ladder program...

Issue 5, February 6, 2012

• Does being a nurse make you fat?

  Is being a nurse bad for your health? A new survey indicates that this might be the case, and...

• Stop requiring nurses to work overtime

  When one of your nurses calls in sick, or if your organization is experiencing a staffing crunch...

• Nursing pilot program focuses on patient engagement

  Horizon Healthcare Solutions (HHI), Duke University School of Nursing, and Rutgers University...

• What should a good orientation for new staff development employees include?

  There are some basic elements of any good orientation. These do not revolve around competencies or...

Issue 4, January 30, 2012

• How to retain nurses by focusing on the reasons they entered the profession

  Recognizing and building upon nurses' dedication to their line of work could be essential to...

• Real value of credentialing lies in the journey

  How much does designation as an American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognition Program(r...

• ANA honors six hospitals for outstanding quality

  The American Nursing Association (ANA) has recognized six hospitals for outstanding nursing...

• Ask the expert: What should be considered when utilizing a ratio staffing structure?

  This week, Pamela Hunt, BS, MSN, RN and Deborah Laughon, RN, BSN, MS, DBA, CCRN, discuss ratio...

Issue 3, January 23, 2012

• Nurse donates kidney to patient

  Medical News Today reports that Allison Batson, a nurse at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta...

• Nurses key to care coordination

  It seems each new study that examines a particular facet of nursing also reinforces the notion that...

• Another nursing strike possible in California

  Thousands of nurses belonging to the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) could stage a...

• How do the eight essentials of the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program(R) relate to shared governance?

  This week, Diana Swihart, PhD, DMin, MSN, CS, RN-BC, explains the connection between shared...

Issue 2, January 16, 2012

• You can't improve without knowing what's wrong

  In the healthcare quality improvement field, there has been much talk about reporting errors, about...

• Suicide risk: Solutions to rapid assessment and documentation

  In November 2010, The Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert requiring all hospitals to...

• Healthcare created 314K jobs in 2011

  Healthcare created 22,600 jobs in December, finishing a strong year for job growth that saw 314,700...

• Curb disruptive behavior between nurses and physicians

  This week, Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN shares strategies for collaboration and communication...

Issue 1, January 9, 2012

• Top 10 most read blogs posts from 2011

  Here's a rundown of the most-read posts from 2011: 1. Analyzing nurse staffing: Understanding...

• Nurses key to making healthcare better

  Nurses made a strong showing in this year's HealthLeaders 20, our annual profile of individuals who...

• CMS' proposed hospital staffing revisions get cool reception

  A rule proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow changes in the...

• Including policies and procedures in charge nurse orientation

  Q: My organization is developing a charge nurse orientation this year and we are having difficulty...