During the MHA ONE annual meeting, Julie Kennedy, a guest speaker, promised attendees support materials that are attached below. Other support tools for hourly rounding can be found at www.studergroup.com.
Call Light Audit
Download call_light_audit.doc
Hourly Rounding Competency Checklist
Download hourly_rounding_competency_checklist.xls
Hourly Rounding Log
Download hourly_rounding_log.doc
As everyone knows, nursing is an extremely stressful profession, both physically and emotionally--a problem only made worse by chronic staff shortages. These stresses are part of the reason so many nurses are retiring at relatively early ages, deciding that they can no longer tolerate going through the ringer year after year. Unfortunately, these on-the-job stresses are often compounded by lives full of skipped meals, little or no exercise and a lack of plain old fun in their lives. It's an ideal recipe for burnout.
Now, in an effort to address some of these stresses, hospitals are creating programs that attempt to improve morale by reinforcing healthy habits. They're instituting a range of supports intended to help nurses achieve an elusive work-life balance and provide added coping skills.
For example, at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Chicago, the hospital has created a nurse's retreat in a break room, allowing nurses to assemble a puzzle or sit in a massage chair. The hospital also put together a handbook outlining stress management and counseling classes being offered to patients. Other hospitals offer coaches who recommend such activities as deep breathing and small exercises.
To learn more about this trend, read this Chicago Tribune piece.
[ via Fierce Healthcare ]
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on Sept. 10 awarded the first round of grants in a $28 million, five-year program to develop academic nurse leaders. The 2008 RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars will receive three-year grants of up to $350,000 each for mentorship, leadership training, salary and research support to advance as nurse educators and scholars.
“This program fits squarely into the Foundation’s goal to build a new generation of nurse leaders among academic faculty so we can stop turning away nursing school applicants who are sorely needed to meet an increasing patient demand,” said RWJF President Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D. Nursing schools have turned away thousands of prospective students in recent years due to a shortage of faculty, clinical preceptors, training sites, space and funding.
More on the 2008 RWJF scholars can be found on the foundation’s Web site.
[ via AHA News Now ]
A task force representing a diverse group of stakeholders, including hospitals and health systems, on Sept. 4 released a first-of-its-kind Voluntary Code of Ethical Conduct for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Nurses to the United States. The American Hospital Association and American Organization of Nurse Executives helped develop the code, which responds to concerns about unfair labor practices, questionable contract practices and threats related to the nurses’ immigration status.
At a press event, AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock said the code “reaffirms hospitals’ commitment to fair, transparent and responsible efforts to fill critical nursing positions with qualified foreign professionals.” Employers and recruiters who subscribe to the code commit to protect the rights of foreign-educated nurses, provide adequate clinical and cultural orientation programs, and ensure the practice of recruitment is not harmful to source countries.
There are an estimated 300 foreign-nurse recruitment firms, and roughly 100,000 foreign-educated nurses resided in the U.S. as of 2004. For more on the code of conduct, visit www.fairinternationalrecruitment.org.
AONE is an AHA subsidiary.
[ via AHA News Now ]
The American Organization of Nurse Executives has received a grant to support the Resourcefully Enhancing Aging in Specialty Nursing initiative. The $17,000 grant from the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at the New York University College of Nursing will allow AONE to expand its Guiding Principles for the Elder-Friendly Hospital/Facility to include the role of nurse executives and how they can better provide an elder-friendly hospital environment.
In addition, a toolkit that supports those concepts and themes will be developed and reside on a Web site dedicated to elder friendly health care. REASN is a four-year program funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies (USA) that works with specialty nursing associations to enhance their members’ competency in caring for older adults.
[ via AHA News Now ]
The results from the first national study of nursing assistants working in nursing facilities in the United States are now available online. According to the survey, nursing assistants named problems with coworkers, workload, and problems with supervisors or nurses as the top reasons for disliking their jobs. [ via CLTC Weekly Advisor ]
The study, conducted in 2004 and 2005 by the Division of Health Care Statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics, surveyed about 5,000 nursing assistants about several aspects of their work, including job satisfaction, working conditions, training, and personal or family demands.
Transitioning from nursing school to the bedside can be difficult for new nurses. And literature reveals a hefty amount of new nurse graduates depart from their first position within two years of hire. So, why are they leaving? Like many of us, new nurses want to feel valued, be rewarded, have strong relationships with their managers, and enjoy a work-life balance. Managers work so hard to get nurses in the door that it makes sense to work hard to retain them. It's important to let new nurse graduates know they are welcome on the unit and will be a valued part of the team. Here are some ways you can do this: (This excerpt was taken from "Grasp your new grad nurses!," found in The Leaders' Lounge at www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com.)
A new toolkit aimed at helping nurses avoid patient lift injuries was recently unveiled to hospitals and other healthcare facilities, according to Occupational Hazards.
The free toolkit is available through Liko, a leading supplier of patient lift and transfer solutions, on their Safe Lifting Portal Web site. It includes articles on determining the best lifting strategies, reducing infection risk from lifts and slings, and other topics. The toolkit also offers general guidelines for safe patient handling and how to achieve caregiver buy-in for educational programs.
Additionally, the toolkit comes with a monthly electronic newsletter and a question-and-answer column called "Ask the Lift Doctor." The manufacturer also includes pamphlets and posters on injury prevention that providers can use to raise awareness on this safety issue.
[ via Healthcare Training Weekly ]
The American Nurses Association recently elected Rebecca Patton to a second two-year term as the organization’s president. Patton currently is on leave from her position as director of perioperative services for EMH Regional Healthcare System in Elyria, OH. She previously served as an ANA treasurer and delegate.
In recent times, nurses have begun to draw more attention to the often-dangerous conditions in which they work - though the going has been slow. There's no question that nurses face big risks: according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nurses and other personal care workers suffer 25 injuries annually resulting in days off from work for every 10,000 full-time workers. That's 12 times the rate of the overall private sector.
The American Hospital Association says executives are very aware of the problem and are taking steps to address it, including expanding security staffing, increasing the use of surveillance cameras and providing training on how to deal with violent situations.
To learn more about this issue, read this piece from The New York Times.
