MHA's Organization of Nurse Executives

Survey: Nurse leaders see drop in salary

A survey of about 2,000 U.S. nurse leaders found that their annual salary has dropped from $83,930 in 2007 to $80,170 in the current year. The survey also showed that nearly 60% of respondents felt they were not receiving the right compensation for their role.

Learn more here.

Project seeks to boost retention of experienced nurses

Health facilities need to adopt methods to increase retention of experienced nurses, who serve as mentors and models for newer staff. An ongoing project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has identified strategies to help increase nurse retention in hospitals, such as appropriate staffing, wellness initiatives, flexible scheduling and more control over patient flow.

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Nurses are key players in the campaign against drug abuse

Veteran nurse Marsha Stanton worked with the National Family Partnership to launch Lock Your Meds, a campaign aimed at encouraging adults to regularly check and keep their prescription and over-the-counter medicines away from reach of young people to curb drug abuse and addiction. The initiative wants nurses to help spread the word, saying they are "key to this campaign because they are really the liaison between the patient and our project - more so than a doctor or even a hospital," a campaign director said.

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Hospitals begin to require BSNs

As more hospitals seek the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s coveted Magnet recognition, a recent but quiet trend has been slowly making its way into the nursing world: hospitals are requiring their nurses to either return to school for their bachelor’s degrees or have a BSN before applying. Read more here.

Commentary: Nurse Leaders—The Next Generation

The nurse manager workforce is aging so rapidly that we face a succession planning crisis in the near future. Despite this, many hospitals place little emphasis on formal leadership development. The next generation of leaders will come from self-motivated nurses learning from coaches and mentors how to become better managers.

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Technology Monitors Nursing Performance

Implementing the right e-learning software can help health systems assess staff competency and enhance communication. These practices are implementing learning management systems to track staff input, professional development, and organization.

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Measuring the Effectiveness of Nursing Education

The value of nursing education is often measured quantitatively, but rarely is it measured qualitatively. It's not the number of people in the classroom that should be measured, but the results, says Gen Guanci, MEd, RN-BC, CCRN. Since changing how her nursing education department is evaluated, Guanci has seen positions added and a decreased number of medical errors.

Read more here.

IOM calls for nursing changes to meet health reform, patient needs

The Institute of Medicine on Oct. 5 issued a blueprint for transforming nursing roles, responsibilities and education to meet the promise of a reformed health care system and the nation's health needs. Developed in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the report calls for state and federal policies that allow nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and training, residency programs to help those with nursing degrees transition into clinical practice, and more opportunities for nurses to lead collaborative improvement efforts. It also recommends increasing the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80% by 2020, doubling the number of nurses with a doctorate, and improving the collection and analysis of health care workforce data.

"This seminal report presents a watershed moment for the nursing profession as we work to reform health care," said Pamela Rudisill, RN, president of the American Hospital Association's American Organization of Nurse Executives subsidiary. "It represents challenges but great opportunities to recreate nursing in America by removing barriers to scope of practice, expanding collaborative efforts such as AONE's Transforming Care at the Bedside, and promoting a better educated workforce and the value of nursing through evidenced-based research and enhanced data collection efforts."

Nurses’ push for a bigger role gets powerful ally

The Institute of Medicine report says nurses should take on a larger and more independent role in providing health care in America, something many doctors have repeatedly opposed, citing potential safety concerns. It calls for states and the federal government to remove barriers that restrict what care advanced practice nurses — those with a master’s degree — provide and includes many examples of nurses taking on bigger responsibilities.

Read more from Kaiser Health News here.

Commentary: Linking Medical Errors, Nurses' 12-Hour Shifts

Studies have linked nurse fatigue with medical errors, poor quality care, stress, and burnout. There are many reasons for nurse fatigue, but one stands out as pretty easy to fix: shift length. Senior leadership should embrace these creative staffing and scheduling options to increase nurse satisfaction and improve efficiency.

Read more here.