MHA's Executive Briefing

Nurses: Key to Making or Breaking Your Future Margin

Hospital leaders can succeed better with quality-related payment methods by aligning nurses' personal and professional aspirations with organizational goals. This partnership between hospitals and nurses is key in the pursuit of margin and outcomes excellence.

Read more from Hospitals & Health Networks here.

Bill would reauthorize H-1C visa program

The House Judiciary Committee on June 23 approved a bill (H.R. 1933) that would reauthorize the H-1C temporary visa program for three years, allowing up to 300 foreign nurses per year to come to the U.S. to work in health professional shortage areas. The program, which expired in 2009, originally provided visas to up to 500 nurses per year.

To participate in the visa program, hospitals must have at least 190 acute care beds, be located in federally designated areas with health care worker shortages, and meet thresholds on Medicare and Medicaid activity, which has limited the number of hospital participants to about 14. The American Hospital Association supports reauthorization of the H-1C program.

Report: Shortage in nursing faculty has a big impact on patient care

Vacancies in nursing faculty deprived education to an estimated 55,000 qualified nursing applicants in 2009, and each unfilled nurse educator position could affect care for 3.6 million patients, the Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence in New York reported. "This cautious estimate demonstrates the real-world impact of this deficit and why it must be addressed decisively and swiftly," said one nursing expert who helped develop the formula used in the report.

Read more here.

Nursing Ranks, Employment Growing

The number of licensed registered nurses nationwide grew 5% to a new annual high of 3.1 million between 2004 and 2008—representing a net growth of 153,806 nurses, according to a report released by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The youngest population of nurses also grew for the first time in 30 years, which helped "restock the pool" of RNs.

An estimated 444,668 RNs received their first U.S. license from 2004 through 2008, while about 291,000 RNs allowed their licenses to lapse, possibly indicating the substantial number of retirements that have begun to take place. The most commonly reported initial nursing education of RNs is the associate degree in nursing, representing 45.4% of nurses.

Bachelor's or graduate degrees were received by 34.2% of RNs, and 20.4% received their initial education in hospital-based diploma programs. Nearly two-thirds of RNs reported working in a health occupation prior to their initial nursing education.

Read more here.

Study: Pay, staffing and appreciation, key nurse issues

If you want them to make them happier, give nurses better pay, boost staffing levels and show them some appreciation. These are some of the key conclusions drawn by a new study published by health care industry measurement consultant Press Ganey Associates.

Researchers concluded that addressing these issues is critical to keeping nurses, who have the lowest satisfaction rates of any hospital employees. Not only that, taking action on these issues typically a ripple effect on overall hospital satisfaction ratings, as patients tend to rank hospitals lower that have higher vacancy rates, Press Ganey says.

To conduct their study, researchers looked at the experiences of 193,000 hospital employees at 370 hospitals, including nurses, technicians and administrative staffers, to examine factors that impact employee satisfaction at hospitals.

To learn more about the study, read this Press Ganey press release and the report.

[ via Fierce Healthcare ]

AONE launches fellowship program

The American Organization of Nurse Executives will accept applications through Sept. 15 for its inaugural Nurse Manager Fellowship program. The yearlong program is designed to prepare the next generation of executive-level nurse leaders to meet practice needs.

The curriculum is based on the Nurse Manager Leadership Collaborative’s Learning Domain Framework and includes an individual project benefiting the sponsoring organization. The faculty, comprised of notable nursing leaders, will work with fellowship participants at quarterly leadership retreats and through a virtual learning community.

The fellowship “seeks to challenge a group of stellar nurse managers to reach for their highest potential and become our leaders of tomorrow,” said AONE CEO Pamela Thompson. “It is a key component of our professional succession planning.”

Fellows will be announced on Nov. 1 and begin in January 2008. Applications are available at www.aone.org.

[ via AHA News Now ]

Licensed Practical Nurses May Be Able to Fill Gap in the Nursing Shortage

Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) may be able to fill the gap in the nursing shortage, according to the results of a study reported in the July issue of the American Journal of Nursing.

"LPNs may be able to help fill some of the gaps caused by the nursing shortage, but little research has been conducted on the demographic characteristics of LPNs, their education and scope of practice, and the demand for their services, all of which vary from state to state," write Jean Ann Seago, PhD, RN, from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues.

In 2002 and 2003, the authors conducted a comprehensive national study, Supply, Demand, and Use of Licensed Practical Nurses, which showed that RNs and LPNs are similar in age and tend to have similar numbers of children. However, racial and ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans, and those who are single, widowed, divorced, or separated are better represented among LPNs.

Specific recommendations are as follows:

• Before making changes to LPNs' scope of practice, states should determine whether easing practice restrictions would negatively affect patient care.

• Employers should distribute the work of LPNs safely and reasonably, so that RNs are not overwhelmed and LPNs can perform all of the nursing tasks permitted under existing scope-of-practice regulations.

• Employers should provide educational incentives to LPNs.

• Nurse educators should facilitate the matriculation of LPNs in RN educational programs.

For the full story from Medscape, click here.

Study estimates costs, benefits of increasing hospital nurse staffing

A study in the January/February issue of Health Affairs estimates the national cost of increasing hospital nurse staffing and the resulting improvements in patient outcomes. It concludes that increasing the proportion of nursing hours that are provided by registered nurses, without increasing total nursing hours, would avoid nearly 60,000 potenial adverse outcomes for patients and reduce hospital expenses by an estimated 0.1%.

Kathy Sanford, president of the American Organization of Nurse Executives, told AHA News Now she has no argument with the research. However, she said the nation’s growing shortage of nurses is central to the discussion, noting there aren’t enough nurses graduating from nursing school to replace those retiring and meet future demand. “Nurse training is expensive,” Sanford said, which is why AONE is working with the American Hospital Association and others to lobby for increased funding for nurse faculty and education. AONE is a subsidiary of AHA.

[ via AHA News ]

ANA's Health Care Agenda 2005

Despite years of incremental, market-based approaches to reform, the health care system continues to be fragmented and costly, according to a report on health care reform by the American Nurses Association (ANA).

The report, ANA's Health Care Agenda - 2005, further reaffirms the association's 15 years of support for a restructured health care system that ensures universal access to a standard package of essential health care services through a single-payer mechanism, and lays out a comprehensive strategy for government, industry, consumers and health care providers to follow in achieving these goals.

For more, view the press release here.