How technology solutions can impact nursing retention Judith Russell TECHNOLOGY. IS THIS THE be-all and end-all for the future? In the high-tech industry, technology is at the forefront of almost all innovation. In health care, things move a little slower. And this can be a good thing. Let’s take a look at several large, as […]
Category: Nursing Economics
One vision of academic nursing centers M. Christina Esperat Executive Summary * Academic-based nursing centers typically strive to fulfill multiple purposes, providing care to underserved populations, clinical experiences for nursing students, and practice opportunities for faculty. * This complex set of objectives are often rooted in tenuous funding arrangements as evidenced by the closure of […]
The Image of a Nurse Myth vs. Reality Eileen Meier When the public conjures up the image of a nurse, what is it? The TV nurses of “General Hospital” have spent most of their “careers” standing around the telephone, chatting at the nurse’s station and saying, “Yes doctor” when a doctor breezed through the […]
Is Unionization the Answer for Nurses and Nursing? Eileen Meier CALIFORNIA’S NEW LAW, AB 394, requiring all patient care units in hospitals to meet fixed minimum nurse-to-patient ratios was hailed by many as a step in the right direction. But others believe it will create a staff ceiling level, rather than creating a floor. The […]
Alternative Cost-Effective Anesthesia Care Teams Jerry Cromwell PAYERS AND HOSPITALS alike are now actively seeking new ways of containing health care costs through more efficient patient care management. An area increasingly under scrutiny is anesthesia. This service is critical to any successful surgical program. Consistent, high-quality anesthesia care must be maintained while reducing the overall […]
Making nursing-sensitive quality indicators real in ambulatory care Beth Ann Swan AS MUCH OF HEALTH CARE delivery has shifted from the inpatient to the ambulatory care setting, nurse leaders in ambulatory care are faced with an ever-increasing set of challenges. Some of the challenges include improving workflow efficiency by optimizing human and material resources in […]
Adding Value by Expanding RN Roles in Ambulatory Care Peter Richter THE OPPORTUNITY for ambulatory care registered nurses to demonstrate their value in the managed care patient experience has never been greater. However, in this period of tremendous change in the health care industry, the role of the RN is often ambiguous. Managers are not […]
Improving clinical communication through structured conversation Mary Lou Manning “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” –Mark Twain NURSES ARE EMBEDDED IN A COMPLEX NETWORK OF clinical relationships, the most important being nurse-patient, nurse-nurse, and nurse-physician. Communication is the core of these […]
Measuring nursing workload in ambulatory care Beth Ann Swan OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS, there has been rapid development of measurement systems for health services resource allocation in the United States, not always matched by using the same definition of concepts, not consistently based on any assessment of reliability or validity and/or thorough understanding of […]
Cost of hospital care for elderly at risk of falling Marita Titler DESPITE MULTIPLE EFFORTS in the past decade to reduce spending, the costs of health care continue to climb. In an effort to quell the backlash from managed care, hospitals have reduced some cost-control mechanisms such as gatekeepers and preauthorization requirements (Strunk, Ginsburg, & […]