Other Nursing Commons^™

Preventing 30-Day Readmissions Of Clostridium Difficile Patients Utilizing Targeted Discharge Instructions, Keith A. Howard

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 ushered in a new era of fiscal accountability for healthcare organizations. Healthcare organizations and providers are now jointly held responsible for the improved quality of patient care and sustained reductions in patient care events termed healthcare-acquired conditions. To ensure compliance with this newly enacted legislation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began penalizing hospitals for targeted conditions leading to 30-day readmissions beginning in October 2012. Annually, CMS has focused attention on conditions that endanger patient health and welfare while secondarily attempting to reduce the excessive financial expenditures in …

Student Nurse Behaviors And Barriers To Successful Completion Of The Traditonal Bachelor's In Science Of Nursing (Bsn) Program., Carri Shaw

Honors Theses

Change is often said to be the only constant in life. This holds true to the rapidly growing field of nursing. In order to meet the demands of new challenges that emerge in nursing, the way future nurses are educated also has changed. Not all nursing students find that the profession is for them. Therefore, some attrition from school is expected. This descriptive study will explore factors that the literature suggests are related to attrition at a mid-sized public university in the Midwest. A survey given to two different level nursing cohorts will give insight to pre-licensure nursing students’ experiences …

Nurses’ Knowledge And Attitudes Toward Implementation Of Electronic Medical Records, Cathy H. Abell, Tonya Bragg-Underwood, Lori Alexander, Caitlyn Elizabeth Abell, Vanessa Burd

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

With the growth of Faith Community Nursing (FCN), one topic that needs further exploration is documentation. This includes the use of electronic medical records (EMRs). Nurses play a vital role in the planning and implementation of EMRs in the acute care setting and will also play a key role in Faith Community Nursing Programs that stand alone or partner with a health care agency. Individual computer expertise and/or attitude and knowledge of EMRs could be important in the successful implementation. Researchers utilized a modified version of the EMR questionnaire designed by Beiter and colleagues to examine nurses’ knowledge and attitudes …

Improving Patient Satisfaction Through Reducing Nurse Overtime And Redesigning Nurse Staffing And Scheduling, Abby Romme

Master's Projects and Capstones

Increasing cardiac device patient demands within a large Midwest healthcare institution resulted in significant increases in staff shift requirements and corresponding patient complaints. The quality improvement project aimed to decrease patient complaints by executing a standard baseline daily full time equivalent (FTE) staffing strategy for future schedules, increasing nursing FTE, and maintaining institutional staffing standards. Standard calculated daily nursing requirements targeted 17.0 FTE. Implementation occurred over a three month period including schedule reprocessing, a pending incremental nursing FTE request, and a restructuring of unit based scheduling and paid time off guidelines. The completed schedule accurately captured staffing requirements for 100% …

Simulation And Educational Strategies To Decrease The Incidence Of Medication Errors In A Small Rural Acute Care Hospital, Queen Victoria Walters

Doctoral Projects

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates 1.5 million medical errors occur per year (2007). Medication errors are the leading medical error. Medication errors are defined as adverse drug events, and are 100% preventable. Some categories of adverse drug events include, medications administered at the wrong time, by the wrong route, using the wrong method of administration, and administration of the wrong dose of medication. Adverse drug events also include administration of an overdose of medication or the omission of medications as well as administering the wrong medication.

The purpose of this capstone project was to increase the competency of nurses …

Elevating Research: An Important Role For Nurse Leaders, Katreena Collette Merrill, Diane Andrews, Barbara B. Brewer, Diane Storer Brown

Faculty Publications

As leaders, we recognize the importance of professional scholarship to provide the evidence needed to transform practice. One key initiative for the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) is the elevation of nursing research and AONE competencies for nurse executives emphasize utilization, dissemination and participation in studies. However, given our current healthcare climate and competing priorities, nurse leaders must often focus efforts on fiscal responsibility and operational effectiveness, making time and resources to support nursing research challenging. Initiatives that do not directly impact patient care, such as research, may be given a lower priority. Given today’s pressures, nurse leaders may …

Leadership Style And Patient Safety: Implications For Nurse Managers, Katreena Collette Merrill

Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between nurse manager (NM) leadership style and safety climate.

BACKGROUND: Nursing leaders are needed who will change the environment and increase patient safety. Hospital NMs are positioned to impact day-to-day operations. Therefore, it is essential to inform nurse executives regarding the impact of leadership style on patient safety.

METHODS: A descriptive correlational study was conducted in 41 nursing departments across 9 hospitals. The hospital unit safety climate survey and multifactorial leadership questionnaire were completed by 466 staff nurses. Bivariate and regression analyses were conducted to determine how well leadership …

Diabetic Prevention The Hard Way: Modified Diet And Increased Exercise, Torrie Reese St.Julien

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Background and Purpose: In the United States, 79 million people are pre-diabetic: most have no symptoms. If left untreated, 37% will develop diabetes within 4 years. Fourteen percent of United States health care expenditures are related to diabetic complications. This Evidenced Based Project (EBP) involved a behavioral lifestyle change with the purpose of 7% weight loss and a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity a week. It was also designed to reduce risk factors and glycated hemoglobin A1c (HgA1c) levels.

Methods: The interventional approach was modeled after the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and Group Lifestyle Balance Program. Participants were …

An Investigation Of The Relationships Between And Among Power, Trust And Job Satisfaction Of Nurse Managers In Acute Care Hospitals Using Rogers Science Of Unitary Human Beings, Maureen A. Schneider

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Background: Defined as control and freedom, power is often characterized as hierarchical. Power-as-freedom exists as a unitary manifestation of the whole and is acausal. Thus a worldview that emphasizes mutual process rather than a causal (control) view supports a culture of trust in the healthcare environment that generates a committed and a thriving work force. When nurse leaders support a climate of trust, managers develop a sense of commitment to the organization which may lead to job satisfaction. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting the relationship between power, trust and job satisfaction among nurse managers.

Purpose: The …

Utilizing Internet-Based Group Mentoring To Retain Home Health Care Nurses, Gwendolyn M. Oglesby-Odom

Ed.D. Dissertations

This study aimed to determine if the implementation of an internet based nurse mentoring group program would aid in the retention of registered nurses in the home health care industry. As the Vice President of Operations for a home health care organization, the researcher both implemented and facilitated an internet based group mentoring program for registered nurses working in home health. The study sample included 47 registered nurses. Forty-two registered nurses were in the control group and five registered nurses were in the experimental group. All sample participants worked in home health care, either in Illinois or Indiana. Quantitative results …

An Evaluation Of Patient Satisfaction With Telephone Follow-Up In An Urgent Care, Audia L. Ellis

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Telephone follow-up (TFU) is a very valuable innovation. It is a service that is found to be desirable by both patients and health care professionals. It has been utilized successfully in a variety of settings, however, evidence of its use or evaluation of its use in the urgent care setting has not been found. Through evaluation of patient satisfaction (PS) with use of the protocol, new cost and labor effective interventions were constructed and implemented with the goal of meeting patients’ needs.

This study utilized mixed method methodology and employed a descriptive design. Convenience sampling was utilized and a sample …

Patient Experience Measurement Ignores Mental Health: Suggestions For Healthcare Organizations, Mona Shattell Phd, Rn, Faan, Andrew Gallan Phd

Mona Shattell

No abstract provided.

Relational Coordination: An Exploration Of Nursing Units, An Emergency Department And In-Patient Transfers, Mary Coffey

Theses and Dissertations

Emergency department (ED) crowding is a patient safety concern that has been increasing for more than a decade. Increased visits have resulted in ED crowding, longer wait times, ambulance diversions, and boarding of admitted patients (Hing & Bhuiya, 2012). Numerous factors affect ED crowding. Once various extraneous issues are resolved and a bed is available for a patient, it becomes the responsibility of nurses across unit boundaries to coordinate the patient transfer. This study applies Relational Coordination Theory (RCT) as a framework to provide nurses insight into the relational aspects of their work in the transfer of ED patients to …

Improving Depression Care For Older Home Health Patients, Sarah R. Schirmer

DNP Projects

Rates of depression in older home healthcare (HH) patients are highly prevalent. Although depression in this population is associated with increased rates of re-hospitalization, falls, and suicides, it is frequently under diagnosed and under treated. This Capstone Report examined this problem through three interrelated manuscripts. The first manuscript explored the problem through a review of the literature. This review determined that while there are many barriers to adequate depression care, programs that train clinicians to screen for depression and connect patients to depression care encourage adequate evaluation and treatment and can result in clinically significant changes in depression scores. This …