Involving Nurses in Hospital Staffing Decision-Making

A qualitative study that looks at the experiences of nurses who have served on staffing committees.

When I am faced with challenging situations and issues that involve multiple stakeholders, I seek guidance or information from others to make the most informed decisions. This is a practice many health professionals and researchers emulate, and it makes sense to do this, yet when it comes to the topic of nurse staffing in hospital settings, nurses are not usually involved in the process. If they are involved to some degree, it is likely because of a hospital’s pursuit for nursing excellence recognition through shared governance and/or the external pressure of state laws, like mandated nurse staffing committees.

Nurse autonomy and engagement means better care.

Over the years, research has shown how increases in nurse autonomy and engagement can positively benefit patient care and support nurse retention, yet how do these concepts apply to nurse staffing? In what ways are those concepts translated into practice or policy efforts? These were the questions that initially guided me.

Seeking a real voice in nurse staffing policymaking.

In a survey exploring the concept of staff nurse involvement in hospital staffing policymaking, most nurses described feeling powerless. with […]

2024-03-20T10:15:39-04:00March 20th, 2024|nurse staffing, Nursing, nursing research, patient safety|0 Comments
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Holistic Admissions Criteria in Prelicensure Nursing Programs

Photo by Christina via Unsplash

As a high school student, Gaby worked nearly full-time to support her family. She also helped care for her grandfather who was in failing health, giving him daily insulin injections and attending to his care. She dreamed of going to nursing school after graduation. Still, her classroom grades, which suffered because of her other commitments, were insufficient for admission to the nursing program of her choice.

Philip, a high school athlete, was captain of a championship basketball team. He had the passion and personality to be a great nurse and wanted to follow in his mother’s footsteps in the profession. Unfortunately, his grade point average (GPA) was below the cutoff for admission to his local nursing program.

Dreams of joining the nursing profession were halted for both of these potentially excellent nurses, both of them first-generation Americans and members of populations underrepresented in nursing. Some prelicensure nursing schools use a comprehensive approach for admission, but far too many still use academic achievements and standardized test scores as the sole criteria for accepting students into their program. Admission to nursing schools in the United States remains far from standardized, even though all nurses must pass the same national licensing exam […]

2024-03-20T13:47:18-04:00March 6th, 2024|Nursing, nursing students|1 Comment
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Disaster Care, Brain Drain, More: Recommended Reading in AJN’s March Issue

The March issue of AJN is now live.

“Nurses play a critical role in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery,” says Linda M. MacIntyre, PhD, RN, PHN, FAAN, chief nurse of the American Red Cross (see On the Cover). Two articles in this month’s issue address disaster care:

Brain drain is increasing in health care. “Original Research: Nurses’ Attitudes Toward Brain Drain and the Associated Factors” explores the attitudes of Turkish nurses, nurse academics, and nursing students toward this problem in the nursing profession.

In this month’s CE article, “Beyond PICO—A New Question Simplifies the Search for Evidence,” the authors present the framework for an alternative to the PICO question—PPCO, or problem, population, change, outcome—that provides a universal approach to question development for evidence-based practice QI initiatives and for all nursing issues that need addressing.

Read

2024-02-26T09:29:37-05:00February 26th, 2024|Nursing|0 Comments
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Why Nurses Assist Falling Patients Despite the Risk

A too-common scenario.

Joe opens his eyes and looks through the window of his hospital room. He has always been early to rise. Even at age 82, he can’t shake the habits he learned when he was young.

“I’m woozy again,” Joe thinks as he sits up in bed. His medication sometimes makes him feel that way. Joe presses the call light so a nurse can help him to the bathroom. The nurses have been reminding him to do that so he won’t fall.

Then he reconsiders. “I can make it on my own. I don’t want to bother the nurses. They need to help the patients who really need it.” Joe moves to the edge of his bed. His walker isn’t nearby, but he urgently needs to reach the bathroom. Still dizzy, Joe holds onto the bed for a moment to keep from falling forward. After a moment, he manages to stand up and walk to the bathroom. As he enters the room, his dizziness returns, and his legs suddenly feel weak.  A feeling of dread washes over Joe as he begins to fall…

Nurse Smith starts her rounds and is looking forward to seeing Joe. He is always up early to greet her with a smile and a joke. As she opens the door to his room, she sees him entering his bathroom without his walker. She moves quickly toward him, but he suddenly sways forward. She knows he is going to fall. Reacting immediately, she grabs him by the torso […]

2024-02-20T10:44:39-05:00February 20th, 2024|Nursing, nursing research, patient safety, Quality improvement|1 Comment
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The Pitfalls of Being the ‘Nice’ Patient: A Nurse’s Perspective

Image Brent Keane/via Pexels

I have often heard health care professionals in various environments say, “If you’re nice to the nurses and doctors who take care of you, you’ll get better care.” As a bedside nurse myself, I understand the sentiment. No busy health care worker loves being met with antagonism or pressing demands that don’t strike us as critically urgent.

But when my husband and I both became patients with serious illnesses last year, we learned the clinical pitfalls of being the nice patients. I am left wondering how patients should be expected or permitted to advocate for their own care without worrying that they will be frowned upon or brushed off because they’re perceived as “difficult.”

First cautionary tale.

In early 2022, I discovered a small lump under my right breast that I initially wrote off as a cyst. Surely, I told myself, as a woman in her mid-40s with no risk factors for breast cancer, this had to be benign. A screening mammogram in May 2022 gave me an all-clear, and I went on my way.

But by November, I knew the lump had grown. I reached out to my PCP to ask for a diagnostic mammogram, and he emailed back a casual reassurance. “I know you’re worried, but […]

2024-02-07T16:57:09-05:00February 6th, 2024|Nursing, nursing stories, patient experience, Patients|14 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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