...“A growing body of research shows that nurses working 12-hour shifts are more fatigued and at greater risk for making errors” - Roxanne Nelson. Nurses are our primary caregivers and have a duty to perform. If a nurse is exhausted and can not meet his or her full potential then that can intrude into the patient's safety. Therefore, nurses should be limited to 4 days a week with 8-hour shifts. The connection between extended work hours and worker fatigue, decreased productivity, and increased patient and personal safety is well documented in nurses undergoing their home. Researchers studied data that show over five thousand work shifts and found that hospital nurses worked longer than their scheduled shift and more than 40-hours a week. Studies...
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...Identification (NPI). You are expected to access the nurse practice act relating to Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) for the state in which you plan to practice. You will also access the HHS site that provides information on the NPI and application process. Answer each of the following questions. This does not have to be a formal paper but should include all of the requested information. You should site your sources in the references. I encourage you to summarize the information rather than just doing a cut and paste from any web site. 1. What state do you plan to practice in? Indiana 2. What information and documents are required in order to apply / obtain prescriptive authority in your state as an APN? (Be specific) ALL APPLICANTS must mail a completed application along with the items listed below to the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency. You must hold an active, valid registered nurse license in Indiana or another state to be eligible for prescriptive authority. The application requires you to indicate the category of Advanced Practice Nursing under which are applying for Prescriptive Authority: You must choose one of the following: Clinical Nurse Specialist; Nurse Practitioner; or Certified Nurse Midwife. Please note that if you are applying for prescriptive authority as a Certified Nurse Midwife, you still need a current Limited Nurse Midwife license in addition to your current RN license in order to practice nurse midwifery in the State of Indiana. I. REQUIREMENTS ...
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...address issues associated with ethics of flu shots, employment hurdles of medical marijuana patients, inequality of women’s compensation and safety hazards of employees. In conclusion, my personal experience with ethical issues at laurel regional hospital is discussed. Introduction: The human resource department is the heart of every healthcare organization. The human resource functions deals with variety of ethical challenges on daily basis. Human resource includes numerous ethical pitfalls that can damage a company’s reputation or financial stability if not kept in consideration. Why is ethics so important in human resource management in healthcare facilities? Basically, ethics provides a set of standards of morality which the doctors, nurses and other healthcare employees have to maintain in the organizations. Hospital’s human resource department...
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...compliance over a 12 month period, NIGHTINGALE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL averaged 86.94% compliance. Audit | Audit Period | Location | Compliance % | Pain Assessment | 12 Months | ED | 70.66% | Pain Assessment | 12 Months | 3E | 93.5% | Pain Assessment | 12 Months | PACU | 96.66% | There were 3 departments audited for Pain Reassessment compliance over a 12 month period, NIGHTINGALE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL averaged 80.415 % compliance. Audit | Audit Period | Location | Compliance % | Pain Reassessment | 12 Months | ED | 54.83% | Pain Reassessment | 12 Months | 3E | 92.916% | Pain Reassessment | 12 Months | PACU | 93.5% | The following are the results of the audit that was completed for use of prohibited abbreviations in an aggregate of ICU, Telemetry, 3E and 4E over a 12 month period: Audit | Audit Period | Abbreviation | Occurrences per 50 opportunities | Prohibited Abbreviations | 12 Months | “cc” | 33.75 | Prohibited Abbreviations | 12 Months | “qd” | 15.916 | Fire Dill History of drills held once per shift per quarter over a 12 month period: Quarter | Shift 1 | Shift 2 | Shift 3 | Compliance Analysis | 1st (Jan-Mar) | √ | √ | | No Fire drills on the 3rd shift | 2nd (Apr-Jun) | √ | √ | √ | 100% | 3rd (Jul-Sept) | √ | √ | | No Fire drills on the 3rd shift | 4th (Oct-Dec) | √ | | √ | No Fire drills on the 2nd shift | Below are the results from audit that was completed for verbal orders authenticated within 48 hours over a 12 month period (monthly...
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...Leadership and Management Executive Summary Nursing burnout is serious and in order to ensure that nurses are taken care of, the administration must implement incentives and policies that will provide nurses with the resources to maintain a healthy work life balance. Burnout accounts for many of the medication errors and patient injuries in healthcare facilities. Most nurses are overwhelmed because of the caseload and longer workdays necessary to complete charting. Many nurses are also disgruntled because of denied vacation requests that cannot be approved because of non-coverage. Research has shown that when employees are happy then there are less errors and injuries in the workplace. It’s ironic that nurses care for patients but they don’t feel as though the healthcare facility cares for them. Many things can be done to boost employee morale which in turn will increase the quality of care that the patients receive. Adequate coverage needs to be address and using temporary staffing is a way to fill chronic vacant positions so that float RN’s are available for PTO requests. Insurance credits and consumer discounts can be used as incentives for those employees that practice healthy living activities. Staff meetings held during work hours, discussion boxes, timeout rooms, and partnerships with massage clinics are all changes that can provide stress relief for nurses. These changes are not too costly for the facility, and in the end, will result in less money spent...
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...care is given by nurses. Nursing-sensitive indicators are factors that rely directly on the nursing care of the patient. Quality nursing care improves patient care and therefore patient outcomes. Nursing-sensitive quality indicators promote patient safety and quality patient care. Since these quality indicators are reflective primarily on bedside care provided by nursing staff it is important that all nursing staff be aware of these indicators and their role in promoting quality patient care. There are specific indicators that could have been taken into account to promote patient care in the example for this task. The patient in this example was in restraints. There should be a restraint policy at this healthcare facility. Promotion of a restraint free environment would be ideal. Education on ways to redirect the patient and promote relaxation might help. Wrapping IV catheters and positioning any tubes, drains, or urinary catheters out of the patient's view may also help. Nurses should also help the patient with toileting on a regular basis. The use of distraction and alarms should also be implemented. When there is staff available a sitter may also help in the prevention of the necessity of restraints. Joint Commission states, “the hospital uses restraint or seclusion only when less restrictive interventions are ineffective,” (CPI, 2009). If restraints are deemed necessary staff should follow the facility’s policy regarding them. Restraints should be removed at...
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...Trends in healthcare are continually evolving and changing, these fluctuations can oftern have massive implications for nursing practice. How we practice as nurses is often dictated by new policy and guidelines which are brought about by the evolving healthcare system. For an issue to be contemporary it has to be occurring in the present and in the sense of nursing it would seem that many issues could be deemed as contemporary due to the ever fluctuating nature of our healthcare service. For the purpose of this assignment I am going to address the issue of pre-operative fasting and the tradition of fasting patients from midnight until surgery the following day. Evidence suggests that this practice is outdated and unnecessary but still the practice occurs on many surgical wards. I aim to explore the reasons why patients are still subjected to unnecessarily long fasting times and how we as nurses can change this outdated practice. I have chosen to look at this area of contemporary nursing because as a student nurse I have had practice experience in both a surgical ward and general theatre. I feel that having had experience in both of these settings I would be able to link theory to practice experience. Fasting patients from midnight before day of has long been a time honoured tradition. The main reason for the nil by mouth rule from midnight has been to ensure an empty stomach at time of anaesthesia. If the patient is not fasted, gastric contents could be inhaled...
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...The Nursing Shortage The history of nurses in our textbook, “Policy and Politics for Nurses and Other Health Professionals”, seems to suggest a deficit in nursing staff since the early 1900’s (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2016). As healthcare has transformed from the late 1800’s to the 2010’s, nursing has had to alter its practice to remain relevant and current with each era. This paper will share insight into the potential causes of the current nursing shortage, offer awareness of how nurses are preparing themselves to work in this setting and suggest methods through legislation to alleviate safety concern produced by limited staffing. Events Leading to the Nursing Shortage Current predictions by the American Healthcare Association (2009)...
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...Intensive Care Unit Assignment By, Barkha Bijlani MBA-HHM (2012-14) 12040141007 Intensive Care Unit Introduction: Timely and efficient management by doctors combined with concerted nursing efforts have revolutionized the management of critically ill patients. With the persistent demographic trend towards an aging population nearing the age of 65 and above, the number of patients requiring critical care will rise but many patients who might have had no chance of survival can now be treated successfully. And during last two decades critical care medicine has undergone rapid changes and emerged as a discipline by itself. Intensive care units (ICU), also called critical care or intensive therapy departments, is highly specified and sophisticated area of a hospital which is specifically designed, staffed, located, furnished and equipped, dedicated to management of critically ill patients whose conditions are life-threatening and need constant, close monitoring and support from equipment and medication to keep normal body functions going. It is a department with dedicated medical, nursing and allied staff. It operates with defined policies; protocols and procedures, having its own quality control, education, training and research programmes. It is emerging as a separate specialty and can no longer be regarded purely as part of anaesthesia, Medicine, surgery or any other speciality. It has to have its own separate team in terms of doctors, nursing personnel and other...
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...------------------------------------------------- Modern Management of Today’s Nursing Homes Connor Watson Sociology of Organizations 12/15/2015 Final Research Paper Introduction The Silver Tsunami is coming, and because of this, there will be more elderly people entering into nursing homes and the available labor force in the United States will decrease. This idea appear may be shocking to anyone reading this, but to me, it is incredibly important information because I want to be an Administrator of a nursing home myself one day. I decided that I wanted to study how these facilities operate, especially since I have not yet done my internship work and decided that this would be an excellent opportunity to take an early look inside the industry. I hope to discover through my research an answer to the question: “how have nursing homes adapted new technologies to minimize the costs and risks of day-to-day operations?”. For my research I used two theoretical frameworks that work together in many aspects. The first framework that I chose was Risk Management. I am interested in how nursing homes prevent risks and what they do in the case of accidents. I would argue that in these facilities, risk factors are everywhere; knowing how they control any situation that has a chance of putting the patient in harm’s way is very telling of how the industry is run. The other framework that I have incorporated is the development of technology in the nursing home. In an effort to...
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...Organizations February 12, 2011 Dr. Margaret Walker Organizational Change Plan III Employees may be one of the hardest stakeholders to agree to change. “Employees resist because they believe the management is mishandling the process” (Bert Spector, 2010, p.). The individuals suffering from the unfair scheduling are ready for this change. They have expressed their unhappiness, and have even limited their availability, making it difficult to have enough staff on hand. By repeatedly emphasizing the importance of employee cooperation and fair scheduling, individuals will believe in the system, and continue to become better so business can remain successful. A work schedule is made to benefit the needs of the business first, and the employee second. A flexible employee allows the company to make schedule changes at the last minute or even pull a double shift if a co-worker calls out. The employees that are not flexible make it difficult to make a schedule to benefit the needs of the business, and he or she is not able to work extra hours. A rotating schedule is the solution to an unfair work schedule. One option a manger has is a rotating schedule, and this will allow each individual to work his or her promised hours. By doing this, he or she does not have to work the same days each week, gives the individual more time to spend with the family or just attend to their personal needs. The advantage of a rotating schedule is it allows more than one person to work on a task, and everyone...
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...Interview of Health Care Leader Kei'Shia C. Bowers, RN NUR/492 July 16, 2012 Janice S. Cochran Interview of Health Care Leader As a nurse who is well-rounded with experience in many areas of the field, I wanted to get a fresh perspective from a health care leader in an area that I do not know much about. I interviewed KM, a current Director of Nursing Services for a Home Healthcare Agency who is preparing the agency to be Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) certified. KM has a triple Master’s Degree and is preparing to complete her Doctorate in pursuit of a Strategic Planning career path. She has been a working nurse since 1974 with humble beginnings as a Nurse Aide. A leader’s task is to use acquired skills to encourage and motivate others to accomplish a specific goal. “The leader is important in forging links—creating connections—among an organization’s members to promote high levels of performance and quality outcomes” (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). Her insight into the field of nursing, nursing leadership and the fields of home healthcare and acute care provides a level of expertise that not very many have the opportunity to seek and acquire knowledge. As healthcare costs continue to rise, the government is seeking ways to cut costs and provide care more affordably. “Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are entities that accept responsibility for both the cost and quality of care provided to a defined population of patients and provide the data...
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...Restricting sleep to 4 hours a night for 5 consecutive nights led to more weight gain for sleep-restricted participants than for control participants, according to results from a large, diverse, in-laboratory assessing sleep's effect on weight, calorie intake, and meal timing. The study was published in the July issue ofSleep. Doctoral candidate Andrea M. Spaeth, MA, from the Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted a study involving 225 healthy adults aged 22 to 50 years at the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Study participants were all nonsmokers whose body mass index (BMI) ranged from 19 to 30 kg/m2 and who did not experience any irregular sleep/wake routines during the 60 days before the study. Researchers monitored the participants for a week at home before the laboratory phase, during which they studied the participants for 12, 14, or 18 consecutive days. They randomly assigned participants to either sleep restriction (SR; n = 198) or control (n = 27). SR participants were 45% women and 59% black, with a mean age of 31.3 years and a mean BMI of 24.8 kg/m2. Control participants were 44% women and 63% black, with mean age of 31.9 years and a mean BMI of 25 kg/m2. SR participants had 2 initial nights of 10 to 12 hours in bed, followed by 5 consecutive nights of 4 hours in bed (from 4 am to 8 am). Control participants had 10 hours in bed (from 10...
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...Sentinel Event At about 12:30 PM on Thursday, September 14th, a sentinel event occurred that involved a potential child abduction. Tina, a 3 year old child, was scheduled for a routine, same-day surgery at Nightingale Community Hospital to have ear tubes put in both ears. Tina was brought to the hospital by her mother, who had recently been divorced from Tina’s biological father; Tina’s mother has full custody of the children, including Tina. After Tina was registered and taken to the pre-op area of the hospital, the pre-op nurse informed Tina’s mother that the actual surgery would take approximately 45 minutes, and then Tina would need to stay in recovery for at least an additional hour. Tina’s mother informed the pre-op nurse that once Tina had gone to the operating room, she would be leaving the facility to run an older sibling on an errand, but she would be back to pick up Tina after she was released from recovery. The mother gave her cell phone number to the pre-op nurse, who wrote the phone number down on a note-pad the nurse carries in her pocket. Tina’s mother asked for the nurse to call her on her cell phone if Tina’s procedure was completed sooner than expected. When Tina was taken into surgery, the mother left the facility to run her errand. After the surgery was completed, Tina was taken to post-op to recover. The recovery nurse paged Tina’s mother, but did not receive a response. Tina was transferred to the Ambulatory Care nurse to prepare for discharge...
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...recurrence would carry a significant chance of a serious adverse outcome.” (http://www.jointcommission.org). The Joint Commission list specific events that are considered reviewable. One of those events is the abduction of a patient On Thursday, September 24th, at approximately 12:30 p. m., a mother arrived to pick up her daughter from the hospital’s outpatient surgery department. The mother left 2 ½ hours earlier to run an errand. When the mother arrived, she was told that the child had been discharged. The child’s mother and father are divorced, and the mother has sole custody of the child. A “code pink” child abduction was called, and local law enforcement notified. The child was found unharmed thirty minutes later at the home of the child’s father. The mother brought the child to the hospital for outpatient surgery that was to take approximately 45 minutes with a period of recovery of one hour. The mother requested that the nurse call her on her phone should the child get out of surgery early, and she left her cell phone number with the nurse. After the mother left, the father came to visit the child. The nurse stated that the child was upset, but when she saw her father, she calmed down so the nurse gave the father the discharge instructions and discharged the child to his care. No charges were filed against the father, however, the CEO of Nightingale Community Hospital assured the mother that there would be a full investigation into the incident, and an action plan...
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