Nursing leadership (Toronto, Ont.)
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The ICU at London Health Sciences Centre-University Hospital (LHSC-UH) is a 40-bed critical care unit that contains two separate supply rooms that carry all the essential materials necessary for patient care. However, considering the patient acuity in critical care, it is vital that this equipment is made more accessible for practitioners at the bedside. Therefore, nurse servers or bedside supply cabinets are present in each of the patient rooms. While these servers provide timely access to the supplies essential for nursing care, they are also a huge source of waste. When patients who are identified as having antibiotic-resistant organisms (AROs) are discharged, numerous unused items are discarded for infection control purposes. ⋯ Increasing awareness of wasteful stocking practices facilitated the engagement of this CQI project. New stocking practices have greatly reduced waste and increased service efficiencies while maintaining the integrity of optimal patient care.
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The evaluation of the Research to Action project was conducted using an Outcome Mapping (OM) methodology (Earl et al. 2001) with a mixed-methods, repeat survey (before/after) study design. This design uses concurrent measurement of process and outcome indicators at baseline and follow-up. The RTA project proved effective at improving work environments and thereby promoting the retention and recruitment of nurses. ⋯ The pilot projects, led by their own steering committees, focused on various aspects of nursing practice identified as particularly relevant to each jurisdiction, with a specific emphasis on improving the work life of nurses and transforming research knowledge into practice. The goals of the RTA initiative were to promote high-quality workplace environments, improve the retention and recruitment of nurses (RNs and LPNs), enhance the quality of patient care and engage stakeholders in collaborative partnerships. The first project began in May 2009 and the last project was completed in March 2011.
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Nurs Leadersh (Tor Ont) · Mar 2012
Ontario: linking nursing outcomes, workload and staffing decisions in the workplace: the Dashboard Project.
Research shows that nurses want to provide more input into assessing patient acuity, changes in patient needs and staffing requirements. The Dashboard Project involved the further development and application of an electronic monitoring tool that offers a single source of nursing, patient and organizational information. It is designed to help inform nurse staffing decisions within a hospital setting. ⋯ Many of the indicators that had originally been incorporated were refined and will continue to be revised based on suggestions from project participants and further testing across HHS. Participants suggested the need for additional data, such as the time that nurses are off the unit (for code blue response, patient transfers and accompanying patients for tests); internal transfers/bed moves to accommodate patient-specific issues and particularly to address infection control issues; deaths and specific unit-centred data in addition to the generic indicators. The collaborative nature of the project enabled staff nurses and management to work together on a matter of high importance to both, providing valuable recommendations for shared nursing and interprofessional planning, further Dashboard development and project management.