Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing
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To investigate differences in mortality of intensive care unit (ICU) patients according to the ratio between total patient care demands and nurse staffing. ⋯ The findings indicate that not only differences among nurse characteristics, but also differences in patient care demands, are important when investigating the effect of nurse understaffing on mortality of ICU patients. Proper nurse staffing levels should be based on the estimation of total patient acuity, rather than on the absolute number of patients.
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To describe the development and psychometric testing of the Patient Safety Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge Scale (PS-ASK). ⋯ A tool to measure clinicians' attitudes, skills, and knowledge about patient safety might be useful to evaluate nurses and other clinicians during educational preparation and in practice.
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To provide an update on the representational approach to patient education. ⋯ The representational approach to patient education appears to be adequately flexible to guide interventions in different patient care situations, while also sufficiently structured to be replicable and testable.
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To assess the key variables used in research on nurse staffing and patient outcomes from the perspective of an international panel. ⋯ These results provide a snapshot of the state of the science on nurse-staffing and patient-outcomes research as of 2005. The results portray an area of nursing science in evolution and an understanding of the connections between human resource issues and healthcare quality based on both empirical findings and opinion.
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To examine perspectives of Japanese elderly people on advance directives (ADs) and factors related to positive attitudes toward ADs. ⋯ Most Japanese older adults in this study approved of ADs, and family structure was important to the acceptance of designating a proxy. Discussion about end-of-life care and respect for life-sustaining treatment preferences are important decisions, about the end of life.