Author Archive for Sarah Kearns
Sarah is an Editorial Assistant in the patient safety group at HCPro, Inc. She contributes to two monthly newsletters; Briefings on the Joint Commission and Briefings on Patient Safety, and manages four e-zines; Accreditation Connection, AHAP Staff Challenge, Nurse Manager Weekly, and Healthcare Training Weekly. She also helps research new products for the patient safety and nursing market. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2008 where she earned her bachelor's degree in English.
Apple’s iTouch and iPhones connect nurses in Florida hospital
On any given day at Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System in Florida, the overhead page was going off every three minutes. And when a patient is in pain and trying to recover, that can be an issue.
So Sarasota Memorial brought peace and quiet—along with improved healthcare—to its hospital by supplying Apple’s iTouch to its nurses.
With help from Voalte, a startup developing point-of-care communications company that uses mobile technology, Sarasota began a 60-day pilot program in June where 25 iPod Touches were given to nurses on one specific floor with the goal of reducing the amount of noise and inefficiency involved in paging.
The iTouches reduced the number of pages in eight hours from 172 to 38, while the devices received an average of 4,000 messages a day—along with positive comments from the patients on the floor. [more]
Announcing Patient Safety Monitor!
Have you ever needed to look up a hospital regulation in a neighboring state and not known where to look? Or have you needed to double check your state’s current regulation on patient identification, and had no time to go searching for the information? Well look no further!
HCPro launched its newest product earlier this week: Patient Safety Monitor, an online resource for your patient safety needs. The main feature is the Crosswalk, which organizes many patient safety-related regulations by what is required by The Joint Commission, CMS, and all 50 states. The product also features the monthly newsletter Briefings on Patient Safety, a tools library, access to our popular “Patient Safety Talk” listserv, and weekly news alert.
The Patient Safety Monitor blog is actually a part of the larger Patient Safety Monitor product, and you’ll now notice a link back to the home page in the “links” section in the righthand column of the blog. If you’re already a subscriber of Briefings on Patient Safety, you now have access to Patient Safety Monitor as part of your subscription.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Patient Safety Monitor, be sure to check out the demo. You can also sign up for a free 7-day trial.
California nurses union calls off strike about H1N1
Last week, the California Nurses Union (CNU/NNOC) reached a dramatic settlement that prevented a nurse strike and will establish a national standard on containing the spread of pandemics such as H1N1, also known as the “swine flu.”
Originally set to strike on October 30—over the issue of protecting nurses from the H1N1 virus—CNU/NNOC called off the strike on Tuesday, October 27. The strike would have involved more than 13,000 registered nurses in 32 hospitals in the San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) hospitals in California and Nevada.
The new agreement calls for the creation of a systemwide task force where CNA/NNOC RNs and hospital representatives will focus on the declaration of pandemic emergencies with the help of facility infection control teams. The task force will monitor the full implementation of federal, state, and local guidelines. They will also set up standards regarding checking the availability of proper safety equipment, communication and training policies for all hospital personnel, and consideration of off-site emergency triage and treatment.
Under the settlement, all CHW facilities need an employer agreement to comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, along with those rules set in the CNA/NNOC contract. All CHW nurses will be provided the proper equipment and attire to prevent further spread of any virus, and facilities will provide each staff member with the proper training and information on communicable diseases to which they may have been exposed.
Forty-eight states have now reported widespread flu activity, and the death toll from the H1N1 virus in the United States has climbed to more than 1,000 cases, including more than 100 children. Thirty million doses of the vaccine have gone out to health departments, physician’s offices, and other providers, with hopes of delivering 120 million in the near future.
Does your facility provide staff members with education about pandemics? Do you think other states will follow California’s example? What are ways your facility helps prevent the spread of H1N1 virus?
To vaccine or not! The results are in…
In a recent poll question on StrategiesForNurseManages.com and StressedOutNurses.com readers were asked whether they were going to get an H1N1 vaccination.
The results are in, and 55% of SFNM.com readers said they planned to get the vaccine, as opposed to 45% who said they would not.
On the StressedOutNurses Web site, 52% of readers said they would be getting the vaccine, while 18% said they had not yet decided.
What do you plan to do? Post your comment and tell us if you’ve received your H1N1 vaccine or not!
Let your voice be heard on the future of nursing
The Initiative on the Future of Nursing was launched at the beginning of 2009 by the Institute of Medicine, in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The committee’s aim is to produce a report in 2010 about how nursing can evolve to fit the ever-changing healthcare system, and they are asking nurses from around the country to voice their opinions on the future of nursing.
Over the next few months, the committee will examine, debate, and review evidence submitted from around the country in an effort to develop a blueprint for change. The nursing community is being asked to submit innovations/models and barriers/opportunities for the committee to review.
To submit suggestions and comments to the committee, visit www.iom.edu/nursing or e-mail nursing@nas.edu.
Officially, the committee will review the following areas:
- Reconceptualizing the role of nurses
- Expanding nursing faculty, increasing the capacity of nursing schools, and redesigning nursing education
- Care delivery and health professional education
- Attracting and retaining well-prepared nurses [more]
H1N1 flu conditions have nurses’ union ready to strike
The California Nurses Association (CNA) announced on Monday that its members may participate in a one-day strike on October 30 due to concerns regarding healthcare organizations’ inadequate safety precautions regarding the H1N1 pandemic. The strike would involve more than 16,000 registered nurses at more than 30 hospitals, targeting three large California hospital chains.
The CNA says nurses are concerned about safety preparations to protect patients, families, and healthcare workers during an H1N1 pandemic. Specific areas of concern include isolating patients with symptoms to prevent contagion and adequate supplies of fit-tested N95 respirators.
The CNA also wants California hospitals to adopt guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They say this would ensure that all hospitals in the California area meet the highest safety measures demanded and that they be uniform throughout the state.
Nurse liability: Keeping you and your staff educated and aware
As a nurse manager, you have many legal concerns. Not only must you be concerned with your own liability, but you must also stay alert about the liability risks of the nurses working under your supervision.
Although some liability risks are universal to all nursing practice areas, certain clinical settings also generate liability risks. As the nurse manager, being knowledgeable and educating your staff about universal liability risks and those specific to a practice area will increase the quality of care provided and reduce liability.
Some universal liability risks include the following:
- Failure to communicate patient’s condition to other healthcare professionals
- While a patient is hospitalized, his/her condition must be monitored continually and evaluated. Pertinent physical findings must be reported promptly to the healthcare professionals involved in the patient’s care. [more]
Interactive Web site helps determine when flu symptoms are serious and when to seek help
Trying to decide whether that cough and on and off fever is something you should go see your doctor about? Debating to wait in the crowded Emergency Room for hours to see if you have swine flu? Well, what if you could determine the severity of your symptoms and whether a visit to the doctor is necessary, without ever leaving the comfort of your own home.
Microsoft has launched an interactive Web site; H1N1 Response Center, that will help determine just that. Using an assessment tool licensed by Emory University, the Web site aims to help consumers’ determine whether or not their symptoms are consistent with the H1N1 virus and if they should seek medical help. [more]
Mandatory H1N1 flu vaccination causes controversy
The first doses of the H1N1 vaccination have officially arrived in the United States and a nurse was one of the first to receive the vaccine. Holly Smith is a pediatric nurse at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, in Memphis, TN, and mother of two children. Smith reported that she chose to be vaccinated for the sake of her kids, as well as for the children she works with.
Le Bonheur has seen numerous cases of H1N1 since late August and received 100 doses of nasal spray vaccine. The vaccines were given to healthcare workers in an outdoor tent set up to treat children with flu symptoms and keep them separate from other patients.
Public health authorities in 21 other states and four large cities, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, have been shipped the swine flu vaccination, roughly totaling 600,000 doses.
As vaccines are shipped around the country, many hospitals, university health systems, and even some states are requiring that all healthcare workers receive the H1N1 flu vaccine, or either spend the flu season wearing a mask or risk losing their job.
Different ways peers are improving nurse satisfaction
The July 28 blog post discussing ways to boost nurse morale in a time of uncertainty has been one of the most popular recent topics. The post provided quick and helpful hints on no- or low-cost ways to boost the morale of nurses in your organizations. The post also generated a lot of discussion and many readers shared their own tips and strategies about what they have been trying.
Here are some of the highlights of the suggestions:
- Caught red handed campaign: Recognize staff members who have been “caught” doing their job well.
- Gift cards: Present a gift card to acknowledge a nurse who has gone out of his or her way to be an excellent nurse.
- Strive for five: Leave small questionnaires in plain sight of patients, visitors, and hospital staff members and ask everyone to fill them out. The person can comment on a particular staff member doing an excellent job, similar to a comment card at a restaurant. Any staff member receiving a good comment earns $10 on the next pay check.
- Hand written thank-you cards: Thank-you cards are always a great thing, but hand written ones can be the best. Instead of sending an email about a job well done to a staff member, write a thank-you card and leave it in their locker. After a tough shift, whether it’s night call or day call, the card will surely bring a smile to their face.
- The stupid nice game: Be over-the-top nice to everyone and overly complimentary to everyone at the hospital. Laughter is contagious, and sometimes taking the compliment to the next level, or having staff members realize how over the top you are being, could make their day that much better.
What are you doing at your organization to help boost staff members’ morale?
