Recent Articles
Let’s talk: Twittering nurses connect us all
Twitter, the social networking site that allows users to keep friends, family, and colleagues up-to-date on everything that is happening in their lives, is taking the world by storm. Healthcare providers are commenting on surgeries in real time, nurses are reaching out for experts on the latest clinical care best practices, and there is a constant flow of information and advice.
The information you can share is never ending and Twitter is starting to become a useful tool in the nursing world. Here are some ways nurses and nurse managers are using Twitter:
Time management tips for beating stress
Everything comes down to time management. You have to make sure there is enough time for your job, your significant other, your family, your friends, taking the kids to soccer practice and ballet lessons, the dog has to go to the vet, and somewhere in between all of that you are supposed to breathe and have time for yourself. In all this commotion, it can be hard to remain calm and stress free, especially for busy nurse managers struggling to keep track of other staff members and daily tasks. Exhausting!
Here are some helpful tips to remember while trying to manage your time and remain stress free:
Nurses and their relationship with patients
As writers and editors for healthcare, there is a great deal of time spent writing about the realities of being a nurse today. But sometimes, our personal and professional lives cross paths and we get to experience the realities of nursing today from a firsthand perspective.
Recently, my personal and professional life intersected when I spent the day in and out of the hospital, interacting with nurses and physicians on different levels than I had expected.
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Keeping new graduate nurses happy and on the job
Within the first two years of becoming a nurse, more than 60% of nurses end up leaving their first job. In this economy, nurse managers have to find ways to keep morale up and nurses in their positions. To make the transition between the classroom and hospital setting easier, many facilities are turning to residency programs.
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Nurses, let your voice be heard and vote today!
New Jersey licensed nurses are being asked by the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute and the Monmouth University Polling Institute with the cooperation of the Institute for Nursing, to register their opinions on doctors to help select the state’s best physicians.
Nurses were invited to participate in the program, “Nurses’ Choice”, through the quarterly Institute for Nursing newsletter, which is distributed, free of charge, to every licensed nurse in the state of New Jersey. Andrea Aughenbaugh, president of the New Jersey State Nurses Association, tells the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, “We believe that the data provided by nurses on the best doctors will provide New Jersey healthcare consumers with a new and trusted source for the best practicing physicians.”
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Recognize the Everyday Stuff Too!
Quint Studer, a well known healthcare leader who has led hospitals to breakthrough results, is a huge proponent of consistent and frequent employee recognition. One point Studer repeatedly makes in his publications is that many leaders never grasp hold of how vital recognitio
n really is to employee morale.
Here is a sampling of Studer’s argument for giving compliments to staff, from Results That Last (2008): “So why don’t we give more compliments? For one thing, you’ve got to really watch for what someone is doing right and most of us haven’t mastered that art … leaders need to develop the skill sets for noticing incremental improvement because rewarded and recognized behavior gets repeated.” (p. 217).
Sometimes it helps us recognize best practice if we examine the flip side, what Studer calls “myths.” This is Studer’s list of common myths and excuses often cited for not giving staff compliments. Maybe you’ve heard some of them:
- “If I compliment them too much, they’ll get a big head”
- “If I tell them they’ve done a good job, they’ll get complacent”
- “I don’t need any compliments – why should they?”
- “They should just be happy with a day’s work for a day’s pay – in fact, they should be grateful to have a job at all!”
- “I can give out only so many compliments in a week.”
- “This is hokey”
- (And my all-time favorite) “That’s just fluff-stuff”
Studer says it’s okay if we feel uncomfortable as we begin to recognize and compliment staff. Like the Nike slogan says, Just Do It … and know that it will feel more natural with time. Remember, recognized behavior gets repeated.
Studer, Q. (2008). Results That Last. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Physicians to share notes with patients
As more hospitals use electronic medical records, a new question has arisen: should patients be allowed to view their physicians’ notes and comments online? Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center believes so. Beth Israel has begun a project called “open notes” that will allow 25,000 to 35,000 patients to read their physicians’ notes online for a year as part of their online medical record. The project will include 100 physicians at the hospital and two other sites.
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Portrayals of nurses in television series on the rise
As medical dramas such as Grey’s Anatomy, ER, and HOUSE conclude for the season, a new breed of medical programs are beginning to fill their slots on television. For years, the public has witnessed love affairs, drama, and cliff hangers on existing medical shows, giving the public a false understanding of what nurses really do. These series “make people think that nursing doesn’t take much skill, and that nursing is mostly about getting stuff for physicians,” says Sandy Summers, author of Saving Lives: Why the Media’s Portrayal of Nurses Puts Us All At Risk, in the St. Petersburg Times.
Remind nurses to watch for CAUTI risk factors
Healthcare facilities are placing ever more attention on reducing incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has placed them on the non-pay list as preventable hospital-acquired conditions.
Encouraging nurses to recognize patients who are at risk of developing CAUTIs can help your prevention efforts. The following populations have increased risk factors for developing CAUTIs:
- Gender (e.g., women are more likely to have UTIs than men)
- Advanced age
- History of urinary tract problems (e.g., enlarged prostate or urologic surgery)
- Neurologic conditions (e.g., spinal cord injury) causing neurogenic bladder problems
- Previous UTIs
- Previous and/or current abnormal voiding patterns
- Current catheter history
- Incontinence
- Comorbid conditions such as diabetes
- Immunosuppression
What other strategies are you using to combat CAUTIs?
Farmers markets becoming growing trend at hospitals
Fast food establishments have come to a halt at several hospitals in the U.S. Farmers markets, on the other hand, are in full bloom.
Kaiser Permanente, the biggest not-for-profit health system in the country, is offering 30 farmers markets at its organizations in Western states such as California, Washington, and Oregon. The markets, which take place in the hospital parking lots, allow patients, families, and employees to purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables. [more]
