Nursing

The National Health Service published guidance to help protect staff who work alone and who do not have access to immediate support from colleagues or others. This guidance provides a template from which local employers can develop procedures and systems to protect lone workers. It contains information on how technology can be used to help provide a safer environment and to help nurses feel more confident about their personal safety. The RCN wanted to find out if the situation for nurses working in the community has improved since 2005, their perception of risk, their experiences of assault and abuse, whether technology has been provided, and how incidents are handled.

In this discussion document, the Department of Health and Children identifies key development issues facing nursing and midwifery in the future. This is in order to establish a strong platform for the formulation of a strategic response to these issues. The document contains an insightful analysis of the challenges ahead and identifies a range of possible responses. [from preface]

This report summarizes the findings of AHRQ-funded and other research on the relationship of nurse staffing levels to adverse patient outcomes. This valuable information can be used by decisionmakers to make more informed choices in terms of adjusting nurse staffing levels and increasing nurse recruitment while optimizing quality of care and improving nurse satisfaction. [author’s description]

The purpose and objectives of this study are to examine the extent to which the manager’s span of control influences nurse, patient, and unit outcomes; and investigate which particular leadership style contributes to optimum nurse, patient, and unit outcomes under differing spans of control. [author’s description]

This document is an environmental policy scan of activity in three areas related to physicians, nurses and pharmacists: education and training initiatives; recruitment and retention and work place initiatives; and capacity to do national health human resource planning. [adapted from introduction]

Nurses and midwives face the challenge of embracing new methods of care delivery which will provide a quality service that is truly people-centred. There is growing evidence of the need to link continuing professional development with organisational goals. The construction of career pathways in a healthcare system which is subject to radical and far-reaching change is an issue of growing importance to nurses and midwives. [from executive summary]

The NHS in Scotland is facing unprecedented change and is looking to transform existing models of health care. It also reinforces that improvements in healthcare will be achieved by new and more efficient ways of working, such as using the skills of nurses and allied health
professionals to take on more roles and give patients more choice. This document presents a generic framework to guide the development of new roles. It can be used to assist in the planning process to ensure that roles are needs led, meet governance requirements, are sustainable, as well as ensuring that the development is supported by the whole team thus ensuring its success.

Despite growing evidence in the US, little evidence has been available to evaluate whether internationally, hospitals in which nurses care for fewer patients have better outcomes in terms of patient survival and nurse retention. The objectives of this article are to examine the effects of hospital-wide nurse staffing levels (patient-to-nurse ratios) on patient mortality, failure to rescue (mortality risk for patients with complicated stays) and nurse job dissatisfaction, burnout and nurserated quality of care. [from abstract]

This paper describes the practice of international recruitment of Indian nurses in the model of a business process outsourcing of comprehensive training-cum-recruitment-cum-placement for popular destinations like the United Kingdom and United States through an agency system that has acquired growing intensity in India. [from abstract]

The purpose of this paper is to examine what is known about the nurse workforce and nursing education in China in order to assess the likely potential for nurse migration from China in the future. [from abstract]

This case study provides information on Philippine nurse migration patterns and presents a sending-country perspective on the benefits and costs of this phenomenon. Our aim is to identify strategies that will ensure that international nurse migration is beneficial for both sending and receiving countries. [from abstract]

This paper was commissioned to identify and review reports, documents and data relating to nursing workforce dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa with the objective of analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting key information on nurse migration in the region. It reviews trends and impact of nurse migration derived from previously published work by various groups and reports to the High Level Forum on the millennium development goals on the human resources crisis. [from abstract]

This article intends to provide a contextual analysis of the Caribbean region with respect to forces shaping the current and emerging nursing workforce picture in the region; discuss country-specific case(s) within the Caribbean; and describe the Managed Migration Program as a potential framework for addressing regional and global nurse migration issues. [from abstract]

The objective of this article is to synthesize information about nurse migration in and out of Canada and analyze its role as a policy lever to address the Canadian nursing shortage. [from abstract]

This article synthesizes information about nurse migration into and out of the United Kingdom in the period to 2005, and assesses policy implications. [from abstract]

This article reviews estimates of U.S. nurse supply and demand, documents trends in nurse immigration to the United States and their impact on nursing shortage, and considers strategies for resolving the shortage of nurses in the United States without adversely affecting health care in lower-income countries. [from abstract]

The objective of this article is to look at nurse migration flows in the light of national nursing workforce imbalances, examine factors that encourage or inhibit nurse mobility, and explore the potential benefits of circular migration. [from abstract]

This document introduces a competency-based curriculum for nurses and midwives in Rwanda developed by the Capacity Project.

The aims of these guidelines are to provide information about the concepts and processes essential for quality assurance of basic nursing and midwifery education in the African Region; propose a process and content for evaluating existing basic nursing and midwifery education programs; stimulate ideas for establishing a quality assurance system for basic nursing and midwifery education; guide allocation of human and financial resources in current and future programmes and services; provide well-defined international and regional standards of education. [from introduction]

The issues surrounding nursing shortages and global nurse migration are inextricably linked. The shortage of practicing nurses worldwide has led to aggressive recruiting by healthcare employers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Foreign-educated healthcare professionals represent more than a quarter of the medical and nursing workforces of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. [author’s description]

When GHARP set out to recruit new service providers [for preventing mother-to-child transmission], it faced a dilemma. Due to the limited supply of health workers in Guyana, the project needed to avoid recruiting health care providers already working for the MOH. Hiring existing health workers away from their jobs would simple reshuffle the distribution of health workers, rather than add new ones. To address the problem, GHARP staff decided to recruit retired nurses to fill the positions. [from author’s description]

Both financial and nonfinancial factors influenced the tenure and job satisfaction of nurses at public maternity services in South Africa. Surveys suggest that strong management and fully equipped facilities could help redress staff turnover. [author’s description]

The objective [of this report is] to describe the development, initial findings, and implications of a national nursing workforce database system in Kenya. [from abstract]

The story of the international nurse in the U.S. workforce is generally one of perserverance - not only in obtaining a visa and a state license, but in adjusting to living and working in the United States. [author’s description]

South Africa has a serious shortage of human and financial resources to provide primary healthcare services especially in the historically under-served areas. It is a tedious task to carry out healthcare delivery for the masses without rationalizing human resources in the form of re-allocation and re-deployment of healthcare personnel. This study aimed to establish the level of adequacy and efficiency of nursing staff in the former Transkei region. The study was carried out in the child and family welfare clinic of the Umtata General Hospital. [from abstract]

Nurses are falling ill, incurring workplace injuries, and suffering disabilities from exposure to workplace hazards. As a result, the global community is losing critical members of the health care team, compounding the already existing nurse staffing crisis and adversely affecting the health and well-being of the world’s population. Yet, despite the evidence of broad support for health and safety programmes, nurses worldwide continue to be exposed to serious and preventable work place hazards. [from introduction]

Credentialing is a means of assuring quality and protecting the public by confirming that individuals, programmes, institutions or products meet agreed standards. Credentialing is becoming increasingly important as health systems strive to address issues of public safety and quality services. [author’s description]

This report presents the findings of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) directed research on the topic of nurse-physician relationships, and includes recommendations arising from the in depth literature review conducted and which are directed toward the Research Unit and Nursing Secretariat, at the MOHLTC.

Policy makers and hospital administrators are seeking evidence to support nursing staffing decisions that includes both the volume and mix of nurses required to provide efficient and effective care. The principal objective of this study was to examine the interrelationships between variables thought to influence patient, nurse, and system outcomes. The results provide quality, evidence-based standards for adjusted ranges of nursing productivity/utilization and for staffing levels for patients receiving cardiac and cardiovascular nursing care. [from executive summary]

This paper begins by clarifying the terms shortage and underserviced. Provincial and federal programs for underserviced areas in Ontario are then described and considered in terms of their relevance to nursing. A discussion of the issues associated with policies addressing shortage and underserviced areas follows. The paper concludes with recommendations for change. The importance of making funding decisions based on a clear understanding of relevant concepts and models is emphasized. [introduction]