Nursing

The United States has the largest professional nurse workforce in the world but does not produce enough nurses to meet its growing demand. The U.S. is now the world’s major importer of nurses, but the shortage is too large to be solved by recruitment abroad without depleting world nursing resources. The national shortage could be largely addressed by investments in expanding nursing school capacity. [adapted from summary]

Research has identified that skilled nurses working in rural and remote locations are crucial for the provision of maternity care to rural parturient women. This study considered the experiences of rural nurses and their contributions to maternity care in rural and remote settings and in the small towns where women might be referred for care surrounding childbirth. [from introduction]

Rural nurses describe the nature of their practice as being embedded in working as a team where belonging is central to the success of the team and the individual nurse. As a result they form close professional and personal ties. The challenge for nursing students is to develop a sense of belonging to the rural hospital team so that preceptorship is successful. The objective of this article is to describe the cultural theme of a sense of belonging that nursing students develop during a rural hospital preceptorship. [adapted from abstract]

The Voluntary Code of Ethical Conduct for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Nurses to the United States reflects the mutual recognition of stakeholder interests relevant to the recruitment of foreign educated nurses. It is based on an acknowledgement of the rights of individuals to migrate, as well as an understanding that the legitimate interests and responsibilities of nurses, source countries, and employers in the destination country may conflict.

This article reports on the findings of a study into enrolled nurse (EN) to registered nurse (RN) transition in South Australian rural settings. Rural RNs are required to be multi-skilled generalists capable of providing a wide range of nursing services to a diverse range of clients. This frequently occurs in situations without medical or specialist assistance. The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the EN to RN transition process within this unique context. [from abstract]

Preparing nurse graduates for practice is challenging because of the diversity of skills expected of them. The objective of this study is to identify the attributes a rural community expect in new graduate nurses in order for them to provide quality care. [from abstract]

This article focuses on professional nurses in a study of patterns of planning, recruitment, training and task allocation associated with an expanding antiretroviral program in the districts of Free State. [from abstract]

Initial nursing or midwifery education prepares professionals for the workforce thus there is a need for programmes to be of a high quality. The development of global standards for initial nursing and midwifery education identifies the essential, critical components of education. [from author]

During the 1990s in Kenya, nurse midwives, a new group of private-sector service providers, were licensed to operate private clinics close to communities. The private nurse midwives operate private clinics, nursing and maternity homes primarily in densely populated peri-urban areas, rural trading centers and towns. The networks described in this report emerged out of the need for a sustainable supervision system and a continuing education program for the private nurse midwives. [from introduction]

This paper examines the employment preferences of public sector registered nurses working in Malawi and identifies the range and relative importance of the factors that affect their motivation. The research was designed in the light of the Malawi government’s programme to address the shortage of health workers, which is based on salary top-ups as a means of increasing employee motivation and reducing high rates of attrition. This policy has been adopted despite relatively little quantitative exploration into the employment preferences of health workers in developing countries.

This material looks in detail at the preparation of a Nursing Act and is designed to offer guidance on the process of turning policy change in nursing into meaningful and effective legislation. This document has been prepared primarily to assist countries/jurisdictions who are either preparing legislation relating to nursing for the first time, or revising their existing legislation. It is intended to be used by nursing professionals who may not be familiar with the process of making or changing legislation.

The International Nurses Day Kit celebrates and illuminates the nursing role in primary health care. It is for nurses, planners, policy makers, educators, managers, regulators, researchers, national nurses associations and any other stakeholder committed to delivering quality care and serving communities through primary health care. The report analyse the evolution of primary health care, articulates nursing roles, highlights many examples of nurses delivering primary health care and provides a glimpse into the future. [adapted from introduction]

This presentation was given at the First Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala. It outlines HRH in the eastern Mediterranean region, trends in international nurse migration, and the Lebanese context. [adapted from author]

This study explores the views of nursing students in Uganda to assess their views on professional practice options and their intentions to migrate to wealthier countries. The surveys show that most students would like to work outside of Uganda. The authors conclude that nursing schools may want to recruit students desiring work in rural areas or public practice to lead to a more stable workforce in Uganda. [adapted from author]

Little is known about the impact of implementing nursing-oriented best practice guidelines on the delivery of patient care in either hospital or community settings. The results of this study indicate that implementation of nursing best practice guidelines can result in improved practice and patient outcomes in some settings. [adapted from author]

The purpose of the study was to examine the association between the health workforce, particularly the nursing workforce, and the achievement of the HIV/AIDS-related Millenium Development Goals, taking into account other factors known to influence health status, such as socioeconomic indicators.

The goal of this study was to develop and test a way to establish, monitor, and predict the need for nursing services by using the health needs of the population. This study explored the relationship between the health needs of Ontarians, their use of community and hospital nursing services, and variations in outcomes. The findings suggest that decisions about the deployment of nursing resources are associated with differences in outcomes. [adapted from author]

These yearly summary reports provide information on nurse wages and the comparitive buying power of these wages in select countries in North America, Western Europe and Japan. The data are results from a survey of 10 National Nurses’ Associations. [from introduction]

Capacity management systems create insight into required resources like staff and equipment. For inpatient hospital care, capacity management requires information on beds and nursing staff capacity, on a daily as well as annual basis. This paper presents a comprehensive capacity model that gives insight into required nursing staff capacity and opportunities to improve capacity utilization on a ward level. [from abstract]

Although adequate knowledge about HIV infection and effective antitransmission measures, such as taking universal precautions in the handling of blood and other body fluids, are important factors in minimizing the risk of HIV transmission in the healthcare setting, little has been reported on the knowledge of nurses with regard to HIV infection and their attitude toward patients with AIDS in Iran. The aim of the present study was to assess these matters. [author’s description]

One major challenge for all countries is to establish workforce planning mechanisms that effectively meet the demands for health care and provide workforce stability. However, few nations have developed strategic plans for meeting nursing resource requirements that effectively address supply and demand. Instead, many developed countries choose to implement short term policy levers such as increased reliance on immigration, sometimes to the detriment of developing countries.

The nurse is the single most important frontline health worker. Without nurses the clinics, community health centres and hospitals cannot function. It is therefore critical that nurse education and the supply of nurses form an integral part of transformation of health services in South Africa. According to the Department of Health there is a need to significantly increase the production of all categories of nurses in order to fulfil the requirements of South Africa. Attracting new recruits to the profession is an integral part of increasing production. It is for this reason that a study was undertaken to assess the attitudes of school leavers towards taking up nursing as a profession, and the reasons for these attitudes.

Nurses provide the bulk of primary care services in South Africa. Post-apartheid health legislation envisions the provision of comprehensive primary services at all public clinics, which implies the need for a cadre of primary care nurses able to render such services. The objective of this study was to identify core competencies of clinic nurses and develop an evaluation tool for primary care nursing in South Africa. [from abstract]

Mental health care is an essential but often forgotten component of health care. Nurses are core health-care providers and they need to be able to contribute effectively to mental health care. [This document] presents results of a global survey on the availability, education, training and role of nurses in mental health care. [from foreword]

This paper discusses a collaborative effort between two universities in Sri Lanka and Canada to create a distance education program to train nurses in Sri Lanka.

This report summarizes the speeches and discussions from the Practice to Policy: Global Perspectives in Nursing conference in 2006. Both healthcare professionals and th system are faced with a number of ongoing challenges, which may require a shift in organizational policy and can affect the way nurses practice. Nurses are and integral part of the healthcare system and play a key role in influencing these changes. Nurses’ voices need to be heard, and they must be able to articulate what they do.

Australian remote area nurses (RANs) are specialist advanced practice nurses. They work in unique, challenging and sometimes dangerous environments to provide a diverse range of healthcare services to remote and predominantly Aboriginal communities. There is an emerging skills gap in the remote nursing workforce as experienced and qualified RANs leave this demanding practice. There is a shortage of new nurses interested in working in these areas, and many of those who enter remote practice leave after a short time. Distance management was examined in order to gain a better understanding of its effects on the retention of RANs. Distance management in this context occurs when the health service’s line management team is located geographically distant from the workplace they are managing. [introduction]

During a labor shortage, employment-based benefits can be used to recruit and retain workers. This paper provides data on the availability of benefits to registered nurses (RNs), reports on how health care leaders are approaching the provision of employment-based benefits for nurses, and considers what nurses have to say in focus groups about benefits. Because of the ongoing nurse shortage, many employers are trying to enhance the benefits they offer to support recruitment and retention efforts.

The paper reports on a survey of recently arrived international nurses working in London, to assess their demographic profile, motivations, experiences and career plans. [from abstract]

This good practice guide is intended as a practical guide for trust boards and managers to help them to use temporary nursing staff effectively. The guide comprises a narrative of the salient points in the use and management of temporary nursing staff and includes a number of good practice checklists. It also provides case studies drawn from study visits and the work of the Department of Health’s National Agency Staffing Project. [from preface]