Time for renewal

During hard economic times, college health professionals must urge their supervisors and administrators to help them maintain or find new funding so that they can attend regional and national conferences of the American College Health Association. In this viewpoint, a nurse from a small college shares the various sources of funding she discovered to enable her to attend regional and national conference of the American College Health Association that saved her from burnout and also motivated her to strive for changes through setting goals.

Treinamento e desenvolvimento de pessoal de enfermagem: um modelo de planilha de custos

Este artigo apresenta um modelo de planilha de composição de custos para programas de treinamento e desenvolvimento de pessoal em uma organização hospitalar. Para sua elaboração foram considerados os elementos relevantes na composição do custo total dos programas de treinamento. A planilha proposta está dividida em quatro partes: Item 1 - dados relativos aos programas de treinamento; Item 2 - custos diretos desses programas; Item 3 - custos indiretos (estrutura do CEC) e Item 4 - total dos custos. A utilização de planilhas de custos auxiliam no conhecimento e gerenciamento dos mesmos por parte dos enfermeiros, gerentes de unidades. No entanto, para sua aplicação, devem ser revistos os custos que serão agregados, conforme especificidade de cada serviço.

Implementing local pay systems in nursing and midwifery

BACKGROUND

The paper is based on a case study, which was part of a Department of Health commissioned research study covering 10 National Health Service (NHS) trusts in England that had adopted a range of approaches to the employment terms and conditions of nurses, midwives, and other non-medical staff, as the precursor to evaluating Agenda for Change, the modernized pay system for the NHS.

AIM

The aim of this paper is to discuss a case study of the effects of changing nurses' pay progression.

METHODS

Fieldwork took place in 2000, and included interviews with managers, union representatives and other staff, and analysis of internal documents.

FINDINGS

Findings discussed include the constraints on managers when devising a new pay system, the time and detailed work needed and the challenges of assessing their effects (particularly in relation to patient care). Although the latter are difficult to assess, staff involved in the scheme reported benefits from the closer focus on competences which resulted from the scheme.

CONCLUSIONS

The effects of changes to pay schemes are difficult to assess, and the evaluation of the proposed national scheme (Agenda for Change) will be challenging.

Nurse productivity measures for the 21st century

The concept and measurement of nurses' productivity ranges from traditional economic interpretation of nurses as labor costs to human capital theory interpretation of nurses as intellectual capital assets.

Salary Survey 2004. It's time to check your role's return on investment

Nursing Management's sixth annual salary survey offers nationwide data on nurse leaders' earnings and provides insight into compensation issues and retention incentives.

Imported care: recruiting foreign nurses to U.S. health care facilities

As U.S. health care facilities struggle to fill current registered nurse staffing vacancies, a more critical nurse undersupply is predicted over the next twenty years. In response, many institutions are doubling their efforts to attract and retain nurses. To that end, foreign nurses are increasingly being sought, creating a lucrative business for new recruiting agencies both at home and abroad. This paper examines past and current foreign nurse use as a response to nurse shortages and its implications for domestic and global nurse workforce policies.

TIELLE Plus fluid handling capacity can lead to cost savings

The cost of care plays an increasing role in treatment decisions. As the costs of wound care are largely driven by the costs associated with nurse visits to change patients' dressings, attempts to reduce the number of dressings used and thus the frequency of nurse visits should be welcomed. The acquisition cost of the dressing alone is a poor indicator of the total cost of care. Other factors--especially factors influencing the frequency of nurse visits, such as wear time--need to be considered when making treatment and formulary decisions. This paper assesses the theoretical wear time of a number of dressings based on laboratory data on their fluid-handling capacities. The monthly treatment cost associated with each dressing is based on the theoretical wear time. The results suggest that the superior fluid-handling capacity of TIELLE Plus hydropolymer adhesive dressing can reduce the costs associated with wound care.

The nursing shortage: part way down the slippery slope

The shortage of nurses has reached a crisis point for health care services. A number of issues including the effects of economic rationalism, generational differences, working conditions and nurse education are revisited in a discussion that aims to refuel the debate on workplace reform for nurses. Economic rationalism has altered the healthcare service landscape. Attempts to balance service delivery with workforce resources have led to possibly unforeseen changes. Highly skilled nurses are required in acute services, however resource allocation may prevent this. The nursing workforce is aging although the current nursing workforce consists of three generations: baby boomers, generation X and generation Y. There are significant ideological and work organisational differences between these generations leading to possible conflict between nurses. The pool of available nurses to fill employment vacancies is finite. Attracting overseas nurses to fill nurse vacancies will leave vacancies elsewhere and is not a long-term solution to the nursing shortage. Moreover, if the workplace has not addressed the reasons why nurses have left the health care workplace then there is a real danger of losing those recently attracted back into the workplace. Working conditions are a critical element within the retention puzzle. Job satisfaction dimensions such as autonomy and professional relationships are key components for improving working conditions. The final issue explored is the question of whether the tertiary education system is the most appropriate place in which to develop and educate nurses. It is suggested that workplace reforms should be the target of retention strategies rather than changes in the educational process of nursing.