Nurse staffing models in acute care: A descriptive study

American Psychiatric Nurses Association Position: Staffing Inpatient Psychiatric Units

OBJECTIVE

An American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) task force reviewed current staffing research to revise and update the 2011 APNA "Staffing inpatient psychiatric units" position paper and provide recommendations to the APNA Board of Directors on how psychiatric mental health (PMH) nurses might champion the staffing needs of inpatient psychiatric units.

METHODS

Current research on staffing and nursing practice in inpatient psychiatric units was reviewed as well as variables believed to influence staffing and nursing practice, such as consumer needs and workplace culture. Since current nurse staffing principles emphasize nursing value and how that value is connected to outcomes, the literature search included a focus on staffing and related patient outcomes.

RESULTS

PMH nurses are critical to the safety and quality of care in inpatient psychiatric units. However, there are little existing data on the relationship between staffing levels and even common adverse events such as staff injury and restraint of patients. Furthermore, there is scant research conducted on inpatient psychiatric units that informs optimal staffing models or establishes links between staffing and patient outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Consistent with current evidence, the universal use of a single method or model of determining staffing needs (e.g., nursing hours per, case mix index, or mandatory ratios) is not recommended. PMH nurses should champion systematic evaluation of staffing on their inpatient units against select patient, nurse, and system outcomes. A data repository of PMH nurse-sensitive outcomes is necessary to benchmark unit performance and staffing.

Implementation of Lean Six Sigma in Improving Competitive Advantage through Patient Satisfaction and Nurse Resources to Face the Covid-19 Pandemic at USU Medan Hospital

BACKGROUND: Human resources (HR) are very important in a field, as well as hospitals which are service providers. Once the importance of HR to a development process, so it can be concluded that HR are the core of the development of an agency. The right strategy is needed to find what should be the priority of improvement so that the quality of service can be provided optimally. AIM: One way that can be used is the application of lean six sigma. The application of the Lean six sigma concept can be done in the service and manufacturing industries. One of the service industries that is interesting to apply the Lean six sigma concept is health services through hospitals. METHODS: This concept uses five stages, namely, define (problem identification), measure (measurement of quality performance), analyze (analyze the causes of defects), improvement (make improvement efforts to improve quality), and control or control. The method used in this research is action research with univariate and bivariate analysis. RESULTS: The results of the application of the lean six sigma concept indicate that there are problems in nursing services where nurse services should be a competitive value or competitive advantage from Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) Hospital in accordance with the hospital’s motto. After the analysis, it was found that there was an influence between rewards on the performance of nurses. CONCLUSION: There needs to be more attention from the hospital on the rewards given to nurses. Because of the nurse is satisfied with the reward given, the performance will be better. and there is no effect of training on the performance of nurses at USU Hospital. This improvement will certainly increase the competitive value or competitive advantage of USU Hospital.

Outcomes-Based Nurse Staffing During Times of Crisis and Beyond

Nurse staffing is linked to safety, quality, and experience outcomes. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, staffing has become more critical as overwhelming demand has met diminishing supply of healthy nurses, capacity for care, and the innovation necessary to deliver optimal quality and experience to patients and the people who care for them. Press Ganey data scientists, along with industry experts, sought to evaluate staffing before the pandemic and its effects on clinical quality, experience, and nurse engagement. Furthermore, interviews with expert nurse researchers and nursing leaders helped to identify the kind of innovation necessary to accommodate the variable demand in patient volumes, acuity, nurse availability, and teamwork. Valuable insights from this work will help healthcare leaders in their quest to optimize nursing care.

How do nurse managers describe clinical nurses' work arrangements? A qualitative study

Aim

The researcher sought to understand how nurse managers describe nurses in alternative work arrangements.

Design

The researcher conducted this study using grounded theory.

Method

Semi-structured interviews. A theoretical sample of 26 baccalaureate-prepared nurse managers located across the United States participated in the study.

Results

A typology of five work arrangements provides descriptors that contribute toward greater conceptual clarity on nurses' work arrangements. The data reveal that the typology is fluid because nurses can easily switch across work arrangements. Because the rise in alternative work arrangements means that nurses can leave permanent positions-or explore different work arrangements-when circumstances permit or necessitate, nurses who do not receive continued mentoring will likely bring their deficiencies in skill and/or knowledge to facilities where they find future employment. Hence, inadequate mentoring at the unit level has practical consequences for the quality of patient care at the institutional level.