Team nursing and ITU--a good combination?

[Development and implementation of primary nursing in the intensive care unit: evaluation in mixed-methods design.]

Development and implementation of primary nursing in the intensive care unit: evaluation in mixed-methods design. Abstract:Background: In a university hospital, the development and implementation of Primary Nursing (Prozessverantwortliche Pflege, PP) in a pilot intensive care unit was initiated. To develop the roles of nurses with and without process responsibility a working group PP was founded while taking into account the skill-grade mix. Aim: The working group aimed to develop the roles of process-responsible nurses (PP) and nurses (P), as well as to plan and implement the implementation process. Methods: Development and piloting steps were taken based on the recommendations of the Medical Research Council. At three measurement points, the instrument for recording nursing systems (IzEP©) was used quantitatively and a focus group interview, as well as a ward process analysis, were used qualitatively in t0 (as-is analysis before development and piloting), t1 (6 months after implementation) and t2 (12 months after implementation). Results: PP mainly take over the care process's design and control. The IzEP© analysis showed that room care was practiced in t0 with 50.0%. The values increased towards PP from 74.0% in t1 to 83.5% in t2. Qualitatively obtained data supported these results and showed further optimization potential for practice. Conclusions: The results prove the successful implementation of PP in practice. For the development and implementation of new nursing roles, the involvement of the affected nurses is mandatory.

Rapid Deployment of Team Nursing During a Pandemic: Implementation Strategies and Lessons Learned

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the number of patients requiring intensive care nationwide, leading to nurse staffing shortages in many units.

LOCAL PROBLEM

At the beginning of the statewide COVID-19 surge, a tertiary teaching hospital in the upper Midwest experienced a sharp increase in patients needing intensive care. To relieve the resulting staffing shortage, it implemented a pilot program to bring general care nurses into its 21-bed mixed specialty intensive care unit to free intensive care unit nurses to help staff the hospital's COVID-designated units.

METHODS

Using a team nursing model, the intensive care unit recruited, oriented, and incorporated 13 general care nurses within 4 days. Education and resources were developed to distinguish team nurses from intensive care unit nurses, introduce them to the intensive care unit environment, outline expectations, communicate between team nursing pairs, and guide charge nurses in making staffing decisions and assignments. Staff feedback identified additional resources, barriers, and successes. An adaptive process was used to improve and update tools and resources on the basis of staff needs.

RESULTS

The pilot program ran for 6 weeks. Positive outcomes included a reduced need for float nurses and self-perceived reduction in nursing workload. The principal barrier was charge nurses' challenges involving staffing-to-workload balance based on the existing staffing model. This model identified productivity of a general care nurse and an intensive care unit nurse as equivalent, despite differences in their skill sets.

CONCLUSION

Team nursing in the intensive care unit is an agile tactic easily replicated in dire staffing situations.

Nursing care delivery models and outcomes: A literature review

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this literature review was to determine the types of nursing care delivery models currently being used in acute care hospitals to determine the effectiveness of the model and the outcomes being measured.

METHOD

A literature search was conducted, and databases searched included CINAHL, Nursing and Allied Health, Medline, EMBASE, ProQuest Theses, and Dissertations for the years 2000-2020. Sixteen studies were retrieved. Patient outcomes measured included falls, adverse events, and infections. Nursing outcomes measured included satisfaction, communication, and perceived quality of care.

RESULTS

Findings from this review showed there was no single model of nursing care delivery that resulted in positive patient or nurse outcomes, thus a "one size fits all" approach to selecting or utilizing a model of care is not realistic.

CONCLUSION

Given the number of nursing care delivery models that were hybrids, clearer descriptions of each model and further research on patient and nursing outcomes is warranted.

Review: how do hospital organizational structure and processes affect quality of care?: a critical review of research methods

Interest in organizational contributions to the delivery of care has risen significantly in recent years. A challenge facing researchers, practitioners, and policy makers is identifying ways to improve care by improving the organizations that provide this care, given the complexity of health care organizations and the role organizations play in influencing systems of care. This article reviews the literature on the relationship between the structural characteristics and organizational processes of hospitals and quality of care. The review uses Donabedian's structure-process-outcome and level of analysis frameworks to organize the literature. The results of this review indicate that a preponderance of studies are conducted at the hospital level of analysis and are predominantly focused on the organizational structure-quality outcome relationship. The article concludes with recommendations of how health services researchers can expand their research to enhance one's understanding of the relationship between organizational characteristics and quality of care.