Consensus on communication curriculum content in Danish undergraduate medical education: A Delphi study

Ensuring Throughput: Development and Validation of Charge Nurse Competencies for United States Emergency Care Settings

INTRODUCTION

Charge nurses are shift leaders whose role includes managing nursing resources and facilitating appropriate patient care; in emergency departments, the charge nurse role requires both clinical and leadership skills to facilitate the flow of patients, while ensuring patient and staff safety. Literature on orientation and specific training is notably sparse. This study aimed to evaluate the content and process of core competency training and identify evaluation and implementation strategies necessary to improve charge nurse performance in United States emergency departments.

METHODS

A modified Delphi technique was used in phase 1 and a qualitative content analysis method was used in phase 2 to address specific aims of the study.

RESULTS

In total, 427 emergency nurse managers, directors, educators, and charge nurses responded to the initial survey to identify elements, teaching modalities, and evaluative processes; 22 participated in 1 of 2 focus groups to provide further information about the pedagogical approaches to teaching emergency charge nurse competencies. The top 5 competencies were identified as patient flow management, communication, situational awareness, clinical decision making, and nurse-patient assignment, with understanding that each competency overlapped significantly with the others. Low-fidelity simulation and gamification were identified as a preferred method of both training and evaluation.

DISCUSSION

These findings have the potential to support a standardized approach to emergency charge nurse training and evaluation focusing on communication skills, clinical decision making, and situational awareness to facilitate safe and effective nurse-patient assignment and emergency department throughput.

Forecasting Food Innovations with a Delphi Study

Food innovations can create novel nutritious food, improve agricultural sustainability, and increase the agri-food industry's market profits. Our study proposes a consensus definition of food innovations and forecasts food innovations that will be available to consumers in the next five years by using a Delphi study. Thirteen experts aged 35 to 85 from the US and the UK researching or working in agriculture and nutrition, public health, the agri-food industry, or food policy participated in three rounds of this Delphi study. The experts were chosen using the snowball sampling method. This study followed the implementation and data analysis guidelines popularized by the Rand Corporation. The consensus definition for food innovations (with 76.9% agreement) was that 'food innovations aid in the development, production, or transportation of new food products, processes, or technology to promote human health, food security, or environmental sustainability'. The specific food innovations, which had over 69% agreement, are ranked as (1) plant-based meat alternatives, (2) personalized nutrition, (3) natural foods, (4) new genetically modified organisms, (5) regenerative agriculture, (6) urban agriculture, (7) packing innovations, (8) alternative flours, (9) improving shelf life, (10) supply chain technologies, (11) improved soil health, and (12) technology for traceability. The food innovation definition and identified specific food innovations could further connect the agricultural value chain to develop novel nutritious foods and improve agricultural sustainability. Agri-food industry specialists, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers can advance food innovation development and research pinpointing the specific food innovations along the agricultural value chain.