Operationalizing a Nursing Innovation Center Within a Health Care System

Development and psychometric properties evaluation of nurses' innovative behaviours inventory in Iran: protocol for a sequential exploratory mixed-method study

INTRODUCTION

Nurses' innovative behaviours play a crucial role in addressing the challenges including adapting to emerging technologies, resource limitations and social realities such as population ageing that are intricately tied to today's healthcare landscape. Innovative behaviours improve healthcare quality, patient safety and satisfaction. Organisational factors and individual attributes influence nurses' inclination to innovate. With the rise of artificial intelligence and novel technology, healthcare institutions are actively engaged in the pursuit of identifying nurses who demonstrate innovative qualities. Developing a comprehensive protocol to elucidate the various dimensions of nurses' innovative behaviours and constructing a valid measuring instrument, rooted in this protocol represents a significant step in operationalising this concept.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The study encompasses two phases: a qualitative study combined with a literature review, followed by the design and psychometric evaluation of the instrument. To ensure diversity, a maximum variation purposive sampling method will be used during the qualitative phase to select clinical nurses. In-depth semistructured interviews will be conducted and analysed using conventional content analysis. Additionally, a comprehensive literature review will supplement any missing features not captured in the qualitative phase, ensuring their inclusion in the primary tool. The subsequent quantitative phase will focus on evaluating the questionnaire's psychometric properties, including face, content and construct validity through exploratory factor analyses (including at least 300 samples) and confirmatory factor analyses (including at least 200 samples). Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), reliability (test-retest), responsiveness, interpretability and scoring will also be assessed.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study originates from a doctoral dissertation in nursing. Permission and ethical approval from Semnan University of Medical Sciences has been obtained with reference code IR.SEMUMS.1401.226. The study's findings will ultimately be submitted as a research paper to a peer-reviewed journal.

How to leverage innovation models to achieve health equity: Build. Measure. Share

The Future of Nursing 2020 to 2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity (2021) highlights inequality throughout healthcare. People of color exhibit lower life expectancy levels than their White counterparts. LGTBQ individuals are 2.7 times more likely than heterosexuals to experience a violent crime . Lower-income individuals report their health status at lower levels than high-income earners. Health and healthcare in America are not equitable. With only 58% of healthcare organizations considering "Heath Equity" as a top-three priority, there is a substantial and dire need for innovation to fill the gap between the healthcare that is needed and what is being provided. This article explores the Build. Measure. Share. model for healthcare innovation as an approach to encourage and empower healthcare professionals to take meaningful steps toward creating an equitable and just health system.

Career education needs of Korean nursing students and professionals: A cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

The career education needs of nursing students and professionals can be met by analyzing the differences between the importance and need levels of their various career education needs, determining priorities, and developing a career education program reflecting these. This approach will enable learner-centered customized career education.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the differences in career education needs between nursing students and professionals, determine their respective priorities, and assess changes in needs between the two survey periods.

DESIGN

Descriptive survey study.

PARTICIPANTS

The first survey (2017) included 206 nursing students and 40 nursing professionals, while the second survey (2020) included 219 nursing students and 100 nursing professionals.

METHODS

Data for the two surveys were collected through face-to-face, postal, and online questionnaire surveys. The research tool to measure career education needs was developed based on an existing tool, top queries on a website for nursing students' career education, literature review, expert opinions, and in-depth interviews with nursing students.

RESULTS

The 10 top-ranked items in Jo and Lee's model reflecting the career education needs of nursing students and professionals were as follows: workplace and social etiquette, changes in the healthcare environment and global issues, setting up my career roadmap, interpersonal and communication skills, nursing professionalism and nursing ethics, understanding the latest healthcare policies, my personality type and values, roles and duties of clinical nurses, my aptitude and interest, and nurses' healthcare. Comparing the career education needs of nursing students and professionals between the two survey periods revealed higher scores in the education category of "understanding career" in the second survey.

CONCLUSION

Nursing students' career awareness and development will be positively affected by a customized career education program based on the priority items derived from this study; such a program will help them attain nursing professionalism and enhance their occupational identity and job satisfaction.

Effectiveness of a nursing innovation workshop at enhancing nurses' innovation abilities: A quasi-experimental study

AIM

To investigate the effectiveness of nursing innovation workshop in enhancing clinical nurses' innovation ability and research ability in a tertiary hospital.

DESIGN

A quasi-experimental study design.

METHODS

Thirty-seven recruited nurses participated in a nursing innovation workshop for half a year in a tertiary hospital in Guangdong between June 2019 and March 2020. Questionnaire data on the nurses' self-rated innovation and research abilities were collected before the training and 3 months after completing the training. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to analyse differences within the group before and after the intervention. The level for statistical significance was set at p ≤ .05 (two-tailed).

RESULTS

Nurses' self-rated innovation ability (p < .001, 95% confidence interval 12.79 to 15.05) and research ability (p < .001, 95% confidence interval 14.39 to 19.09) improved significantly after the training. Since the whole design lacked a control group, the study needs to be further verified in more hospitals and among more nurses.

Construction of an index system of core competence assessment for infectious disease specialist nurse in China: a Delphi study

Aim and objective

This study was to establish an index system for the evaluation of Chinese infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence.

Background

The index system for the evaluation of infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence has not been established.

Design

A two-round Delphi survey was conducted to seek opinions from experts about the index system for the evaluation of infectious disease specialist nurses’ core competence.

Methods

The study adopted several research methods, including literature retrieval, theoretical analysis and qualitative research. Based on the above method, the draft of core competence evaluation index system of infectious disease specialist nurses was constructed. A Delphi survey was used for the study of 30 infectious disease experts from 8 provinces and cities around China. A modified recommendation for the Conducting and Reporting of Delphi studies (CREDES) was also used to guide this study. A STROBE checklist was used.

Results

The Core Competence Evaluation Index System of Infectious Disease Nurses is composed of 6 primary indicators, namely, Nursing Abilities for Infectious Diseases, Infection Prevention and Control Abilities, Responsiveness to Infectious Diseases, Professional Development Abilities, Communication and Management Abilities, and Professionalism and Humanistic Accomplishment, 16 secondary indicators and 47 tertiary indicators. The authority coefficient, judgment coefficient and familiarity degree of Delphi experts were 0.923, 0.933 and 0.913 respectively.

Conclusions

The evaluation index system of core competence of diseases specialist nurses is scientific and reliable. It can be reference for future training and assessment of Chinese infectious disease specialist nurses.

Relevance to clinical practice

Infectious disease specialist nurses are the main force for infectious disease nursing. Their core competence is related to the quality of infectious disease nursing and treatment. The core competence of the nurses is important for identification of training strategies and can be regarded as reference for nurse assessment and promotion. The construction of the index system is based on the consensus of infectious disease experts, which is not only helpful to standardize the training strategies and selection standards of infectious disease specialist nurses in the future, but also meet the society’s needs in clinical infectious disease nursing.

A blueprint for nursing innovation centers

Background

The interest in and demand for healthcare innovation has heightened amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations are challenged to balance the goals of daily operations with innovation to stay relevant and compete in the marketplace. Innovation is critical for not only the success and sustainability of organizations, but the well-being of the faculty, staff, and clients they serve.

Purpose

In this article, we present an overview of several Nursing Innovation Centers in the United States as well as examples of colleges without formal innovation centers but who are addressing innovation in their programs.

Methods

We examined the subjective experience of nursing innovation in seven colleges of nursing using semi-structured intervieweds and thematic analysis.

FIndings

We discuss four themes for creating an innovation center or innovation focus and six themes important for sustainability and impact. In addition, we provide a working model for these themes and provide lessons learned along with trends and recommendations for the future.

Discussion

This information provides guidance and a framework for academic and practice organizations aspiring to create opportunities for innovation to flourish in their institutions. We also encourage leadership to critically evaluate and address biases in faculty hiring, research evaluation, publication practices, educational opportunities and mentoring to overcome the diversity innovation paradox.

Evaluation and Acceptance of an Electric Toothbrush Designed for Dependent Patients

INTRODUCTION

A key barrier to standardizing evidence-based oral health protocols for highly dependent patients is the lack of validated and accepted oral health products designed specifically for use by caregivers. This study compared preferences by users of a novel electric toothbrush and a manual toothbrush in a health care setting.

METHODS

We prospectively enrolled health care providers as volunteers. Volunteer brushers completed simulated tooth brushing sessions of mock-intubated and non-intubated volunteer brushees with both toothbrushes. Volunteers rated different domains of toothbrush preference in an anonymous, optional survey.

RESULTS

A total of 133 health care providers volunteered (123 brushers [providers brushing teeth] and 10 brushees [those having their teeth brushed]). The novel electric toothbrush received significantly higher positive ratings than the standard hospital-issue manual toothbrush in all domains that we surveyed: ease of use, thoroughness, safety, shape and size of the brush head, overall cleanliness, time requirements, and efficiency (p<0.001). Importantly, due to the integrated light and suction of this electric toothbrush, brushers completed more sessions without setting down the toothbrush with the electric toothbrush than with the manual toothbrush (75.4% vs 36.4%; p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Integrating a lighted electric brush with suction into the caregiver's armamentarium as an evidence-based tool is warranted and should be evaluated in terms of patient outcomes.