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Employing internationally educated nurses (IENs) to address the nursing workforce shortage is common in many countries, including the United States. This study examined the relationship between unit utilization of IENs and collaboration in U.S. hospitals. Results indicated more IENs on a unit did not significantly affect the collaboration among nurses and between nurses and physicians. The presence of IENs significantly influenced unit nursing characteristics, such as education attainment and unit tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basic staffing and scheduling methods of the past are not meeting the complex demands of the nurse scheduling problem (NSP). The overall goal of this study was to develop and implement a nurse scheduling forecasting model for a 33- bed inpatient nursing unit to address the challenges of the NSP during the schedule creation phase. Results revealed the nurse scheduling forecasting model improved schedule accu racy and aligned nurse needs to vary by day of the week. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on trends in nursing care efficiency in acute care nursing units in the U.S. Topics discussed include adaptation of the Donabedian quality improvement model, definition of efficiency in the health care system and use of the data envelopment analysis to estimate efficiency. It discusses findings on changes in efficiency between Magnet and non-Magnet hospital units, teaching status and nurse staffing skills.

The article describes the manner the Mercy Medical Center utilized education to implement shared governance (SG) in less than two years. It details a descriptive, quasi-experimental study conducted to identify if implementation of shared governance could be done more efficiently and effectively using a comprehensive and robust education plan, to determine whether subscales of SG would increase post implementation, and whether characteristics had an impact on successful implementation of SG.

The article discusses the implementation of Clinical Decision Units (CDUs) for patients with congestive heart failure in the U.S. Topics covered include the impact of CDU on clinical care, its financial benefits, and the opportunities it provide for the nurse leaders. The advantages and limitations of CDU are also mentioned.

The article discusses a study which examined whether the Patient Risk Assessment Profile which assesses patient characteristics and risk could guide staffing decisions and reduce adverse events and avoid unnecessary hospital costs. Topics covered include the primary goal for developing the Patient Risk Assessment Profile, the process to develop the Patient Risk Assessment Profile, and research findings including decreased adverse event rates for patient falls.

The article discusses the results of a study that examines the effects of patient, organizational and nursing unit characteristics on patient safety and quality outcomes. It cites the major concepts of Systems Research Organizing Model including client characteristics, context, action focus and outcomes. It concluded that better outcomes can be achieved through effective communication and collaboration among health care professionals.

The article discusses a study assessing different methods of allocating nurses to staff hospital wards to minimize the hospital costs. The methods illustrated using statistical analysis are nurse patient ratios (NPR) and Computer Nursing Dependency Management System (CNDMS). The analysis showed that NPR allocation required higher costs than CNDMS.

The article discusses about a study examining the relationship between nurse staffing and the occurrence of medication errors. The results indicate that even a small number of Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) in staffing can contribute to medication errors. The article also suggests that increasing the number of Registered Nurses (RN) hours and decreasing or eliminating LPN hours can be used as a strategy to reduce medication errors.