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In the RN4CAST (Nurse forecasting in Europe) study all 35 participating Swiss hospitals received a study report, which allowed them to anonymously compare findings in relation to structure, process and outcome variables. Thus, this benchmarking allowed the hospitals to identify potentials for improvement and to plan counter measures for developing the quality of their practice environment. We surveyed the RN4CAST hospitals 18 months after submitting the study report and asked chief nursing officers if the results of the RN4CAST study report had been discussed and analysed within their hospitals and if the results had led to any quality improvement or practice development projects. Out of 35 questionnaires 30 were returned (response rate = 85 %). The study report was discussed and analysed in 27 hospitals (90 %), whereby the quality (n = 27) and the usefulness (n = 22) were rated as good or very good. Less then half of the hospitals (41 %) discussed the results with the hospital units. The study report stimulated practice development and quality improvement efforts in view of the nurses' work environment (n = 20) and safety culture/climate (n = 16). Replicating the RN4CAST study in the participating hospital would allow evaluating changes on the measured variables, e. g., due to this quality improvement and practice development projects.

There are many complex reasons for medication non adherence and a gold standard to assess medication non adherence does not exist. We present factors associated with medication non adherence using the five adherence dimensions suggested by the World Health Organization as well as the subjective appraisal regarding medication intake of the patient as suggested by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK. Based on current research based knowledge, we suggest a two step adherence assessment for the clinical setting: 1) a routine assessment (screening) using patient self-report complemented by non adherence evidence from other methods; 2) in-depth adherence assessment for patients with positive non adherence evidence via interview. The adherence assessment turns then into adherence support. Adherence is the result of a skilled collaborative partnership between patients and health professionals. In complex cases adherence has to be regarded as an aim to be achieved in several stages.

This definition of professional nursing was developed at the Institute of Nursing Science, University of Basel, in collaboration with the group of experts from the project "Future of Swiss Medicine" of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. Starting points were existing definitions and a list of desirable contents. Using Grounded Theory approaches, potential contents were analysed and a first draft was written. Through several feedback rounds, this draft was refined to the definition that is presented here. Professional nursing is defined in two core sentences. As regards content, it relates to promoting and maintaining health, preventing health problems, and assisting people in treating illnesses and in dealing with consequences of illnesses and their therapies. The goal is to achieve the best possible results of treatments and care as well as the best possible quality of life in all phases of life until death for the people cared for. Eight additional paragraphs describe to whom professional nursing is directed, the tasks it includes, its essential basics, who delivers it, how it is put into practice, and its context. The definition has a scientific background and incorporates international perspectives and developments. An addendum outlines further thoughts regarding interprofessional collaboration in health care, focal points of nursing education, and future directions of professional nursing. It calls for an optimal collaboration among the different professional groups to reach the best possible outcomes for people with (potential) health problems. Trends in society and health care, especially the growing numbers of old and chronically ill people, will increase the need for professional care. It is necessary to develop new systems and models of care that meet population needs and have a lasting effect. Nursing education must take these future changes into consideration.

The effects of cost saving strategies and changes in staffing levels and skill mix in the inpatient care setting on patient and nurse outcomes have not yet been examined in Switzerland. In 2002 the Swiss Federal Office of Health mandated the Institute of Nursing Science at the University of Basel to conduct a literature review to examine the evidence available on this topic. The literature research and analysis cover the period from 1991 to 2003. Sixty publications out of a total of 260 reviewed abstracts were included and analyzed. The results show that in the inpatient care settings in Switzerland as well as in other countries positions for registered nurses have been reduced and/or the qualification and skill mix in care teams have been downgraded. Given the present health care situation where the intensity and complexity of caring for hospitalized patients is increasing, an imbalance occurs between the need for high quality care and the possibilities to offer this care. This affects patients' and nurses outcomes. The international results show a significant relationship between lower staffing levels and skill mix in care teams and higher complication, "failure-to-rescue", and mortality rates in patients, as well as a lower job satisfaction, and higher fluctuation, burnout and work-related injury rates in nursing personnel. Thus, nursing care within hospitals represents not only a cost factor but also an important quality factor which is essential in order to be able to realize good patient's outcomes.

Developing and establishing an advanced nursing practice is an essential step toward future-oriented nursing care. An action research process was initiated to establish advanced nursing practice at the HIV clinic of the outpatient department at the University Hospital Basel with the goal to offer advanced nursing care to patients. Participatory action research allows generating knowledge about a social system while at the same time tempts to promote social change. The most important goal is to constantly analyse, improve, and evaluate nursing care for patients and family caregivers. Advanced nursing practice in HIV/AIDS is based on solid knowledge regarding the illness and current therapies. Central concepts are caring, clinical experiences, evidence based practice, and patient preferences. Through a systematic step-by-step process, the nurses at the HIV clinic are being better educated and more experienced in these concepts. An essential aspect of advanced nursing practice is the specialization of each nurse in a self selected topic within HIV/AIDS care. These nurses now offer new services such as medication management and adherence support, health maintenance and prevention, and symptom management. This ongoing process of learning while establishing advanced nursing practice in HIV/AIDS, enables the nurses to face future changes in health care in a proactive way.

Social, scholarly, and technical changes and changes in health politics have a lasting influence on the nursing profession. The development of nursing science programs can be seen in this context and institutions, which offer educational programs for nurses, have to orient them toward the new demands of the profession. Up to now in the German-speaking realm, published data, which describe the changes the nursing profession can expect, have not been available, nor have possible future fields of activity of nursing been examined. In order to close this gap, a group of opinion leaders and experts in nursing in German-speaking Switzerland were studied. Eighty-one people were surveyed by means of a questionnaire, and ten people were interviewed in-depth. The results reflect the visions and perspectives of the nursing profession of the future in German-speaking Switzerland. The expectation is that nursing should deal increasingly with sociopolitical changes and that the main issues of nursing with regard to type of client and locations where care is given will change. A re-orientation toward strengthening professional identity is called for in the following areas: involvement in determining and shaping decisions in politics and health politics; taking entrepreneurial initiatives; building clinical practice on caring, patient preferences, and evidence; making professional training and continuing education clinically-oriented as well as the development and the establishment of nursing science. Through a re-orientation, nursing should be better able to meet the challenges, which it faces because of health and social problems in the population. A great discrepancy exists between the expectations for nursing in the future and present reality. The challenge will be to see whether it will be possible to close the gap between visions and reality by means of training, continuing education, and changes in clinical practice.