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DiversityNursing Blog

News for nurses roundup: Two new studies released on nurse happiness

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Feb 15, 2013 @ 03:31 PM

BY SCRUBS EDITOR

veer.comEvery week we scour the Internet for controversy, quotes and stories related to nursing and the things you care about. Tune in to read our roundup every week!

1. Does your fatigue have anything to do with the length of your shift? According to this study — YES. It does! 

So how did this happen in the first place? Amy Witkoski Stimpfel, a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, explains:

“Nurses traditionally worked eight-hour days. Then in the 1980s and 1990s, when some structural changes in health care and cost containment measures [were] put in, it was actually less expensive to have nurses work 12-hour shifts, because that [meant] only two nurses per day [were needed] instead of three. So nurses began working these 12-hour shifts. In fact, they decided that they really liked it because it offered better work life balance. Nurses could work three days instead of five, so they had more time off with their family and friends and fewer commutes. And they had more time to go back to school. So it’s really become very prevalent.”

Source: Knowledge @ Wharton

2. Nurses love their career choice, but 30% say they aren’t happy with their jobs.

Harvard Business School professor and author Clayton Christensen describes motivation like this: “[It] means that you’ve got an engine inside of you that drives you to keep working in order to feel successful and to help the organization be successful. It causes you to keep at it through thick and thin. Motivators are things like, ‘I have the opportunity to achieve important things,”I learn ways to be better,’ and ‘I’m an important part of a team.’ If you have those kinds of experiences every day, you’re motivated, and you’ll be satisfied.”

Source: Health Leaders Media

3. San Francisco nurse wins national award for her book detailing her transition to life coaching.

On why she flipped careers:

“I wanted to help people who wanted to make transformative, positive change in their own lives,” said Linda Bark, who runs the Alameda-based Bark Coaching Institute. “Coaching can be for life transitions, business decisions, health–either way, it is about helping a person make a change by listening to one’s whole self. What I invite people to do is to see what information they’re getting, not just from their thinking minds, but from their bodies.”

Source: The Oakland Tribune

Article Source: Scrubs Magazine

Topics: nurse fatigue, nurse happiness, nurse life coaching

Medical Units Improved To Reduce Nursing Fatigue, Cut Costs

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Wed, Feb 06, 2013 @ 11:25 AM

In hospitals, poor floor design, storage closet clutter and crowded corridors can contribute to nurse and medical staff fatigue. These distractions can hurt patient care quality and result in higher medical costs. 

Now, a new Cornell University study offers a spatial solution. 

Rana Zadeh, Cornell assistant professor of design and environmental analysis in the College of Human Ecology, analyzed the floor plans and work patterns within five medical-surgical units at U.S. hospitals and found numerous opportunities to boost nurses' efficiency through better design. Zadeh's research, "Rethinking Efficiency in Acute Care Nursing Units: Analyzing Nursing Unit Layout for Improved Spatial Flow," is published in the current issue of Health Environments Research and Design Journal (6:1). 

In some hospital wards, important spaces such as nourishment rooms are located far away from a nurse's typical path. Jammed patient-care corridors create excessive noise, and high foot traffic raises the potential for interruptions. Supplies are stocked in various rooms, leading nurses to "hunt and gather" to find materials. 

Experts say some nurses walk up to five miles during a typical shift. Even seemingly minor changes to improve the alignment of a facility layout for better caregiver workflow can have significant benefits. 

"Imagine if a pilot was flying an airplane and trusted with keeping passengers safe, but instead of located in the cockpit, the necessary tools and controls were spread around the cabin of the plane," Zadeh says. "New medical practices and technology have emerged during the past decade, and facility design should adapt to these changing practices so that caregivers can perform better on their critical tasks." 

Data confirms the average hospital has an infrastructure that is roughly 30 to 40 years old, says Zadeh. "They can be designed innovatively and smartly for today's fast pace of care. We hope this tool offers planners, designers and managers doing a facility renovation or addition a way to spot the missing links in their floor plans and to make work processes more efficient through research-based design." 

Original article posted on Medical News Today.

Topics: study, nurse fatigue, decrease fatigue, cut costs, efficiency, Cornell University

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