The objective of the following study was to analyze the conceptions that head nurses of a university hospital have about nursing communication management. It is a descriptive-exploratory study with an interpretative qualitative approach. The set of data was produced between September and October 2007 through interviews with 19 head nurses in a university hospital in Southern Brazil and submitte...

The purpose of this study was to explore early-career registered nurses' perceptions of high-quality nursing care in hospitals. The study findings contribute to ongoing work intended to explore and define what quality nursing care is and how it ultimately impacts patients. The final sample analyzed for this article consisted of 171 narrative responses from hospital-based registered nurses. We u...

AIMS To assess levels of occupational stress, job satisfaction and job performance among hospital nurses in Kampala, Uganda; and how they are influenced by work and personal characteristics. BACKGROUND Occupational stress is reported to affect job satisfaction and job performance among nurses, thus compromising nursing care and placing patients' lives at risk. Although these factors have been...

INTRODUCTION Health care systems and nurses need to take into account the increasing number of people who need post-hospital nursing care in their homes. Nurses have taken a pivotal role in discharge planning for frail patients. Despite considerable effort and focus on how to undertake hospital discharge successfully, the problem of ensuring continuity of care remains. CHALLENGES In this pape...

AIMS This paper is a report of a study, which seeks to determine if self-reported estimates of RNs' self-rated confidence in responding to alcohol use in patients is a psychometrically sound measure. BACKGROUND Alcohol-related harm is a global public health problem. Nurses are the largest group of health professionals worldwide, with evidence showing that despite being well placed to respond,...

The literature indicates that involvement of families in critical care settings is effective in meeting the needs of families and patients during a medical crisis. This article presents basic concepts from family systems theory, including cultural considerations useful in developing nursing care plans that integrate family involvement in the care of critically ill patients.

pharmacotherapeutics are always evolving. Transferring research-based knowledge into practice is an essential element of ensuring that patient care is based on scientific principles. Evaluating research for utilization in clinical practice involves more than simply reading research. The critical review of clinical research relevant to critical care nursing practice is fundamental if we are to p...

BACKGROUND Twenty-four hour nursing care involves shift work including 12-h shifts. England is unusual in deploying a mix of shift patterns. International evidence on the effects of such shifts is growing. A secondary analysis of data collected in England exploring outcomes with 12-h shifts examined the association between shift length, job satisfaction, scheduling flexibility, care quality, pa...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of nurse staffing and organizational support for nursing care on nurses' dissatisfaction with their jobs, nurse burnout, and nurse reports of quality of patient care in an international sample of hospitals. DESIGN Multisite cross-sectional survey SETTING Adult acute-care hospitals in the U.S. (Pennsylvania), Canada (Ontario and British Columbia), England and...