Aim: This paper reports on structures and processes of hospital care influencing 30-day mortality for acute medical patients. Background: Wide variation in risk-adjusted 30-day hospital mortality rates for acute medical patients indicates that hospital structures and processes of care affect patient death. Because nurses provide the majority of care to hospitalized patients, we propose that str...

Nurses make up the largest proportion of health workers in Canada. Whether in hospitals, home care or nursing care facilities, they play an integral role in the health care system, which touches the life of every Canadian. These days they are under increasing pressure as their employers are faced with fewer resources for providing patient care. Several factors have come into play: an aging work...

Israel is experiencing a shortage of both physicians and nurses in a number of specialties, including neonatal intensive care. Inadequate hospital staffing and high patient demand contribute to the blurring of professional scope of practice boundaries between nurses and physicians. Striking similarities exist between the situation in Israel and the health services landscape in the United States...

To the Editor: As an advocate for patient safety and for the introduction of appropriate monitoring technology into perioperative practice, I read the recent article by Taenzer et al. with anticipation. Unfortunately, the conclusions reached by the authors do not appear to be supported by the evidence provided in the article. Specifically, the authors conclude “our results demonstrate that cont...

Despite an increasing literature on professional nurses' job satisfaction, job satisfaction by nonprofessional nursing care providers and, in particular, in residential long-term care facilities, is sparsely described. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the evidence on which factors (individual and organizational) are associated with job satisfaction among care aides, nurse ...

OBJECTIVE To examine hospital nurses' patient safety competencies and the association between these competencies and safety climate. DESIGN Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. SETTING Three teaching hospitals in Seoul, Korea. PARTICIPANTS In total, 459 nurses from general adult nursing care units, intensive care units or operating rooms (response rate = 87.4%). METHOD Self-administere...

After receiving mivacurium, a short-acting neuromuscular blocking agent used for intubation before surgery, a patient experienced prolonged paralysis and prolonged apnea that required ventilator support. Although this complication is rare, all critical care nurses should be aware of it so they can be competent in managing and providing holistic and comprehensive nursing care to the patient and ...

BACKGROUND Safety initiatives have primarily focused on physicians despite the fact that nurses provide the majority of direct inpatient care. Patient surveillance and preventing errors from harming patients represent essential nursing responsibilities but have received relatively little study. METHODS The study was conducted between July 2003 and July 2004 in a 10-bed academic coronary care ...