AIMS AND OBJECTIVES This study uses two models of nursing practice, conventional and modular design, to compare nursing activities, hand hygiene, time efficiency and nurse-patient satisfaction in medical and surgical wards. Background. Learning from the SARS epidemic pointed to the importance of quality nursing practice considerations that minimize cross-transmission of infection while maximizi...

Aim: The study examines the effectiveness of implementation of electronic nursing documentation and the nursing documentation system VIPS at the Department of Medicine, and also aims to improve our understanding of content and quality in nursing documentation. Background: After introducing Electronic Patient Record (EPR) and VIPS to medical wards, change in the quantity and quality of nursing d...

Neonatal mortality currently accounts for 45% of all child mortality in Kenya, standing at 22 per 1000 live births. Access to basic but high quality inpatient neonatal services for small and sick newborns will be key in reducing neonatal mortality. Neonatal inpatient care is reliant on nursing care, yet explicit nursing standards for such care do not currently exist in Kenya. We reviewed the Nu...

Methods Focus is on acutely admitted patients with abdominal pain in a surgical department. In order to improve our practice, we thought it important to undertake a needs assessment of the management of acutely and potentially critically ill patients. The study design was interprofessional and consisted of a retrospective audit, focus group interviews with medical and nursing staff and full sca...

The nurse triage process in an accident and emergency (A&E) department was audited as part of the nursing quality assurance programme. It was found that in most cases documentation was adequate and guidelines had been adhered to. Triage decisions were accurate in most cases using the discharge diagnosis as a bench-mark. Waiting time improvements were also seen. Triage audit was a useful tool in...