Other Titles
Clinical Session: Communication strategies for improving patient outcomes
Abstract
Session presented on Sunday, April 14, 2013:
Purpose/Research Questions/Aims: The purpose of this research study was to determine the relationship between healthy work environments, patient outcomes and nurse turnover in the PICU.
Rationale/Background Information/Conceptual Framework: Medical errors cost the United States over $50 billion annually. Researchers have found that there is a relationship between the nurses' work environments and medical errors. The Joint Commission stated that communication failures are the leading cause of harm to patients in hospitals today. With an estimated shortage of 400,000 nurses identified in the year 2020, nurse leaders need to improve the work environment.
Methods: The study design was descriptive cross-sectional. Nurses from ten PICUs completed the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI), the Communication section of the ICU Nurse-Physician Questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire. In addition to the nurses completing the questionnaires, data was obtained from the hospitals regarding nurse turnover, central line infections, ventilator associated pneumonia, risk adjusted length of stay and risk adjusted mortality. A minimum of 415 nurses from ten PICUs completed the survey. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 17.0. Statistical tests run included multiple regression, t-tests (two-tailed) and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The significance level was set at .05 for this study.
Results: There was an inverse relationship (p<.05) between central line infections, risk adjusted length of stay and risk adjusted outcomes and communication as well as collaboration. There was a significant relationship (p<.05) between leadership and nurses intent to leave their jobs.
Conclusions and Implications: Nurse leaders need to use research-based interventions to improve the work environments. A better understanding of the relationship between communication, collaboration and the extent that nurse leadership contributes to a healthy work environment and quality patient outcomes will add to the research demonstrating the importance of nurses and excellent nursing care on patient outcomes.
Sigma Membership
Gamma Tau at-Large
Lead Author Affiliation
Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Nurse Outcomes, Healthy Work Environments, Patient Outcomes
Recommended Citation
Blake, Nancy Theresa, "Influence of healthy work environments on PICU patient and nurse outcomes" (2013). Creating Healthy Work Environments Event Materials. 30.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2013/presentations_2013/30
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments 2013
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2013
Rights Holder
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All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Influence of healthy work environments on PICU patient and nurse outcomes
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Session presented on Sunday, April 14, 2013:
Purpose/Research Questions/Aims: The purpose of this research study was to determine the relationship between healthy work environments, patient outcomes and nurse turnover in the PICU.
Rationale/Background Information/Conceptual Framework: Medical errors cost the United States over $50 billion annually. Researchers have found that there is a relationship between the nurses' work environments and medical errors. The Joint Commission stated that communication failures are the leading cause of harm to patients in hospitals today. With an estimated shortage of 400,000 nurses identified in the year 2020, nurse leaders need to improve the work environment.
Methods: The study design was descriptive cross-sectional. Nurses from ten PICUs completed the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI), the Communication section of the ICU Nurse-Physician Questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire. In addition to the nurses completing the questionnaires, data was obtained from the hospitals regarding nurse turnover, central line infections, ventilator associated pneumonia, risk adjusted length of stay and risk adjusted mortality. A minimum of 415 nurses from ten PICUs completed the survey. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 17.0. Statistical tests run included multiple regression, t-tests (two-tailed) and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The significance level was set at .05 for this study.
Results: There was an inverse relationship (p<.05) between central line infections, risk adjusted length of stay and risk adjusted outcomes and communication as well as collaboration. There was a significant relationship (p<.05) between leadership and nurses intent to leave their jobs.
Conclusions and Implications: Nurse leaders need to use research-based interventions to improve the work environments. A better understanding of the relationship between communication, collaboration and the extent that nurse leadership contributes to a healthy work environment and quality patient outcomes will add to the research demonstrating the importance of nurses and excellent nursing care on patient outcomes.