I just read an article about an initiative in New Jersey led by the New Jersey Hospital Association’s Institute for Quality and Patient Safety, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at educating and supporting nurses so they can increase the amount of time they spend at with patients and in the process improving their job satisfaction. In turn this should help address the nursing shortage by stopping or at least slowing down the leaving of nurses from the profession.

Over the next severalweeks we are going to be bringing you a new series that tackles some of the common questions about temporary healthcare staffing.

When I was a kid I was promised by the media and entertainment industries two things, we would all wear the same clothes with metallic rings around the shoulders and we all would have robots helping us by the year 2000. I am still waiting on the uniform, but the robot thing may be getting closer.
In [...]

I can’t believe fall is almost here and the school year has started. As you know that means that flu season is upon us. And this year we also have the threat of H1N1 looming.
I’ve recently seen some pretty scary numbers regarding how many people will be affected, and although I am sure it won’t [...]

I just wanted to quickly point you to a good post at The Leaders’ Lounge about strategies to help your maximize your staff during this tough economy. But really this is good advice all the time. 
The author Bonnie Clair, MSN, RN  lays out some simple steps like how to assess your talent, improve employee engagement, listen [...]

Among the many attempts at easing the nursing shortage, there is one that is having a very positive affect. Hospitals all across the country are introducing a mentor program which is aimed at retaining the current or seasoned nurses while easing new hires into the workforce.
The mentor is paired with a new nurse or new [...]

There’s no surprise in the reality that the United States is in the middle of a nursing crisis. According to some statistics, currently there is an estimated shortage of 150,000 nurses in the U.S. alone. Over the next ten years or so, there will be a need for over 650,000 new nursing jobs, while at [...]

As you face the day to day challenges of staffing your hospital facility, one area you may not always consider is the way it is affecting the mindset of your current nursing staff. A recent study by the American Nurses Association looked at this issue specifically and came to some disturbing, but probably not too [...]

According to a recent story in the New York Times, low staffing levels in facilities combined with the nationwide nursing shortage increase the risk of an assault. The article also notes that nurses and other personal care workers suffer injuries from these attacks at a rate 12 times higher than the overall private sector.
Nurses and [...]

As of January 1, 2008 California has implemented it’s historic safe hospital staffing law which states that every hospital must abide by certain ratios for every department within the care facility. These ratios have transformed hospital care and helped increase patient safety by ordering them to maintain minimum, specific nurse-to-patient staffing ratios for all hospital [...]