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The 2017 Nursing Salary Report

HCPro recently conducted a survey among 291 nursing professionals in the healthcare industry regarding their work experience, environment, salary, and benefits. The results show that while careers in nursing careers are more varied and higher paid than ever, nurses are working later in their career and the age gap is growing.

A majority of the respondents were over 50 years old with over 10 years of experience. Respondents had a wide variety of education background, job titles, and salaries. While salaries overall are higher than ever, most respondents say that wages have not increased in the past year, and that benefits for many positions are lacking.

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Guidelines for the critique of nursing research articles

The overall goal of a research critique is to evaluate a study’s merits and its applicability to clinical practice. A research critique goes beyond a review or summary of a study, and it carefully appraises a study’s strengths and limitations. By evaluating a study’s component parts, the critique should assess objectively a study’s validity and significance.
Several guidelines for the appraisal of evidence—in the form of meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines—have been published in print and online. In addition to nursing research textbooks, several published guidelines for how to review single research studies can help nurses in their journal club endeavors. The following resources specifically target the critical appraisal of research studies:

• Critical appraisal tools developed by the Critical Appraisal Skills Program, (suitable for all types of studies) NHS Trust-Public Health Resource Unit. (www.caspinternational.org)
• Critical appraisal worksheets in the EBM Toolbox, Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford (www.cebm.net).
• Users’ Guide to Evidence-Based Practice. Site maintained by the Canadian Centre for Health Evidence (www.cche.net/text/usersguides/therapy.asp). (Originally published in the Journal of the American Medical Asociation.)

The level of discussion at the initial journal club meetings will depend on the facilitator’s knowledge base. Nurses who have completed graduate-level research courses will be able to guide the group so that all questions can be answered and discussed. It may not be possible, however, to have a registered nurse with a master’s degree serve as a facilitator for every journal club. If this is the case in your organization, consider limiting how many journal clubs meet to ensure adequate mentorship. Another choice is to have baccalaureate-prepared nurses serve as facilitators and understand that, in the beginning, certain questions may pose a challenge to the group. In that case, the group should agree to discuss as many of the questions as possible and to skip over questions they find difficult. The facilitator can then follow up with someone who can clarify the difficult areas of the critique. With experience, educational sessions, and mentoring, nurses’ knowledge and confidence levels will continue to increase. Evidence-based practice, like any new skill, takes practice. Journal clubs are a great way to learn the skills necessary to evaluate the evidence and to decide whether it’s applicable to specific practice areas.

Source: Evidence-Based Practice Made Simple

Time management and preceptorship

This is an excerpt from The Preceptor Program Builder

The three primary tasks affecting time management in healthcare include organization, prioritization, and delegation. It is especially challenging for preceptors to manage their time when given the added responsibilities of working with preceptees. Only by developing their skills in these three tasks can preceptors gain perspective and control over their time in any effective way when working with preceptees.

The following tips should help you to manage your time more effectively:

• For example, schedule interruptions. Do not chart every event as it occurs. Set aside time once or twice during your duty hours to stop what you are doing and update your reports:
• Keep your work and practice settings clear and ready for action. Papers, tools and supplies, and items waiting for attention should not clutter the desk or work area but rather should be organized and easily accessible.
• Do one thing at a time. Studies suggest that multitasking is not effective and can lead to increased errors. Complete one task before moving on to the next.
• Determine what must be done versus what you would like to do. They are not always the same. Say “no” if you have too many duties to handle responsibly or safely. Preceptees try very hard to please preceptors, coworkers, managers, and educators. They may take on too many tasks or responsibilities if they do not know how—or when—to say “no” occasionally.
• Avoid time wasters: the activities, things, people, habits, or attitudes that divert us from our primary objectives. They reduce our effectiveness and interfere or prevent us from completing our tasks or achieving our goals. Time wasters result from ineffective or a lack of planning, ineffective or a lack of priority setting, over commitment, clutter, interruptions, failure to delegate, unnecessary telephone calls or emails, paperwork, perfectionism, procrastination, conflict, ineffective problem-solving skills, daydreaming or escape activities, and hurrying (haste makes waste).
• Increase time savers: the activities, things, people, attitudes, or habits that direct us to meet our primary objectives or goals. They increase effectiveness and efficiency and enhance completion of tasks. They include planning and controlling time, making lists, setting priorities, creating agendas for meetings (Do we really need to meet? How much can be done by email, for example?), handling paper only once, not procrastinating (do it now), and delegate, delegate, delegate. Preceptors and preceptees need to know how to:
• Manage interruptions, emergencies, and crises with tact, diplomacy, and courtesy
• Become better at solving problems and resolving conflict (use tried and true models)
• Be assertive (say “no”)
• Control the controllable and accept the uncontrollable
• Keep interruptions short—be ruthless with time, generous and kind to people
• Occasionally become invisible and not so completely available
• Avoid getting angry or hurt if possible—these waste time and energy
• Maintain a sense of humor
• Remember to plan and make personal time for fun and recreational activities
• Delegate routine tasks or projects. Set deadlines when you delegate. Ask for help from coworkers and specialists (e.g., educators) instead of trying to do everything alone. Delegate a task to your preceptees that you thought only you could do. Encourage preceptees to delegate tasks to coworkers when appropriate.

We all are given 168 hours per week, no more and no less. How we spend those hours affects our outcomes, professional and work goals, and job satisfaction. Preceptors can increase efficiency and induce wiser use of time through planning, thereby increasing productivity and decreasing stress.

Preceptors should determine the best use of time and help their preceptees do the same.

ANA comes out against latest GOP healthcare proposal

In a statement released today, the American Nurses Association (ANA) said that the organization “adamantly opposes” the Graham-Cassidy healthcare proposal being considered in the Senate.

The ANA expressed major concerns about the Senate’s proposal, saying that it would make severe cuts to Medicaid, erode protections for pre-existing conditions and other essential health benefits, and wipe out subsidies for the purchase of private health coverage.

ANA President Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, gave the following statement: “ANA denounces the latest Senate proposal as its worst yet. This proposal limits care for those that need it most and fuels greater uncertainty in the insurance market. It poses a serious threat to patients’ care, especially those that need coverage for illnesses or pre-existing conditions. Patients deserve better and we won’t rest until they get it.”

In the wake of disaster, nurses answer the call

While most people were running away from Hurricane Harvey, a team of nurses from the Christus St. Michael Health System flew into the storm to help others.

With just two hours’ notice, the 13 nurses boarded a plane to San Antonio, arriving shortly before Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas. Word had spread throughout the health system that patients from around the state were being transferred out of the hurricane’s path into hospitals in the San Antonio area, and they would need more nurses to handle the influx of patients.

By the time the nurses reached the Christus San Antonio Medical Center and Christus Santa Rose New Braunsfel hospital, an additional 70 patients were transferred to these facilities and needed care. One of the nurses, Kelli Thompson, BSN, RN, WCC, SCRN, ended up working the night shift in the MICU with other volunteers. “We helped with admissions, started IVs, cleaned up patients. We did whatever they needed us to do,” Thompson said. “They had patients who were very sick and needed a lot of care.” The MICU had a significant increase in patients, over 150% of its regular capacity. “It was a big difference from what they were used to,” Thompson said.

The volunteer nurses slept in empty patient rooms on cots and hospital beds; flooding concerns meant that they stayed in the hospital for four days straight so they wouldn’t miss a shift. Though the experience was trying, the volunteers felt welcomed by both the patients and the staff nurses. “The nurses who were based there were wonderful and very appreciative of us being there,” Thompson said.

Micah Johnson, MSN, RN, director of nursing at Christus St. Michael Hospital-Atlanta, was also one of the volunteers; for him, the biggest take away was how nurses were able to rally together in a time of crisis and help patients in need.

Source: Nurse.com

The Roots of Peer Review

The following is an excerpt from Nursing Peer Review, Second Edition

Medical staffs have been peer reviewing their cases for decades, and as fellow professionals, we must hold ourselves to the same high standards. Nurses are professionals who must hold each other accountable and evaluate patient care so we can eliminate system and human errors. Nurses are no different than physicians in this way.

An early crusader for quality improvement, E. A. Codman helped develop the concept of outcomes management in patient care. He was a proponent of peer review and quality programs for healthcare delivered at the hospital level.

Practicing in the early 20th century, Codman was a founder of the American College of Surgeons and its Hospital Standardization Program. Eventually, that program would morph into what we know today as The Joint Commission. His statement from 1916 calling for review and transparency are as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago:
I am called eccentric for saying in public that hospitals, if they wish to be sure of improvement, must find out what their results are, must analyze their results to find their strong and weak points, must compare their results with those of other hospitals, must care for cases that they can care for well and avoid attempting to care for cases which they are not qualified to care for well, must welcome publicity, not only for their successes, but for their errors. Such opinions will not be eccentric a few years hence.

—E. A. Codman, A Study in Hospital Efficiency, 1916

Codman would likely be happy to see today that the practice of physicians reviewing the work of other physicians—peer review—is a common practice and is considered to be a crucial element of ensuring that quality medical care is provided to patients.

That element is just as crucial in the nursing profession. The major reason for implementing a peer review process is to improve patient care. If nothing else, peer review is the right thing to do to protect the patient from potential harm. It is just a matter of time before external accreditation agencies, the government, and your hospital will require a formal peer review process of nurses.

More and more, healthcare organizations are required to be transparent about quality performance metrics. While the information that is publically reported is aggregate data, it is important for the healthcare organization to know person-specific performance data so that they can drive improved patient outcomes.

Typically, the outliers or underperformers are a small number of nurses who may not know they are not performing to the standard of care. It is important to give them specific and periodic performance feedback so that they can adjust their care model. Additionally, providing performance data to nurses helps them understand where they rank among their peers. When doing so, it is important to report the data in an anonymous way so that each nurse is uniquely identified using a coding system. This can be useful when metrics are performance based and specific in nature. Transparency is the way of the future, and moving in that direction will help the nursing infrastructure catch up with performance models used by physicians.

The goals and benefits of peer review include:

• Improving the quality of care provided by individual nurses
• Monitoring the performance of nurses
• Identifying opportunities for performance improvement
• Identifying system-wide issues
• Identifying educational needs of nurses

If the process of peer review is to be effective, then a formal structure must be created to allow for the tracking and trending of information and the identification of potential system or human failures. Case review is useful for this, as it presents opportunities to identify failures through investigation so nurses and other team members can correct them before injury occurs in another patient or patients.

The key to nurse retention

The following is an excerpt from Essential Skills for Nurse Managers.

Put aside all the tips and tools for retention for a moment and remember this:

Of 1,500 nurses surveyed, their #1 incentive was noted to be personal recognition by their manager.

Imagine you are a staff member who helped out the department by covering an extra shift due to a sick call. Sure, at the end of the pay period they will be smiling with the overtime in their check. Do you know what will make them smile just as much, or for some even more? If the next time they worked an envelope was in their mailbox or locker and inside was a single wrapped life saver with a note signed by their manager that simply read:

• Many thanks for helping out by picking up the extra shift. You are a life saver!

After much conflict in the department related to precepting issues and a lack of interest among the staff to contribute to the ongoing educational needs of the new graduate staff, one employee stepped forward to offer to assist. He understood there was no extra pay differential for taking on this challenge when he agreed to the role. However, that did not matter because he found in his locker an envelope with a single wrapped “treasures” chocolate candy and a note from the manager that read:

• Many thanks for volunteering to work with our new grads—we treasure you as part of our team!

Sometimes a trip down the candy aisle at the grocery store with a pad of paper is not about the eating; instead, it is about creating a memorable message that means something to an employee. Be sure that part of your retention strategies include your “shining stars.” Many managers assume these high-level performers do not need or desire recognition or praise; this is far from the truth. They may want to be recognized in different ways from the rest of the staff, but they still deserve to be reminded of the vital role they hold in the department. Sometimes the employees we desire to hold on to the most are the ones for which we use the least retention efforts. Do not make this mistake and be alert to the fact that many assumptions are made about top performers.

Rewards for employees should match and be in line with how and what they contribute to the department/organization. Just because employees perform well does not mean they are easy to get along with, welcoming to new hires, etc. And always remember that current performance may not be an indicator for future potential in a “shining star” Schmidt (2010). Be sure to balance your attention and recognition efforts among all of the team members, shining stars or not.

What providers can do this National Suicide Prevention Week

National Suicide Prevention Week is September 10-16, bringing awareness to the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. This week is a time for physicians, nurses, and other providers to learn more about how their healthcare organizations can help suicidal patients.

In 2013, 9.3 million adults had suicidal thoughts, 1.3 million attempted suicide, and 41,149 died. Even more worrying is that the rate of suicides has increased 24% between 1999 and 2014. And as of March 2017, Joint Commission surveyors have been putting special focus on suicide, self-harm, and ligature observations in psychiatric units and hospitals. Surveyors are documenting all observations of self-harm risks, and evaluating whether the facility has:

• Identified these risks before
  •    Has plans to deal with these risks
  •    Conducted an effective environmental risk assessment process

To learn more about suicide prevention in healthcare, check out the following websites and articles.

Resources

• Suicide Prevention Resource Center
• CDC suicide prevention resources
• Physician training on Suicide Prevention 
• Joint Commission announcement on increased suicide focus 
• Joint Commission FAQ on ligature risk
• FGI’s Design Guide for the Built Environment for Behavioral Health Facilities, version 7.2
• Bringing universal suicide screening to your hospital
• Identifying best practices for suicide prevention
• How to spot suicide and ligature risks in your facility

Nurse’s controversial arrest sparks outrage and reform

Last week, body-cam footage was released of a Salt Lake City detective arresting a nurse for refusing to let them draw blood from their unconscious patient. Alex Wubbels, RN, the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit, was following hospital policy and state regulations by refusing consent, but she was still handcuffed and arrested despite protests from the hospital staff.

Shortly after footage of the incident was released, The American Nurses Association (ANA) issued the following statement, “The ANA is outraged that a registered nurse was handcuffed and arrested by a police officer for following her hospital’s policy and the law, and is calling for the Salt Lake City Police Department to conduct a full investigation, make amends to the nurse, and take action to prevent future abuses.”

In the video, Wubbels consulted with her supervisors and presented details about the hospital’s policy, which states that that blood could not be taken from an unconscious patient unless a warrant was issued for the blood draw or the patient consents. The officer stated that they had implied consent to get the sample; however, implied consent has not been Utah law for over a decade, and the Supreme Court ruled against warrantless blood tests in 2016. When Wubbels and the hospital staff continued to refuse, the officer grew irritated and made the arrest.

“It is outrageous and unacceptable that a nurse should be treated in this way for following her professional duty to advocate on behalf of the patient as well as following the policies of her employer and the law,” said ANA President Pam Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN.

In a press conference last week, Wubbels’ lawyer Karra Porter called her arrest unlawful: “The law is well-established. And it’s not what we were hearing in the video,” she said. “I don’t know what was driving this situation.”

In the same conference, Wubbels gave the following statement: “I want to see people do the right thing first and I want to see this be a civil discourse. If that’s not something that’s going to happen and there is refusal to acknowledge the need for growth and the need for re-education, then we will likely be forced to take [legal action]. But people need to know that this is out there.”

The mayor and police chief of Salt Lake City have apologized to Ms. Wubbels, and have agreed to perform an investigation of the incident. The police officer involved and his supervisor have been suspended as well.

Because of this incident, facilities throughout the country are reassessing their policies. The University of Utah has already changed their policy so that nurses will no longer have direct contact with the police, and other facilities are hoping to do the same.