Anticipatory management communication in end-of-shift medicine and nursing handoffs

"The different frequencies for types of AMC likely reflect differences in how residents and nurses work and disparate professional cultures. But, verbal communication in both groups included important information unlikely to be captured in written handoff tools or the electronic medical record, underscoring the importance of direct communication to ensure safe handoffs."

“Mr Smith's been our problem child today…”: anticipatory management communication (AMC) in VA end-of-shift medicine and nursing handoffs
AA Bergman, ME Flanagan, PR Ebright, CM O'Brien, RM Franke
BMJ Quality and Safety 2016;25:84-91 doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003694

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Improving the recording of surgical drain output

"We have demonstrated that the introduction of a simple and well-designed drain chart can significantly improve the documentation of drain output, thereby improving patient safety and discharge efficiency."

Improving the recording of surgical drain output
Nicholas Lyons, Paul Heron, Rob Bethune
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports 2015;4: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u209264.w3964

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Home administration of intravenous diuretics to heart failure patients

"Originally a 2-year pilot programme to assess safe and effective ways for specialist nursing teams to administer intravenous (IV) diuretics to people at home or in a day-care setting, preventing hospital admissions and improving patient experience. Without this service patients would be admitted to hospital to receive IV diuretics."

Home administration of intravenous diuretics to heart failure patients: Increasing productivity and improving quality of care
Quality and Productivity case study
British Heart Foundation
June 2015

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Multi-disciplinary Team Handbook

"This handbook brings together information about multi-disciplinary / integrated teams from a wide range of sources including publications, studies and operational examples for the purpose of providing a stimulus to the system to examine the type or types of teams that need to be in place to deliver integrated healthcare."

MDT Development: Working toward an effective multidisciplinary/multiagency team
NHS England
January 2015

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Nutritional assessment in elderly care

"We believe that improved patient outcomes and significant savings to the trust can be achieved, not only by ensuring that every patient has a MUST score documented, but that it is calculated correctly and the appropriate interventions are implemented."

Nutritional assessment in elderly care: a MUST!
M Frank, A Sivagnanaratnam, J Bernstein
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports 2015;4: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u204810.w2031

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RCN Safe Staffing Report 2014

"With a renewed focus on safe staffing levels after the Francis report most London trusts have increased their budgeted nursing establishments this year. The link between staffing numbers, skill mix and patient safety is now inescapable."

RCN Safe Staffing Report 2014
Royal College of Nursing
December 2014

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The impact of a large-scale quality improvement programme on work engagement

"The findings demonstrate how QI activities, like those integral to the Productive Ward programme, appear to positively impact on the work engagement (the vigour, absorption and dedication) of ward-based teams."

The impact of a large-scale quality improvement programme on work engagement: Preliminary results from a national cross-sectional-survey of the ‘Productive Ward’
M White, JSG Wells, T Butterworth
International Journal of Nursing Studies 51(12),  2014, pp.1634–1643

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Safe staffing for nursing in adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals

"The guideline identifies organisational and managerial factors that are required to support safe staffing for nursing, and makes recommendations for monitoring and taking action if there are not enough nursing staff available to meet the nursing needs of patients on the ward.Safe staffing for nursing in adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals"

Safe staffing for nursing in adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals
NICE Guidelines [SG1]
July 2014

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What does the future hold for the NHS

"The contributions gathered here address some of the most complex or controversial debates in healthcare – such as decommissioning, integration, engagement, and leadership." 

This collection from Birmingham University's Health Services Management Centre contains the following articles:

• Decommissioning and the leadership challenge in health care
• System leadership in a fragmented system
• Strengthening Communities to Deliver the Better Care Fund
• The role of leadership and collaboration in the development of a social impact measurement system for use in healthcare
• The NHS and Diversity: research on the real lives behind the differences
• Moving upstream: The case for prevention
• Telehealth and the NHS: are we asking the right questions?
• Learning lessons from other countries 
• A Health Workforce that’s fit for the Twenty-First Century
• Keep schtum or whistle: what makes some health and care managers resist corruptions to practices
• Nursing is hard emotional work - why is that ignored?
• Developing a culture of compassionate care: lost in translation
• Evaluating the future of healthcare: where does the truth lie?

What does the future hold for the NHS
Health Services Management Centre
University of Birmingham
June 2014

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How nurses and their work environment affect patient experience

"Nurses feel pressured to increase productivity and report a high administrative workload. They stated that these factors will not improve patient experiences of the quality of nursing care."

How nurses and their work environment affect patient experiences of the quality of care: a qualitative study
RAMM Kieft, BBJM de Brouwer, AL Francke, DMJ Delnoij
BMC Health Services Research, 2014, 14: 249

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Draft for consultation: safe staffing for adult inpatient nursing

"This guideline is primarily for use by NHS provider organisations or others who provide or commission services for NHS patients. It is aimed at healthcare boards, hospital managers, ward managers, healthcare professionals and commissioners. Those responsible and accountable for staffing for nursing in adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals at organisational and at a ward level should take this guideline fully into account when exercising their professional judgement."

Feedback is being sought on this guideline until 6th June 2014.

Safe staffing for nursing in adult inpatient wards in acute hospitals: NICE safe staffing guideline 
Draft for consultation, 12 May to 6 June 2014
May 2014

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Strengthening the commitment: learning disabilities nursing review

"Learning disabilities nurses, their managers and leaders should develop and apply 
outcomes focused measurement frameworks to evidence their contribution to improving 
person centred health outcomes and demonstrating value for money."

Strengthening the commitment: one year on: progress report on the UK Modernising Learning Disabilities Nursing Review 
Public Health Nursing Division, Modernising Learning Disabilities Nursing UK Implementation Group

Department of Health

April 2014 

Read more here.

A guide to nursing, midwifery and care staffing capacity and capability

"Nursing, midwifery and care staff, working as part of wider multidisciplinary teams, play a critical role in securing high quality care and excellent outcomes for patients. There are established and evidenced links between patient outcomes and whether organisations have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place at the right time." 

How to ensure the right people, with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time: A guide to nursing, midwifery and care staffing capacity and capability
NHS England
November 2013

Read more here. 

Best BMJ Quality & Safety articles 2013

"This special collection reflects the depth and breadth of content from BMJ Quality & Safety, which encourages innovation and creative thinking to improve the quality of health care and the science of improvement."

Articles included in the collection are:

• Identification of doctors at risk of recurrent complaints: a national study of healthcare complaints in Australia
• The global burden of unsafe medical care: analytic modelling of observational studies
• Systematic review of the application of the plan–do–study–act method to improve quality in healthcare
• Assessing adverse events among home care clients in three Canadian provinces using chart review
• 'Care left undone’ during nursing shifts: associations with workload and perceived quality of care
• Allocating scarce resources in real-time to reduce heart failure admissions: a prospective, controlled study
• Culture and behaviour in the English National Health Service: overview of lessons from a large
  multimethod study

BMJ Quality & Safety: A collection of key articles
The Health foundation

April 2014

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Strategies to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection

"Urinary catheter reminders and stop orders appear to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infection rates and should be used to improve patient safety. Several evidence-based guidelines have evaluated CAUTI preventive strategies as well as emerging evidence regarding intervention bundles. Implementation strategies are important because reducing urinary catheter use involves changing well-established habits."

Reducing unnecessary urinary catheter use and other strategies to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection: an integrative review
J Meddings, MAM Rogers, SL Krein, MG Fakih, RN Olmsted, S Saint
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014, 23 (4) 277–289

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The Francis Report: one year on

"Many senior leaders of the acute trusts said that the publication of the Francis Report had prompted them to reflect in greater depth on the quality of care being delivered in their organisations." 

The Francis Report: one year on: The response of acute trusts in England
R Thorlby, J Smith, S Williams, M Dayan
Nuffield Trust
February 2014

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Nurse staffing ratios and hospital readmission

"Children with common conditions treated in hospitals in which nurses care for fewer patients each are significantly less likely to experience readmission between 15 and 30 days after discharge."

An observational study of nurse staffing ratios and hospital readmission among children admitted for common conditions
HL Tubbs-Cooley, JP Cimiotti, JH Silber, DM Sloane, LH Aiken
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2013, 22:735-742

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Facilitated patient experience feedback can improve nursing care

"These findings suggest that merely informing nurses of patient survey results in writing does not stimulate improvements, even if results are disaggregated by ward, but the addition of ward meetings had an important and significant impact."

Facilitated patient experience feedback can improve nursing care: a pilot study for a phase III cluster randomised controlled trial
R Reeves, E West, D Barron
BMC Health Services Research, 2013, 13:259

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Continuous quality improvement

"Shared governance and continuous quality improvement (CQI) are concepts that have been re-introduced into the healthcare sector over recent decades through several iterations for the purpose of empowering point-of-care staff."

Continuous quality improvement: a shared governance model that maximizes agent-specific knowledge
V Burkosi, J Yoon
Nursing Leadership, 26 (Special Issue) May 2013: 7-16

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Two different strategies for promoting hand hygiene in hospital nurses

"In summary, with this study we were able to look inside the ‘black box’ of two hand hygiene improvement strategies, to generate insights into which strategy components are effective."

Explaining the effects of two different strategies for promoting hand hygiene in hospital nurses: a process evaluation alongside a cluster randomised controlled trial
A Huis, G Holleman, T van Acterberg, R Grol, L Schoonhoven, M Hulscher
Implementation Science, 2013, 8:41

Read more here.