A new human resources management strategy could help create full-time jobs and attract nurses who might otherwise find it difficult to obtain full-time work, a McMaster University study says.

Over the past decade nurse staffing has been a challenge for hospitals. One response has been to use a nursing resource team, an innovative transformation of the float pool of the past. Resource teams consist of staff employed by the organization to cover vacancies and absences and to respond to increases in the numbers of patients or the seriousness of their conditions.

The McMaster study explored the nursing resource team (NRT) at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) from the first two years of its implementation, September 2002 until June 2004.

Researchers and clinicians from McMaster’s Nursing Health Services Research Unit (NHSRU) and HHS found that the NRT offered a competitive advantage for the organization through its ability to recruit, retain, and maximize the use of nurses during a time of shortage.

Prior to the establishment of the NRT, nursing human resources management had become problematic. Insufficient nursing capacity meant using agency nurses, sanctioning overtime, and leaving nursing teams short-staffed. Limited staffing capacity created stress for nursing staff who felt overworked and under-supported.

Resource management teams are usually managed centrally. Resource staff are managed and deployed by a central staffing office that assigns nurses to areas in need of personnel across the entire hospital. The difference between a traditional float pool and a modern resource team is the range of units to which an individual nurse can be assigned. In a traditional float pool, a nurse is regarded as a generic worker who is able to work with various patient populations and utilize many skill sets. In resource teams, however, nurses’ specialized skills are recognized and used. Nurses work in their area of clinical expertise and preference, developing in-depth knowledge of particular clinical populations.

The study, funded by the Nursing Secretariat of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, found the NRT is also a vehicle for staff development and it provides excellent orientation and integrates nurses into the organization in a manner that recognizes their unique abilities and employment needs.

Dr. Andrea Baumann, Principle Co-Investigator and Co-director of NHSRU, says the NRT proved to be a more efficient means of providing appropriate staff coverage and has facilitated the discontinuation of agency use.

"The NRT supports the efficient allocation of staff and is considered to provide safer, more productive, and higher quality staff than agencies. The use of a nursing resource team provides a way for an organization and its employees to work together to benefit nurses and management, and ultimately improve patient care."

The implementation of the resource team at HHS was considered a success by all study participants. In contrast to traditional float pools, resource teams recognize nursing expertise, create opportunities for full-time work, and provide nurses with opportunities for professional development.

The nursing resource team at Hamilton Health Sciences:

� Provided a recruitment strategy offering full-time employment to new and experienced nurses internal and external to the organization.

� Capitalized on nursing expertise by deploying members to clinical areas where they were competent to practice and could use their specialist skills and expertise.

� Represented a "just-in-time approach" to clinical needs. It provided a flexible and adaptive mechanism for dealing with fluctuations in patient census, for covering nurse absenteeism, and reducing overtime.

� Provided a pool of skilled nurses that could be recruited into specialist nursing areas as jobs become available.

Participants in the NRT study included nurses, business clerks, managers, and administrators. A total of 101 individuals took part through 24 interviews, nine focus groups, and direct observation. Front line nurses, comprising 23 NRT nurses and 20 unit-based charge nurses, were the largest group, representing 42.6 percent of the sample.

The report is available on the Nursing Health Services Research Unit web site http://www.nhsru.com.

Theresa Noonan
Knowledge Broker, Nursing Health Services Research Unit
Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing
McMaster University
1200 Main Street West, MDCL 3500
Hamilton, Ontario
L8N 3Z5
E-mail: noonant@mcmaster.ca
http://www.mcmaster.ca

Many heath care systems are seeking new ways to address the continuing nursing shortage in America, which has nursing homes, hospitals and institutions of higher learning struggling to hire and retain qualified professionals.

But faculty in the department of nursing at Temple University’s College of Health Professions now have a plan in place to reduce the shortage by increasing the number of African Americans and Hispanics entering into the profession.

Nursing professor Karen M. Schaefer, D.N.Sc., R.N., recently secured funding from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to help local students who want to become nursing professionals achieve their dream. The $500,000 award will be used over the next three years to provide support to students from the North Philadelphia area entering into the first year of their nursing program.

Schaefer and her colleagues hope that the "Developing Diverse Diamonds Project" (DDDP) will open doors for those whose "financial, academic and personal" circumstances limit their educational pursuits. To help these individuals, two full-time nursing faculty members will work with Schaefer to develop a set of "culturally sensitive activities" to supplement each student’s current academic curriculum.

The 15 juniors invited to participate in the project also must attend weekly "Professional Development Sessions," where they will learn how to manage stress and time, take notes, study and take tests in classes and how to prepare for the culturally diverse environment that they will enter upon graduation.

"It is expected that all students will graduate in two years, maintain their self esteem [and] use of healthy coping skills by graduation and [that] 90 percent of diverse students will pass the NCLEX-RN [national licensure exam] the first time," said Schaefer.

The second component of the project will use the DDDP nursing students and other nursing volunteers to teach grade school students about nursing and health care. Twenty to 25 fifth- and sixth-graders from primarily African-American and Hispanic schools will meet four times a year for DDDP’s academy. Schaefer hopes that exposing the children to different aspects of health, nutrition and culture in a fun atmosphere will excite them and further their interest in nursing as a career.

"The success of the project will be measured using admission, retention, attrition and graduation rates," said Schaefer, who ultimately expects diversity within Temple’s nursing school to increase by 5 percent over the next three years.

This project, due to begin in September 2004, may in the near future become a model for other institutions as recommendations from state governmental agencies begin filtering down to health care administrators. In its first-ever White Paper on the nursing work force released earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Department of Health encouraged health care systems to employ a work force that reflects area demographics.

The health department began exploring this issue in 2002 by conducting a series of focus and discussion groups to collect and assess opinions about the recruitment and retention of nurses within the state. By combining these data with demographic, educational, professional and employment characteristics for Pennsylvania nursing professionals, the health department was able to assess deficiencies and provide guidance to health care employers across the state.

According to the health department’s report, minorities are vastly underrepresented in the nursing population in Pennsylvania. African Americans make up almost 9 percent of Pennsylvania’s population but account for only about 3 percent of the RNs in the state. The numbers are even lower for Hispanics, who make up 2.5 percent of Pennsylvanians but only .72 percent of the RN population.

The health department is now encouraging educators and employers "to develop strategies to increase the numbers of members of cultural, racial, and linguistic minorities who enter and graduate from nursing programs."

Contact: Tory Harris
tah@temple.edu
215-707-1731
Temple University

The Czech Republic is facing a serious shortage of nurses, with Prague alone needing 500 more, as the its medical staff seek higher pay abroad.

Normally around 5,000 nurses graduate each year from the country’s nursing colleges, but only 2,000 nurses will leave the schools this year, according to the Czech News Agency.

The main reason is a new European Union directive, which extended the training of nurses to three years.

Nurses also feel they are undervalued in the Czech Republic, with 40 per cent of them polled by an industry journal saying they would never have opted for nursing if they had known how difficult it would be.

Many of them are packing their bags in search of a better deal - the Health Ministry currently has 600 applications pending from nurses who want confirmation of their qualifications so they can seek employment abroad.

Wages are a big factor in the exodus: the average monthly salary of nurses in Prague is 24,000 crowns and between 14,000 to 17,000 crowns in other areas, while the equivalent pay in Germany is around 40,000 crowns.

The Czech employment rate rose by 1.8 per cent last year, RTT News reported.

About the Author

You can find out more about Online Medical Schools as well as much more information on everything to do with medical schools and programs at http://www.MedicalSchoolReviews.com

Many heath care systems are seeking new ways to address the continuing nursing shortage in America, which has nursing homes, hospitals and institutions of higher learning struggling to hire and retain qualified professionals.

But faculty in the department of nursing at Temple University’s College of Health Professions now have a plan in place to reduce the shortage by increasing the number of African Americans and Hispanics entering into the profession.

Nursing professor Karen M. Schaefer, D.N.Sc., R.N., recently secured funding from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to help local students who want to become nursing professionals achieve their dream. The $500,000 award will be used over the next three years to provide support to students from the North Philadelphia area entering into the first year of their nursing program.

Schaefer and her colleagues hope that the "Developing Diverse Diamonds Project" (DDDP) will open doors for those whose "financial, academic and personal" circumstances limit their educational pursuits. To help these individuals, two full-time nursing faculty members will work with Schaefer to develop a set of "culturally sensitive activities" to supplement each student’s current academic curriculum.

The 15 juniors invited to participate in the project also must attend weekly "Professional Development Sessions," where they will learn how to manage stress and time, take notes, study and take tests in classes and how to prepare for the culturally diverse environment that they will enter upon graduation.

"It is expected that all students will graduate in two years, maintain their self esteem [and] use of healthy coping skills by graduation and [that] 90 percent of diverse students will pass the NCLEX-RN [national licensure exam] the first time," said Schaefer.

The second component of the project will use the DDDP nursing students and other nursing volunteers to teach grade school students about nursing and health care. Twenty to 25 fifth- and sixth-graders from primarily African-American and Hispanic schools will meet four times a year for DDDP’s academy. Schaefer hopes that exposing the children to different aspects of health, nutrition and culture in a fun atmosphere will excite them and further their interest in nursing as a career.

"The success of the project will be measured using admission, retention, attrition and graduation rates," said Schaefer, who ultimately expects diversity within Temple’s nursing school to increase by 5 percent over the next three years.

This project, due to begin in September 2004, may in the near future become a model for other institutions as recommendations from state governmental agencies begin filtering down to health care administrators. In its first-ever White Paper on the nursing work force released earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Department of Health encouraged health care systems to employ a work force that reflects area demographics.

The health department began exploring this issue in 2002 by conducting a series of focus and discussion groups to collect and assess opinions about the recruitment and retention of nurses within the state. By combining these data with demographic, educational, professional and employment characteristics for Pennsylvania nursing professionals, the health department was able to assess deficiencies and provide guidance to health care employers across the state.

According to the health department’s report, minorities are vastly underrepresented in the nursing population in Pennsylvania. African Americans make up almost 9 percent of Pennsylvania’s population but account for only about 3 percent of the RNs in the state. The numbers are even lower for Hispanics, who make up 2.5 percent of Pennsylvanians but only .72 percent of the RN population.

The health department is now encouraging educators and employers "to develop strategies to increase the numbers of members of cultural, racial, and linguistic minorities who enter and graduate from nursing programs."

Contact: Tory Harris
tah@temple.edu
215-707-1731
Temple University

Welcome to your new blog. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

An email has been sent to you giving you details of how to log in to the administration section. From there you can change the design by clicking on the tab MANAGE and then click on the tab THEMES. If you have any questions, ask them in the forums — we are only too willing to help.