PhD Education Outcomes: Results of a National Survey of Nursing PhD Alumni.

Aim: A national survey was conducted to examine the relationship between individual students' experiences and nursing PhD program characteristics and program outcomes.

Background: In light of the shortage of doctorally prepared nurse scientists and a growth in nursing PhD programs, an examination of the PhD nursing education experience in relation to educational outcomes is timely.

Method: Data were collected from graduates of a 50 percent random sample of nursing PhD programs in the United States.

Conducting Nursing Research to Advance and Inform Health Policy.

The primary roles of nurse scientists in conducting health policy research are to increase knowledge in the discipline and provide evidence for informing and advancing health policies with the goal of improving the health outcomes of society. Health policy research informs, characterizes, explains, or tests hypotheses by employing a variety of research designs. Health policy research focuses on improving the access to care, the quality and cost of care, and the efficiency with which care is delivered.

A Staged Approach to Educating Nurses in Health Policy.

Nurse leaders and health-care experts agree that nurses have a responsibility to address the health problems facing the nation by participating in health policy development. However, nurses have not fully realized their potential when it comes to engaging in health policy advocacy and leadership. Nurse leaders, professional nursing organizations, accrediting bodies, and the Institute of Medicine have all identified the need to educate nurses in heath policy.

A proposed conceptual model of nursing and population health.

Objective: To describe a Conceptual Model of Nursing and Population Health about the intersection of nursing and population health.

Methods: Review of literature and derivation of a new conceptual model.

Results: The conceptual model concepts are upstream factors, population factors, health care system factors, nursing activities, and population health outcomes.

BS-PhD programs in nursing: where are we now?

Aim: To describe the state of development of bachelor's-to-doctoral-degree nursing programs and provide baseline data for future research exploring program outcomes.

Background: BS-PhD programs were developed to address a shortage of nurse scientists and educators by decreasing the time from initial baccalaureate degree to PhD credentialing.

Method: A random sample of BS-PhD program directors was selected.

The influence of social environmental factors on rehospitalization among patients receiving home health care services.

Guided by Orem's theory, this study examined the influence of social environmental factors on rehospitalization among home health care patients. Living arrangement, frequency of caregiving, and type of primary informal care were found to be related to functional ability. Measurable differences in clinical status and functional ability were related to the duration that patients received home health care services until rehospitalization, with the likelihood of rehospitalization increasing proportionately to the magnitude of the differences.

Job satisfaction in mainland China: comparing critical care nurses and general ward nurses.

Aim: To explore the level of nurses' job satisfaction and compare the differences between critical care nurses and general ward nurses in Mainland China.

Background: Hospitals continue to experience high nurse turnover. Job satisfaction is a key factor to retain skilled nurses.

Home care nurses' experience of job stress and considerations for the work environment.

Home care nurses report increased stress in their jobs due to work environment characteristics that impact professional practice. Stressors and characteristics of the professional practice environment that moderate nurses' experience of job stress were examined in this embedded multiple case study. Real life experiences within a complex environment were drawn from interviews and observations with 29 participants across two home care agencies from one eastern U.

Home healthcare nurse retention and patient outcome model: discussion and model development.

Aim: This paper discusses additions to an empirically tested model of home healthcare nurse retention. An argument is made that the variables of shared decision-making and organizational commitment be added to the model based on the authors' previous research and additional evidence from the literature.

Background: Previous research testing the home healthcare nurse retention model established empirical relationships between nurse, agency, and area characteristics to nurse job satisfaction, intent to stay, and retention.

Job satisfaction, occupational commitment and intent to stay among Chinese nurses: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Aim: This study was designed to identify the level of nurses' job satisfaction, occupational commitment and intent to stay among mainland Chinese nurses, to explore the relationship among them.

Background:   Little is known about the magnitude of Chinese nurses' intent to stay. Understanding the association among demographic characteristics and job satisfaction, occupational commitment and intent to stay among Chinese nurses is most important in a time of nurse shortages.

Nursing research and the impact on healthcare reform: dialogue with Carol Hall Ellenbecker.

The new healthcare legislation was substantially informed by nursing research. In this column Carol Ellenbecker discusses some of the key elements.

Strategies to recruit difficult-to-reach home health care nurses for research.

Strategies to access a stratified random sample of New England home health care agencies and nurses are described. The combined strategies resulted in a sample of 123 home health care agencies and 2,459 home healthcare nurses from the six New England states. The results will inform researchers aiming to achieve data representativeness and clinicians critiquing the rigor of evidence.

Preparing the nursing workforce of the future.

Nurse shortages coupled with the need for national healthcare reform present a challenge. We are not preparing enough nurses nor are we preparing nurses with the right skills to fully participate in a reformed healthcare system. Historical forces in nursing education have resulted in multiple levels of entry into nursing practice and an inadequate nursing workforce.

Predictors of home healthcare nurse retention.

Purpose: To examine the level of job satisfaction and test a theoretical model of the direct and indirect effects of job satisfaction, and individual nurse and agency characteristics, on intent to stay and retention for home healthcare nurses.

Design: A descriptive correlation study of home healthcare nurses in six New England states.

Methods: Home healthcare nurse job satisfaction self-report data was collected with the HHNJS survey questionnaire & Retention Survey Questionnaire.

Home care nurse shortage 2007.

Since the 2001 NAHC nursing shortage survey, no national study has explored changes in staffing vacancies, turnover rates, or the extent of the nurse shortage in home care. This article sets out the latest data.

Further psychometric testing of the home healthcare nurse job satisfaction scale.

The purpose of this study was to refine the psychometric properties of the Home Healthcare Nurses' Job Satisfaction Scale (HHNJS). A theoretical model of job satisfaction had been used to develop the 30-item HHNJS, representing nine components of job satisfaction. Psychometric properties suggested the need for further refinement.

Employer retention strategies and their effect on nurses' job satisfaction and intent to stay.

Faced with a nursing shortage and anticipated increase in demand, home care agencies are implementing retention strategies with little knowledge of their effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to describe the strategies implemented and their effect on nurse job satisfaction and intention to leave. Data were collected from a random sample of 123 New England agencies during in-person interviews.

A nursing PhD specialty in health policy: University of Massachusetts Boston.

This article describes the Nursing PhD Program specialty in health policy conceived and developed at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The rationale for a specialty in health policy is that nurses have valuable knowledge and a unique perspective of the health care system. Nurses belong to the largest group of health care providers and are the providers that spend the most time with patients.

Agencies make a difference in home healthcare nurses' job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to variability in home healthcare nurses' job satisfaction. Nurses completed the 30-item Home Healthcare Nurses Job Satisfaction Scale specifically designed to measure job satisfaction of home healthcare nurses. Results suggest that the greatest amount of variability in satisfaction for home healthcare nurses are salary and benefits, stress and workload, and organizational factors, that is, factors over which organizations and management have the most control.

Home Healthcare Nurses' Job Satisfaction Scale: refinement and psychometric testing.

Aims: This paper describes a study to further develop and test the psychometric properties of the Home Healthcare Nurses' Job Satisfaction Scale, including reliability and construct and criterion validity.

Background: Numerous scales have been developed to measure nurses' job satisfaction. Only one, the Home Healthcare Nurses' Job Satisfaction Scale, has been designed specifically to measure job satisfaction of home healthcare nurses.

A theoretical model of job retention for home health care nurses.

Background: Predicted severe nursing shortages and an increasing demand for home health care services have made the retention of experienced, qualified nursing staff a priority for health care organizations.

Aims: The purpose of this paper is to describe a theoretical model of job retention for home health care nurses.

Methods: The theoretical model is an integration of the findings of empirical research related to intent to stay and retention, components of Neal's theory of home health care nursing practice and findings from earlier work to develop an instrument to measure home health care nurses' job satisfaction.

Nurses' observations and experiences of problems and adverse effects of medication management in home care.

The purpose of this nonexperimental, descriptive study was to explore and describe the current state of medication management for patients receiving services from certified home health care agencies (CHHAs). Data were collected by self-report from a convenience sample of 101 home health care nurses from 12 agencies in six states. Nurses reported on a total of 1467 patients.