An examination of technical efficiency, quality, and patient safety in acute care nursing units.

Using an innovative statistical approach-data envelopment analysis-the authors examined the technical efficiency of 226 medical, surgical, and medical-surgical nursing units in 118 randomly selected acute care hospitals. The authors used the inputs of registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, and unlicensed hours of care; operating expenses; and number of beds on the unit. Outputs included case mix adjusted discharges, patient satisfaction (as a quality measure), and the rates of medication errors and patient falls (as measures of patient safety).

Revisiting nurse turnover costs: adjusting for inflation.

Organizational knowledge of nurse turnover costs is important, but gathering these data frequently may not always be feasible in today's fast-paced and complex healthcare environment. The author presents a method to inflation adjust baseline nurse turnover costs using the Consumer Price Index. This approach allows nurse executives to gain current knowledge of organizational nurse turnover costs when primary data collection is not practical and to determine costs and potential savings if nurse retention investments are made.

The costs of nurse turnover, part 2: application of the Nursing Turnover Cost Calculation Methodology.

This is the second article in a 2-part series focusing on nurse turnover and its costs. Part 1 (December 2004) described nurse turnover costs within the context of human capital theory, and using human resource accounting methods, presented the updated Nursing Turnover Cost Calculation Methodology. Part 2 presents an application of this method in an acute care setting and the estimated costs of nurse turnover that were derived.

The costs of nurse turnover: part 1: an economic perspective.

Nurse turnover is costly for healthcare organizations. Administrators and nurse executives need a reliable estimate of nurse turnover costs and the origins of those costs if they are to develop effective measures of reducing nurse turnover and its costs. However, determining how to best capture and quantify nurse turnover costs can be challenging.

Incorporating health services research into nursing doctoral programs.

Despite the successes of the US health care system, problems associated with access, affordability, and quality of care remain to be solved. Health services research (HSR) has the potential to aid nurses in addressing these issues; yet the importance of its inclusion in the academic preparation of nurse researchers has not been consistently recognized. This article discusses the relevance of HSR to nursing, provides a brief review of the history of HSR and its imperatives, and presents rationale for nursing's involvement in HSR.