The impact and perception of nursing certification in pediatric nursing.

Nursing certification is an assessment and formal recognition of specialized knowledge, and is awarded through achievement of standards identified by a nursing specialty (Niebuhr & Biel, 2007). This recognition is a method of not only assessing competency, but knowledge and skills, and has been linked to an increase in patient satisfaction and nurse retention (Kleinpell, 2009). For these reasons, a heightened focus has been on identifying the value of nursing certification and outcomes related to patient care.

Nursing portfolio study: the use in annual performance reviews.

Professional portfolios allow staff to document their participation in areas of education, certification, shared governance councils, national nursing organizations, and community outreach. In this study, nurses tracked their professional development in a virtual electronic portfolio. A preperception/postperception questionnaire for both staff and unit directors revealed that nursing portfolios proved to be a valuable tool during annual performance reviews to acknowledge accomplishments and encourage continued professional growth of individual direct-care staff nurses.

The impact of education and simulation on pediatric novice nurses' response and recognition to deteriorating.

Adverse patient events related to preventable errors while hospitalized resulted in need for interventions to improve outcomes. One identified error is the lack of symptom recognition during patient deterioration. Pediatric patients' symptoms during deterioration vary from their adult counterparts and often go unrecognized.

Brief report: Creating a culture of evidence-based practice and nursing research in a pediatric hospital.

Evidence-based practice and nursing research are fundamental to the profession of nursing. However, enculturating these processes into daily nursing practice presents challenges. In an effort to identify these challenges specific to our organization's nursing division, the Barriers to Nursing Research survey was distributed to staff nurses (n=239) to assess barriers in utilizing evidence-based practice and research in their daily practice.

Wireless telephone systems and the impact on patient satisfaction scoring: a pilot study.

Unlabelled: A review of patient and family satisfaction measures on one pediatric acute care inpatient unit of 27 beds rated the nurses' promptness in responding to patient call bells in the 40%-50% excellence range. As a process improvement initiative, a wireless telephone system was implemented on the unit for enhancing communications between caregivers.

Interventions: During this 6-week trial, each registered nurse (RN) and patient care technician (PCT) was assigned a wireless telephone at the beginning of their shift, thus becoming their communication vehicle for 12 hours.