Standardized Change-of-Shift Handoff: Nurses' Perspectives and Implications for Evidence-Based Practice.

Background: Nursing handoff is a communication activity with a high risk for loss or omission of information. Efforts to improve handoffs include standardization of the processes and content of handoff communications.

Objectives: To examine nurses' perspectives on the structure and organization of change-of-shift handoffs.

Rapid Deployment of Team Nursing During a Pandemic: Implementation Strategies and Lessons Learned.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic increased the number of patients requiring intensive care nation-wide, leading to nurse staffing shortages in many units.

Local Problem: At the beginning of the statewide COVID-19 surge, a tertiary teaching hospital in the upper Midwest experienced a sharp increase in patients needing intensive care. To relieve the resulting staffing shortage, it implemented a pilot program to bring general care nurses into its 21-bed mixed specialty intensive care unit to free intensive care unit nurses to help staff the hospital's COVID-designated units.

Change-of-Shift Nursing Handoff Interruptions: Implications for Evidence-Based Practice.

Background: The importance of change-of-shift handoffs in maintaining patient safety has been well demonstrated. Change-of-shift handoff is an important source of data used in surveillance, a nursing intervention aimed at identifying and preventing complications. Surveillance requires the nurse to acquire, process, and synthesize information (cues) encountered during patient care.

Pretreatment of Wheat Bran for Suitable Reinforcement in Biocomposites.

Wheat bran, abundant but underutilized, was investigated for its potential as a reinforcement in biocomposites through different pretreatment methods. Pretreatment methods included were dilute sodium hydroxide (NaOH), dilute sulfuric acid (HSO), liquid hot water (LHW), calcium hydroxide (CaOH), organosolv such as aqueous ethanol (EtOH), and methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK). Changes in chemical composition and fiber characteristics of the treated bran were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

Effect of Increased Amounts of Fe, Zn, and Cd on Uptake, Translocation, and Accumulation of Human Health Related Micronutrients in Wheat.

Agricultural Scientists has lifted the crop production many folds' overs last 100 years but nutritive quality of crop products has not been addressed accordingly as a result humans in many parts of the world are suffering from malnutrition. The efficient improvement of nutritive quality of important crop species like wheat is dependent on the understanding of the acquisition of micronutrients from soil environment and subsequent translocation and distribution into different tissues. The objectives of this work were to understand the effect of increased concentrations of Fe, Zn, and Cd 1) on overall mineral and metal concentrations, 2) on acquisition, translocation, and distribution of minerals among different tissues, and 3) on the inter-relationship of the minerals and metals as reflected in changing the relationship pattern in wheat.

Surveillance: A Nursing Intervention for Improving Patient Safety in Critical Care Environment.

Background: Nursing surveillance has been identified as a key intervention in early recognition and prevention of errors/adverse events. Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) defines surveillance as "the purposeful and ongoing acquisition, interpretation, and synthesis of patient data for clinical decision making." Because nurses are the main staffing constant in the critical care environment, the importance of surveillance as an intervention is fundamental.

Mayo Clinic Reduces Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections Through a Bundled 6-C Approach.

The primary CAUTI reduction strategies of ensuring aseptic technique during catheter placement and reducing urinary catheter utilization were already in place at our institution. A multidisciplinary team approach, which entailed the use of QI methodology and engagement of frontline staff, resulted in the identification of additional strategies to reduce CAUTI. By implementing these strategies, we successfully reduced CAUTIs and have sustained this reduction through March 2016.