Improving patient care through student leadership in team quality improvement projects.

In partnership with a major medical center, senior-level nursing students completed a root cause analysis and implementation plan to address a unit-specific quality issue. To evaluate the project, unit leaders were asked their perceptions of the value of the projects and impact on patient care, as well as to provide exemplars depicting how the student root cause analysis work resulted in improved patient outcome and/or unit processes. Liaisons noted benefits of having an RCA team, with positive impact on patient outcomes and care processes.

Stroke awareness among inpatient nursing staff at an academic medical center.

Background And Purpose: Because 10% of strokes occur in hospitalized patients, we sought to evaluate stroke knowledge and predictors of stroke knowledge among inpatient and emergency department nursing staff.

Methods: Nursing staff completed an online stroke survey. The survey queried outcome expectations (the importance of rapid stroke identification), self-efficacy in recognizing stroke, and stroke knowledge (to name 3 stroke warning signs or symptoms).

Special considerations for mobilizing patients in the neurointensive care unit.

Patients with neurologic illness or injury benefit from early interventions to increase physical activity and mobility, but they also have special needs related to hemodynamic stability and intracranial pressure dynamics. After brain injury, moving paralyzed limbs--even passively--helps promote neural plasticity, "rerouting" signals around the injured area and forming new connections, resulting in improved functional recovery. Neurologic deficits may impede a patient's functional and language abilities, so a mobility program must take into account the need for assistive devices, communication strategies, and additional personnel.

Implications of nurse-physician relations: report of a successful intervention.

Given the evidence linking medical errors to ineffective communication, strategies for improving communication among health care professionals must be implemented. The purpose of this article was to examine the effect of a collaborative intervention on improving communication patterns between nurses and physicians on two study units. The intervention consisted of two nurses and two physicians (per unit) meeting together (8 hours total) to collaboratively develop a solution to communication issues on their respective units.

Risk of infection with prolonged ventricular catheterization.

Objective: The relationship between extended ventricular catheterization and infection remains controversial. Although studies have substantiated an increasing infection rate with prolonged catheterization, there has been less agreement on whether this trend continues beyond 10 days. Our study reviews the daily infection rate of 595 patients, 213 of whom underwent more than 10 days of catheterization.