Developing nurse and midwife centred rostering principles using co-design: a mixed-methods study.

Background: Current nursing and midwifery rosters are based on guidelines which may no longer adequately meet the needs of health services or staff and often result in decreased job satisfaction, poor health and wellbeing, and high turnover. Little is known about the rostering needs and preferences of contemporary nurses and midwives in Australia. The aim of this study was to identify the rostering concerns, needs and preferences of nurses and midwives, and co-design acceptable, equitable and feasible rostering principles.

Making Ends Meet: A Conceptual and Ethical Analysis of Efficiency.

Efficiency is often overlooked as an ethical value and seen as ethically relevant chiefly when it conflicts with other values, such as equality. This article argues that efficiency is a rich and philosophically interesting concept deserving of independent normative examination. Drawing on a detailed healthcare case study, we argue that making assessments of efficiency involves value-laden, deliberative judgments about how to characterize the functioning of human systems.

A systematic review of simulation methods applied to cancer care services.

There is significant potential for Operational Research to support improvements in care services for cancer patients. In this systematic review, we examine computer simulation techniques used in supporting hospital-based cancer care, the type of problems addressed, the quality of the model and implementation, and the impact on patients. We identified 51 papers distributed between four problem types: patient flow/pathway modelling, scheduling, cost analysis, and resource allocation.

Relationship between critical illness recovery and social determinants of health: a multiperspective qualitative study in British Columbia, Canada.

Objectives: There are health disparities and inequities in the outcomes of critical illness survivors related to the influence of social determinants of health on recovery. The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between critical illness recovery and the intermediary social determinants of health in the Canadian context. Because Canadian healthcare is provided within a universal publicly funded system, this analysis sheds light on the role of social determinants of health in the context of universal health services and a relatively robust social safety net.