Monday, November 3, 2003: 1:30 PM-2:45 PM | |||
Creating Quality Work Environments for Nurses | |||
| Learning Objective #1: Develop a greater understanding of the work environment variables that have an impact on nursing and patient outcomes in acute care settings | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Learn the process employed to develop and sustain an intervention designed to improve the quality of nurses’ work lives | |||
| The purpose of this symposium is to discuss a study that was designed to provide support and assistance to hospitals as they address work life issues for nurses in Ontario, Canada. This presentation will focus on the results of the study which includes the process for identification of key nursing work life issues that formed the intervention in the study, the mechanisms used for the development of specific interventions/ strategies within the hospitals for addressing workplace issues. Hospitals studied their local work environments using a quality improvement approach, identified issues within their environments that were interfering with the achievement of the quality work initiatives identified, and designed changes in the work environment. Process interventions were developed to assist staff nurses to manage workload and staffing issues while developing leadership skills at the bedside. The results of the study explore the interventions for improving the quality of nurses’ work life in relation to nursing and patient outcomes are presented. In the first presentation in this symposium, the results of a province-wide repeated measures study conducted in 8 adult, community and teaching hospitals in Ontario, Canada are outlined. The second presentation provides an overview of the process used to develop and sustain the intervention utilized in this study. The final presentation shares the results of semi-structured interviews with nurse facilitators and nurses on the study units that explored the innovative intervention strategies they implemented on their units, barriers and facilitators to the implementation of these strategies, and the usefulness of the strategies employed. The study of patient outcomes remains important to nursing and the health care sector, yet challenges with linking issues in the nurses work environment to specific outcomes of nursing care continue to confront the profession. This symposium fits within the “Outcomes Measurement” theme of the conference. | |||
| Organizer: | Linda McGillis Hall, RN, PhD | ||
| Quality Work Environments for Nurses: Nurses and Patient Perspectives Linda McGillis Hall, RN, PhD | |||
| Designing an Intervention to Improve the Quality of Nurses’ Work life Diane Doran, PhD, Jennifer Carryer, RN, MN | |||
| Improving the Quality of Nurses’ Work Life: A Process Analysis Souraya Sidani, RN, PhD | |||
37th Biennial Convention - Scientific Session
Sigma Theta Tau International