Integrated health and social care in England

"The paper offers an overview of the current call for integrated health and social care services in England, the rationale behind the push for integration, the facilitators and barriers to this way of working, and the related workforce and funding issues."

Integrated health and social care in England: the story so far
Royal College of Nursing
May 2014

Read more here.

Transforming dementia care in hospitals

"All nine Trusts felt that organisations should invest in development programmes such as this to support improvements in the experience of care for people with dementia and their families."

RCN development programme: transforming dementia care in hospitals: evaluation report
University of Worcester Association for Dementia Studies, Royal College of Nursing
2014

Read more here.

More than just a number

“This briefing confirms that in recent years there has been a significant dilution of skill mix across the country and across all settings, with a considerable loss and devaluation of senior skills and experience.”

Frontline First: More than just a number
Royal College of Nursing
March 2014

Read more here.

Nurse staffing ratios and hospital readmission

"Children with common conditions treated in hospitals in which nurses care for fewer patients each are significantly less likely to experience readmission between 15 and 30 days after discharge."

An observational study of nurse staffing ratios and hospital readmission among children admitted for common conditions
HL Tubbs-Cooley, JP Cimiotti, JH Silber, DM Sloane, LH Aiken
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2013, 22:735-742

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Facilitated patient experience feedback can improve nursing care

"These findings suggest that merely informing nurses of patient survey results in writing does not stimulate improvements, even if results are disaggregated by ward, but the addition of ward meetings had an important and significant impact."

Facilitated patient experience feedback can improve nursing care: a pilot study for a phase III cluster randomised controlled trial
R Reeves, E West, D Barron
BMC Health Services Research, 2013, 13:259

Read more here.

Continuous quality improvement

"Shared governance and continuous quality improvement (CQI) are concepts that have been re-introduced into the healthcare sector over recent decades through several iterations for the purpose of empowering point-of-care staff."

Continuous quality improvement: a shared governance model that maximizes agent-specific knowledge
V Burkosi, J Yoon
Nursing Leadership, 26 (Special Issue) May 2013: 7-16

Read more here.

Commissioning a good child health service

"This guide sets out for these important stakeholders a shared vision developed with GPs, paediatricians and children’s nurses of what a good children’s health service looks like from a primary care perspective."

Commissioning a good child health service
CIRC - Clinical Innovation and Research Centre
Royal College of General Practitioners
April 2013

Read more here.

Read a summary from the Commissioning Elf here.

Two different strategies for promoting hand hygiene in hospital nurses

"In summary, with this study we were able to look inside the ‘black box’ of two hand hygiene improvement strategies, to generate insights into which strategy components are effective."

Explaining the effects of two different strategies for promoting hand hygiene in hospital nurses: a process evaluation alongside a cluster randomised controlled trial
A Huis, G Holleman, T van Acterberg, R Grol, L Schoonhoven, M Hulscher
Implementation Science, 2013, 8:41

Read more here.

Caring for people with liver disease: a competence framework for nursing

"Delivery of high quality care that produces better outcomes for patients needs a high quality workforce: skilled and competent practitioners who are fit to deliver care in the future health and social care system."

Caring for people with liver disease: a competence framework for nursing
Royal College of Nursing
February 2013

Read more here.

Too posh to wash? Reflections on the future of nursing

"This publication and its contributors explore some of the possible solutions and take a forward looking approach at nursing and its role in modern medicine, rather than looking back to a ‘Golden Age’ which may not always offer meaningful answers to the challenges which nurses face today."

Too posh to wash? Reflections on the future of nursing
Edited by G Beer
2020health.org
January 2013

Read more here.

Compassion in practice

"This strategy sets out our shared purpose as nurses, midwives and care staff to deliver high quality, compassionate care, and to achieve excellent health and wellbeing outcomes."

Compassion in practice
Commissioning Board Chief Nursing Officer, DH Chief Nursing Adviser
Department of Health
December 2012

Read more here.

Factors influencing the development of evidence-based practice among nurses: a self-report survey

"Skills in evidence-based practice seem to reduce barriers to using research evidence and to increase use of research evidence in clinical practice."

Factors influencing the development of evidence-based practice among nurses
A Dalheim, S Harthug, RM Nilsen, MW Nortvedt
BMC Health Services Research, 2012, 12:367

Read more here.

Quality with compassion: the future of nursing education

"Graduate nurses have played and will continue to play a key role in driving up standards and preparing a nursing workforce fit for the future."

Quality with compassion: the future of nursing education: Report of the Willis Commission
Royal College of Nursing
November 2012

Read more here.

Nurse staffing, burnout, and health care-associated infection

"Reducing burnout in registered nurses is a promising strategy to help control
infections in acute care facilities."

Nurse staffing, burnout, and health care-associated infection
JP Cimiotti, LH Aiken, DM Sloane, ES Wu
American Journal of Infection Control, 2012, 40:486-490

Read more here.

Making the business case for ward sisters and team leaders to be supervisory to practice

"This RCN guidance is a practical resource to help directors of nursing highlight how cost effective the change to supervisory practice for wards sisters/team leaders can be."

Making the business case for ward sisters and team leaders to be supervisory to practice
Royal College of Nursing
November 2011

Read more here.

Community nursing: transforming health care

"The RCN wants these case studies of excellent community nursing to inform, inspire and persuade people to scrutinise their current community nursing services and identify how they can be both expanded and enhanced – for the benefit of their local population."

Community nursing: transforming health care
Royal College of Nursing
November 2011

Read more here.