An $800,000 grant from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research will pave the way for nursing research at UBC’s Okanagan campus to be integrated into a four-year program for better palliative care services for the whole province.

UBC nursing researcher Barb Pesut, Canada Research Chair in Health, Ethics and Diversity, and Barbara McLeod, a clinical nurse specialist from Fraser Health Authority, lead one of three principal areas of research called Educating for a Palliative Approach while Elisabeth Antifeau represents Interior Health on iPANEL as a practitioner co-investigator in the area of Patient and Family-Centred Improvements.

A new network was created for the purpose. Initiative for a Palliative Approach in Nursing: Evidence and Leadership or iPANEL is tasked to find ways how nurses can further incorporate palliative nursing services in areas in a variety of care settings.

Three principal areas of research comprise the body with UBC nursing researcher Barb Pesut, Canada Research Chair in Health, Ethics and Diversity, and Barbara McLeod, a clinical nurse specialist from Fraser Health Authority, leading Educating for a Palliative Approach.  Interior Health on iPANEL will be represented by Elisabeth Antifeau as a practitioner co-investigator in the area of Patient and Family-Centred Improvements. Educating for a Palliative Approach will research knowledge on how to best prepare nurses but considering their workload, healthcare setting and skills while the area of Interior Health will be looking into practical opportunities for nurses to work with patients who have chronic life-limiting illnesses needing palliative care.

source: http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similkameen/kelownacapitalnews/news/130744333.html

Signs of Burnout

Nurses and other occupations frequently exposed to stressful environments will reach a point when she feels nothings going right anymore. This is defined as burnout which can be avoided by adequate staffing and enough rest periods. There are 10 signs that tell you you’re having burnout.

1. Feeling overworked.

2. Asking to go home earlier more often.

3. Feeling emotionally drained

4. Not looking forward  to go to work everyday.

5. Unexplained physical ailments.

6. Angry at those making demands

7. Becoming less productive at work

8. Losing patience more frequently than before, whether at home or at  work

9. Feeling under-appreciated

10. Planning on looking for a new job

A review of 29 academic studies finds non-attendance more effectively reduced to about 39% if patients are reminded through calling or texting patients before healthcare appointments as compared to 29% if done through automated reminders.

The review carried out since 2000 by telemedicine specialists at the university hospital of North Norway and published in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare aims to lessen wastage in resources and disturbance in planned work schedules caused by non-attendance for hospital appointments.

No significant difference was seen on the timeline of reminders, whether sent  a week or just a day  before.

“We recommend that rigorous health economics studies of the costs and savings of reminders should be carried out, preferably in the form of randomised controlled trials,” authors Per Hasvold and Richard Wootton said in the review.

This article is published by Guardian Professional.

A summary of the results of the Gallup survey commissioned by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation revealed that even if nurses compose majority of the health care population, they are still not made part of decision-making and health care policies

Participants were health care executives who also believed that the quality of nursing care now greatly influences reimbursement rates that Medicare and Medicaid use to pay hospitals.

To quote the key findings presented:

• Only 14 percent of executives believed that nurses had a great deal of influence on health reform.
• Well over 60 percent of executives said that nurses are deprived of leadership roles because they are not key decision-makers and do not generate revenue.
• Almost all executives envisioned nurses having at most, a moderate influence on health reform over the next decade.

Health care leaders also proposed that shortage of bedside nurses be met before they can migrate to leadership positions.

Source: http://www.rwjf.org/humancapital/product.jsp?id=72668

By: Khoury CM, Blizzard R, Wright Moore L and Hassmiller S

In: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 41(7/8), pp.299-305

Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Published: July/August 2011