Nurses are capable leaders, but face barriers to advancement, field survey shows
Nurse Watch is compiled in conjunction with the AHA’s American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) and highlights articles of interest to nurse leaders, nursing professionals and other health care leaders. For more about AONE, visit aone.org.
Leadership survey supports strong nurse leader role
According to a recent survey of the nearly 700 clinicians, clinical leaders and health care executives who make up the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst Insights Council, most of the respondents believe that nurse leaders are equal to physician leaders in their abilities to deliver care, NEJM Catalyst reports. Yet nurses only make up 25 percent of leadership roles or less at more than half of health care organizations surveyed, the publication said. Respondents indicated that this percentage might be due to common barriers nurses face, such as gender bias, when pursuing professional advancement.
Will talking robots help relieve the nurse shortage?
Moxi the robot can help nurses fetch equipment and deliver medicine. As a socially intelligent, talking humanoid designed to interact with patients and health care workers, Moxi also can accomplish far more collaborative tasks, SD Net says.
Boston-based Diligent Robotics has just finished its first real-world, collaborative automation trial with the robot in a Texas hospital. The trial was designed to relieve the strain that nurses — whose departments are widely understaffed, and whose skills will be even more in demand in the coming years — face daily, according to the publication.
During the trial, Moxi delivered admission kits outside patient rooms and brought lab specimens to the hospital's lab. The robot also carried linens from patient rooms to a cleaning area.
Although SD Net says there is "a long way to go before robots like these are commonplace in hospitals," Diligent Robotics is making steady headway, the publication says, citing the company's six scheduled beta trials and its plan to debut Moxi as a full-time asset to hospitals at the end of 2019.
Study: Family-centered care intervention reduces errors
A structured format of family-centered rounds on pediatric inpatient units resulted in a reduction in preventable adverse events and improved family experience, family engagement and nurse engagement scores, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.
When clinicians introduced structured verbal communication during clinical rounds; shared written rounds reports with families; trained residents and nurses; and put in place strategies to support teamwork among nurses and physicians, harmful errors decreased by 38 percent across seven North American academic hospitals, the study shows. Additionally, family experience and communication processes improved, without negative impacts on rounds, the research notes.