Nursing decision-making in coronary care units

The aim of this study is to determine the nurses' abilities in making appropriate decisions and give the theoretical rationale for their decisions in a given situation. Also to identify factors that influence the nurses' decision making. The sample comprised all nurses working in CCU of Alexandria Main University Hospital, Al-Moassat Hospital and Al-Mabara Hospital. The results revealed that the nurses made many decisions before seeking medical help. The ranking of decisions indicated that they were mostly reached intuitively rather than by means of utilizing the decision making process which should start by the assessment of patient condition. The majority of the nurses who gave appropriate decision could give the rationale behind it. Knowledge and experience were the most important factors influencing appropriate decision making. It is recommended to improve nurse's decision making skills through integrating the decision making process in the basic nursing educational programmes and through pre-service and inservice educational programmes for nurses

Job expectations of senior nursing students: an input for nurse-recruitment strategies

The job expectations of all senior nursing students from both the Higher Inst. of Nursing, Alexandria Univ. And the Inst. Of Health Technology, Alexandria present at the time of the study were surveyed in relation to their preferences and expectations as regards the characteristics of the future employing institution and the factors that would influence their decision to accept a new nursing job. The results of the study revealed that the majority of both groups would not consider working in a large hospital. It also showed that the most favorable health institutions for both groups to work in were: a private hospital in Egypt, and army hospital and a hospital in an Arab country. Also the majority of both groups would not consider working in a psychiatric hospital. The highest preference for HIN students was for working in an intensive care unit in a general hospital as compared to an MCH center and obstetric unit for IHT students. Both groups preferred to work in a hospital located in a city. The majority of the two groups accept to work the day shift and more HIN than IHT students would accept the evening shift, while more IHT than HIN students would accept the night shift. As regards the factors that might influence their decision to accept a nursing job, the HIN students identified the following as the first three factors: opportunity to work in desired specialty, job security and opportunity to work in desired city. The first three factors identified by IHT students were: pleasant working conditions and human relations, shift preferences and job security

application of concurrent nursing audit mechanisms in measuring the quality of patient care Part I: a patient classification system

A patient classification system based on disease intensity was presented to identify different classifications of hospitalized patients at the medical, surgical and intensive care units of Alexandria University classification form as well as weighing procedure were used to determine the patient types

Factors associated with leadership styles, type of management and supervision that influence nurses job satisfaction

All staff nurses [N=211] males and females working in the General Navy Hospital and the General Military Hospital in Alexandria were included in the study to identify the factors associated with the style of leadership and type of nursing management and supervision that influence their job satisfaction. The results revealed the identification of the following administrative practices that reflect the type of management and affect the nurses job satisfaction: Lack of opportunities to discuss hospital policies and regulations with management, lack of an effective system of communication between management and nurses, lack of instructions available in case of emergencies and accidents, punishment issued for the minor mistakes without counselling, lack of efforts to acquaint nurses with hospital policies, long shift hours and heavy work load without adequate compensations and poor patient / nurse ratios. The majority of both male and female nurses identified the medical head of department as the person responsible for their immediate supervision. Also [54.32%] of the male nurses and [46.15%] of the female nurses stated that the supervision practiced by their nurse-supervisors was toward finding mistakes without provision of guidance for corrective actions. The results also showed that the majority of the nurses held an unfavourable opinion as regards personal characteristic of their supervisors that would not promote good interpersonal relations. The nurses also proposed suggestions to improve the efficiency of nursing management and supervision and to promote satisfaction of nursing personnel

Development of an inservice training program for nurses caring for patients ongoing electro-convulsive therapy

This study was carried out to identify the needs for developing an inservice training program designed toward improving the performance of nurses caring for patients ongoing E.C.T. at Al Maamoura Psychiatric Hospital. Data were collected through a structured observation checklist that was developed to observe the actual nursing care performed by all nurses [58] that cared for psychiatric patients undergoing E.C. [50 patients] during the period allotted for observation [eight weeks]. The results revealed that the majority of the nurses performed in an inadequate manner. Thus a plan for an inservice training program was developed based on the nurses/learning needs identified by the results. The content was selected and based on the learners previous experiences, principles derived from educational and nursing literature and opinions of selected experts in the field

Perception of nursing staff about their role: a key variable potentially affects the quality of patient care

There are numerous variables thought to potentially affect the quality of patient care. Among these are the nursing staff perceptions and attitudes and the supervisory staff perceptions and attitude. Thus this study was carried out with the aim of determining the perception of head nurses versus that of staff nurses toward the work, the role and functions of staff nurses in order to disclose areas of strength and weakness in the quality of nursing care provided. Data were collected through the use of special questionnaire interview modified from the one developed by Hausaman [1976]. The questionnaire was designed to determine the perception of head nurses and staff nurses regarding the degree of the staff nurses performance of nursing process activities versus administrative and clerical and non-clerical activities. And the prefered degree of performance of nursing process activities versus operational and non-clinical activities in an ideal situation. A total of 104 nursing personnel, 14 head nurses and 90 staff nurses working in 14 units that compose the surgical department at the Alexandria Main University Hospital, constituted the sample of this study. The results of the study revealed the following: 1- There was no significant difference between head nurses and staff nurses opinion as regard the activities that nurses should do in ideal situation. But, there was significant difference regarding their opinions toward the activities that they actually do in their present job. 2- Most of the sample members agreed that in their present jobs they are often asked to do activities which are non nursing while the genuine nursing activities included within the nursing process are overlooked or not done

Attitudes towards family planning; a comparison among nurses working in six governorates in Egypt

The study was conducted to determine the attitudes of nurses working in MCH and family planning centers toward family planning issues in order to develop a training program based on the findings. One hundred and fifty three nurses from six governorates, namely Alexandria, Assiut Kafr, El-Sheikh, Dakahlia, Garbia and Behera. Data were collected by the use of interview questionaire. The results of the study revealed that the nurses practice family planning and have small family size, yet they still hold negative or ambivalent attitudes regarding family planning which could interfere with their delivering of family planning services and affect the practice of consumer. This was so especially for nurses from upper Egypt. Recommendations were given to overcome these negative attitudes

Continuity of nursing care: a concept for application based on assessment of nursing needs for discharged surgical patients

The study was carried out to evaluate the nursing needs of discharged surgical patients in the Main University Hospital of Alexandria. A total of 156 surgical patients were interviewed using an appraisal tool to determine their nursing needs. The findings revealed that slightly more than one third [54] of the sample needed continuity of care upon discharge. About half of them needed health teaching and supervision, direct nursing care and observation and rehabilitation and exercises. The rest of the needs were in the following order: further therapy and investigation, special nursing procedures, attendance to emotional and social problems, special needs such as geriatric care and associated medical conditions. The hospital only identified the needs of 20 patients. Their main recognition was for further therapy and investigations. However, they had other nursing needs that were identified by this study. The study also showed that nursing needs differed according to the type of operations and illnesses. The study recommended the development of a referral system to provide continuity of care for discharged hospital patients