Nurse call systems: impact on nursing performance.

Outcries for health care reform and more cost-effective patient care have motivated many organizations to examine routine unit activities. The article reports a study that used a descriptive design to examine nursing utilization of and satisfaction with nurse call systems in two large metropolitan hospitals. Findings revealed that nurse call system features such as the ability of unit secretaries to receive and screen patient calls reduced unnecessary nurse interruptions, saved actual nursing time, and enabled some nurses to begin preparing to meet patients, needs before entering their rooms. Problems with the nurse call system identified from the data were the sound quality of the transmission, inability to locate the nurse, inability to prioritize and confirm calls, and inability to speak directly to patients and staff.

Selected predictors of registered nurses' intent to stay.

This paper reports initial findings from a longitudinal study of autonomy, willingness to risk, exit/voice (E/V) and managerial environment (ME) as predictors of registered nurses' intent to stay (ITS) that is being conducted at eight Midwestern hospitals in the USA. In this two-stage study, initial findings are based on responses from 524 staff nurses. Due to the nature of the ITS variable, two logistic regression analyses were computed to test the predictive relationships of the independent variables. In the first, subjects with neutral ITS scores were grouped with subjects who had no intent to stay. Both ME and E/V were predictive of ITS. In the second analysis, the subjects with neutral ITS scores were grouped with subjects who intended to stay. In this case, only ME was predictive. While the per cent variance accounted for by these variables is not as high as some other variables reported in previous research, these variables are amenable to managerial interventions.

Personal and professional support for mothers of NICU and healthy newborns.

Personal support provided by close social network members and professional support provided by nurses were studied in 83 postpartum mothers and newborns in neonatal intensive care units and newborn nurseries. Mothers perceived each type of support differently in terms of outcomes. Only personal support was significantly related to emotional affect and life satisfaction outcomes. Both personal and professional support were related to relationship satisfaction outcomes. Findings suggest that personal support and professional support be treated as separate concepts.

Incentives for nurse employment.

This study was designed to discover perceived incentives for employment in terms of similarities in how employed and nonemployed nurses ranked employment inducements, and if the two groups could be differentiated on the basis of their rankings. March and Simon's (1958) theory was the basis for identifying inducements/incentives. A 47-item instrument was distributed randomly to a 5% sample of registered nurses (RNs) from a midwestern state. Similarities in incentives existed in the factor structure for both the employed and nonemployed. The factor structure for the part-employed approximated both groups depending on items considered. Little variance was accounted for by the instrument, indicating other variables need to be identified. Data indicate that the area of professionalism would be valuable in developing more items related to inducements/incentives.