An alternative approach for neonatal clinical pathways.

Defining a generic plan of care for neonatal intensive care patients seems like an impossible task. Many institutions have elected to purchase plans already developed by other practitioners. Implementing these plans can be a frustrating and discouraging experience. In our organization, administration supported multidisciplinary development of pathways, enabling us to review current practice and recommend enhancements in care provision that maintained quality while reducing resource utilization. This article describes how the staff in our 45-bed, Level III NICU, staffed with attending neonatologists, approached the challenge of defining care practices for a diverse patient population.

Staff nurses' attitudes toward nursing research: a descriptive survey.

Staff nurse involvement in clinical nursing research is dependent on the attitudes nurses hold toward research. An exploration of these attitudes was undertaken in a 464-bed midwestern teaching hospital as it developed its nursing research procedures. A questionnaire was developed which incorporated the Boothe Attitudes on Nursing Research Scale. All registered nurses (n = 925) at the facility were surveyed with a response rate of 77.8% (n = 720). Findings indicated that many nurses were interested in research and believed that the institution would support research activities and the implementation of research findings. Some deterrences to conducting research included: time, lack of knowledge, and the nurses's perception of the supervisory support and the research support services.