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Margaret Hodge

Publications and source records attributed to Margaret Hodge.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Clinician-implemented research utilization in critical care.

The application of research findings to practice is critical for improving patients' outcomes and for ensuring that nursing practice is both cost-efficient and effective. Unfortunately, research findings that clearly should be used are not always implemented, a fact termed the "research-practice gap." In 2000, as a result of the interest of staff nurses in establishing evidence-based practice, nurses from 7 adult critical care units at the University of California Davis Health System, Sacramento, Calif, began discussions on how to implement such a practice. A critical care research utilization committee was formed with representation from each of the adult critical care units, the emergency department, and the postanesthesia care unit. This committee was responsible for reviewing and revising each critical care policy and procedure on the basis of the best available evidence. The impetus for this project was a concern that current policies and procedures were, in part, based on tradition rather than on science and did not always reflect rapid changes in critical care, including use of new equipment, new treatments, and new findings. This project produced a number of beneficial outcomes. Policies and procedures were revised on the basis of scientific evidence, new research questions were generated on the basis of gaps in the literature, and the number of clinical nurses involved in using research to improve practice increased.

Critical Care↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Nurse-patient ratios: a systematic review on the effects of nurse staffing on patient, nurse employee, and hospital outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the peer-reviewed literature supports specific, minimum nurse-patient ratios for acute care hospitals and whether nurse staffing is associated with patient, nurse employee, or hospital outcomes. BACKGROUND: Hospital care may be compromised by forces that have increased patient acuity, reduced the ratio of caregivers to patients, and lowered the level of training of these caregivers. METHODS: We systematically reviewed studies of the effects of nurse staffing on patient, nurse employee, and hospital outcomes published between 1980 and 2003 to determine whether they could guide the setting of minimum licensed nurse-patient ratios in acute care hospitals. RESULTS: Of 2897 titles and abstracts of interest, 490 articles were retrieved, and 43 met the inclusion criteria. Although all adjusted for case mix and skill mix, only one recent study addressed minimum nurse staffing ratios. Patient outcomes were limited to in-hospital, adverse events. Evidence suggests that richer nurse staffing is associated with lower failure-to-rescue rates, lower inpatient mortality rates, and shorter hospital stays. CONCLUSION: The literature offers no support for specific, minimum nurse-patient ratios for acute care hospitals, especially in the absence of adjustments for skill and patient mix, although total nursing hours and skill mix do appear to affect some important patient outcomes.

Hospital Mortality↗