Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S F Olson.
With average turnover costs equaling four times an employee's salary, administrators cannot afford to lose nurse aides. This study explored why aides leave and ways to improve your facility's work environment.
The nurse-retention problem plagues hospitals nationwide, but nowhere is the crisis more evident than in rural areas, where, if nothing is done, more hospitals likely will join the growing numbers that have simply closed. Researchers designed a study to identify effective strategies for managers and administrators to pursue in retaining nurses in rural hospitals. They asked nurses to rate 43 strategies according to the degree of influence each would have on the decision to remain on the job. "Winning" strategies fit into four major categories: (1) self- and professional development, (2) monetary needs, including benefits, (3) internal management, and (4) staffing and scheduling. Among the study's suggestions are these: Managers should increase opportunities for upward mobility to alleviate some of the nurses' frustrations at feeling trapped in one position. If a higher educational level is a prerequisite for upward mobility, hospital managers should simplify the process of obtaining that education. Rural nurses clearly do not believe they are being compensated enough for their efforts. Hospitals must respond accordingly if they intend to maintain an adequate nursing staff. Nurses want to know that when conflicts or disruptions arise, they will have a simple, direct means of resolution. Hospitals should manage conflict through communication and training and support at all primary care levels. Because nurses provide the majority of client care, they must have a more active, participative role in staffing and scheduling policies.
Until recently, productivity analysis has been a relatively underdeveloped tool in nursing. As healthcare costs continue their upward spiral, however, managers have been pressured to measure and evaluate nursing productivity. The right combination of efficiency and effectiveness is the key to optimal productivity. Nursing can be efficient but highly ineffective and thus of little value to the patient; conversely, nursing can be effective and valuable, but grossly inefficient. To determine a nursing unit's level of productivity, managers can keep a daily record of the number of nursing hours per patient day. When the record indicates too many ineffective or inefficient days, an analysis of how nurses use their time can help solve the problem. The first step is such an analysis is to have management engineering or the nursing staff itself collect data on time spent per task. Once these data are collected, they can be analyzed by shift (for the entire hospital), by individual unit, by task category, etc. With this information in view, managers can ask key questions to help pinpoint areas where efficiency might be improved.
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Abnormal visual sensations are the most common and characteristic features of migraine. In some patients, they are the only features. The major visual disturbance associated with migraine is scotoma; less common are distortions in size, shape, and color of viewed objects; photophobia; and diplopia and polyopia. Sudden loss of vision occurs in retinal migraine, and paralysis, usually of the third nerve, in ophthalmoplegic migraine. Paresis also may be found with cluster headache.
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