Thursday, February 26, 2009

Instructions for Nurses Posting on this Blog

First of all, I would like to thank all the nurses whom have graciously agreed to participate in our research study. As direct care nurses, you have first-hand knowledge of the barriers to care on nights and weekend, and thus your experiences are vital to our research. We hope to use the data we collect to address and ultimately assure that nurse work environments are optimal, no matter what day of the week or time of day.

When you post a comment about your personal experience while working during off-peak hours, please remember not to use patient names, names of co-workers, or the name of the hospital at which you work. Also, please only use your first name or a nickname.

Again, thank you for your time and support of this important research.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Welcome

We are researching how and why off-peak work environments are different, and how they affect nurse's work and patient care. Our research method of choice is institutional ethnography (IE). IE will allow us to determine the organizational factors that influence nursing and thus patient outcomes. We know from previous research that patients are more at risk during off-peak hours, nights and weekends. This study aims to determine what factors within the hospital environment influence or cause these outcomes. We seek to gain a more thorough understanding of the nurses' work and experiences.

My name is Katy Krottinger, and I am the Grant Coordinator for this project and will also be maintaining this blog. If you are interested in knowing more about our findings, please email me at katharine.krottinger@mwsu.edu.