Human Competency as a Catalyzer of Innovation Within Health and Nursing Care Through a Perspective of Complex Adaptive Systems

The aim of this article is to analyze some features of nursing manager competencies as a potential agent of innovation through a perspective of complex adaptive systems. To achieve the objective, an empirical quantitative analysis of the data obtained through structured questionnaires was conducted to identify the key aspects of perceptions related to competencies. The results demonstrated a disparity between what nursing managers perceived as “my strength” and what they perceived as “critical in adopting innovation” with respect to competencies. This study empirically identified key competencies relevant to nursing managers in adopting innovation through a perspective of encompassing complex adaptive systems. The nursing managers surveyed tended to consider their strengths included interpersonal understanding, teamwork, self-control and concern for order. From a viewpoint of innovation adoption, there is room for improvement for nurses to develop such competencies as initiative, team leadership, conceptual thinking, analytical thinking, and organizational awareness.

Advancing Emergency Nurse Practitioner Training Using Virtual Nursing Centers

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the design of a live emergency room simulation for nurse practitioners using augmented reality and virtual reality. The authors describe the specific design and development procedures including (1) the design of a learning analytic system for formative and summative assessment, (2) the design of the virtual space for the live event, (3) the development of a timed script for the emergency room event, and (4) the development of the virtual world in Second Life. The authors also define all the design decisions based on research on the cognitive theories that support the development of advanced problem-based learning curriculum, research of virtual immersive learning environments, and research on virtual simulations used to develop advanced skills and knowledge.

Factors Impacting Use of Health IT Applications

Nowadays, information technology tools are widely used in the healthcare industry to record and integrate medical data so as to provide complete access to patients' information for coordinated healthcare delivery. Yet, the efficacy of these technologies depends on their successful implementation for, adoption by and/or adaptation to support health professional workers such as physicians and nurses. This study addresses the impact of specific factors including result observability, autonomy, perceived barriers, task structure, privacy and security anxiety on the nurses' perception of their performance using health information technologies. Additionally, the effects of nurses' personality factors are examined as moderating factors on the relationships between the organizational factors and nurses' perception of performance. Multiple linear regression was applied to validate the proposed research model and professional autonomy, result observability, privacy and security anxiety were found to be key factors predicting the nurses' perception of performance.

Medical and Nursing Civil Liability and Ethics in the Provision of Health Services

After 2000, specific legislation on civil liability and ethics of nurses and doctors was introduced, as well as specific acts. For nurses and the nursing profession, since 2001, the Code of Nursing Ethics (NCSD, Presidential Decree 216/2001) has been in force. In 2005, the current Code of Medical Ethics (KID, Law 3418/2005) was passed. Special Law 3305/2005 on the application of assisted reproduction methods was introduced to specify how the methods introduced in the Civil Code were applied as methods of generating kinship among persons under Law 2089/2002 (MAP). The chapter summarizes the main points regarding civil liability of medical and nursing activity with a special focus on oncological patients.

Transforming From the Classroom to an Online Nursing Educator

This chapter explores through phenomenological methodology the experiences of nursing faculty who transitioned from live to online teaching. These experiences are further examined through the theory of transformative learning to determine whether participants were able to transform their teaching identity from traditional classroom teacher (sage on the stage) to facilitators of learning. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 16 full-time nursing faculty at four state universities. Findings revealed that most faculty were originally hesitant to teach online and had multiple misconceptions regarding teaching methods and online student communication. With one exception, professional development for online teaching was limited. Most participants described transforming their teaching methods and philosophies as they gained more experience. Results implicate that faculty development should focus not only on educational principles and technology, but also on ways to connect with students and develop course content that helps maintain faculty identities.

The Search for Support and Healing

Chapter 6 provides nurses, nurse leaders, and organizations interventions to understand, confront, and eliminate bullying and incivility from the workplace. Emotional intelligence (EI) and cognitive rehearsal are techniques when taught to nurses via in-services provided by organizations, can build awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues used in their communication as well as those of others. By understanding how we communicate and respond to others and vice versa, insight to what are appropriate and inappropriate responses can hold nurses accountable to how they treat one another. The neuroscience of oxytocin release at a biochemical level supports the benefits of organizations investing in the mental and physical health of their employees by empowering them to grow individually and as a collaborative team.

Ensuring Quality of a Large-Scale Online Assessment for Nursing Students in the 21st Century

The resources and time constraints of assessing large classes are always weighed up against the validity, reliability, and learning outcomes of the assessment tasks. With the digital revolution in the 21st Century, educators can benefit from computer technology to carry out a large-scale assessment in higher education more efficiently. In this article, an in-depth case study of a nursing school that has integrated online assessment initiatives into their nursing program. To assess a large class of first-year nursing students, a series of non-proctored multiple-choice online quizzes are administered using a learning management system. Validity and reliability are commonly used to measure the quality of an assessment. The aim of the present article to analyze these non-proctored multiple-choice online assessments in the context of content validity and reliability. We use this case study to examine online assessment in nursing education, exploring the benefits and challenges. We conclude that instructors have to determine how to use the full potential of online assessment as well as ensure validity and reliability.

End of Occupational Segregation in the Nursing Profession

This chapter focuses on how female nurses make sense of their occupations as the perception of their profession changes from gender-biased to gender-neutral. Nursing is one of those rare professions with occupational segregation in favor of females, but one that is changing as more males enter the profession. While there are many occupational segregation studies to explain male and female nurses' perspectives, research on how female nurses reconsider their views about the profession is scarce. Therefore, this chapter will address this change for females by utilizing a conceptual analysis, specifically the cognitive sense-making perspective. Referring to the phases of the cognitive sense-making (ecological change, enactment, selection, and retention), this chapter examines how the meaning of the nursing profession and the meaning of work in general is changing for females.

The Impact of the Attitude of Medical Staff From Burnout on the Level of Ongoing Medical Services

This chapter describes how contemporary, dynamic development in all available human areas is unavoidable and necessary. However, along with the benefits and progress made by civilization, there is also a growing margin of vulnerability and unfavorable price developments. Professional burnout is becoming a global problem. It identifies the limits of current human capabilities to the serious phenomenon. In particular, nurses and medical rescuers, who are in direct contact with the patient, experience unpleasant symptoms of burnout.

Human Factors Affecting HMS Impact on Nurses Jobs

To improve and facilitate patient care, hospital administrators have implemented healthcare management systems (HMS). Unfortunately, many hospitals have encountered HMS implementation problems. Some user-related factors have been proposed in the literature as important to system success. This study proposes an integrative model and empirically tests the importance of these variables as determinants of HMS impact on the jobs of nurses. Data from 213 nurses using their hospital HMS has been used to test the relationships between the independent variables and the HMS impact on the nurses' jobs. The results confirm the importance of nurse participation, training, good communication with developers, and lack of conflict regarding system implementation enabling a more desirable effect of HMS on nurses' jobs. Based on the results, recommendations are made for hospital administrators to improve the likelihood of HMS implementation success.