SJH Critical Care E-journal Club

Once again, I am starting the e-journal club here at St. Joseph’s. I will post a journal review article every two weeks or so to those people that have requested to be on my mailing list. I will post a summary or the author’s abstract on this blog site so that people can comment here. Judy Rousch, RN, BSN

Kalisch, Beatrice J., PhD, RN, FAAN. “Missed Nursing Care: a Qualitative Study”, Journal of Nursing Care Quality, Vol.21, No. 4, pp. 306-313.

Author’s Abstract:

“The purpose of this study was to determine nursing care regularly missed on medical-surgical units and reasons for missed care. Nine elements of regularly missed nursing care (ambulation, turning, delayed or missed feedings, patient teaching, discharge planning, emotional support, hygiene, intake and output documentation and surveillance) and 7 themes relative to the reasons for missing this care were reported by nursing staff.”

I found this study simple and yet profound at the same time. Through an e-mail, the author confided that as a consultant to hospitals, these same themes kept coming up over and over again.

I was amazed at the honesty of the replies from the staff interviewed. Would we have the kind of insight this article lets us see if the unit manager asked the staff the same questions? Do some units have an authentic ability to see and handle these issues? How do you feel these time constraint issues are handled on your unit?