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The effective management of human resources in nursing is fundamental to ensuring high-quality care. The necessary staffing levels can be derived from the nursing-related health status. Our approach is based on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to recognize key workload-driving predictors from routine data in the first step and derive recommendations for staffing levels in the second step. The precedent analysis was a multi-center study with data provided by three hospitals. The SPI (Self Care Index = sum score of 10 functional/cognitive items of the epaAC (epaAC = nursing assessment tool for AcuteCare (abbreviated from the German-language effiziente Pflege-Analyse AcuteCare))) was identified as a strong predictor of nursing workload. The SPI alone explains the variance in minutes with an adjusted R2 of 40% to 66%. With the addition of further predictors such as "fatigue" or "pain intensity", the adjusted R2 can be increased by up to 17%. The resulting model can be used as a foundation for data-based personnel controlling using AI-based prediction models.

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The effective management of human resources in nursing fundamental to ensuring high-quality care. The necessary staffing levels can beis derived from the nursing-related health status. Our approach is based on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to recognize key workload-driving predictors from routine clinical data in the first step and derive recommendations for staffing levels in the second step. The study was a multi-center study with data provided by three hospitals. The SPI (Self Care Index = sum score of 10 functional/cognitive items of the epaAC) was identified as a strong predictor of nursing workload. The SPI alone explains the variance in workload minutes with an adjusted R2 of 40% to 66%. With the addition of further predictors such as "fatigue" or "pain intensity", the adjusted R2 can be increased by up to 17%. The resulting model can be used as a foundation for data-based personnel controlling using AI-based prediction models.

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Background: Measures against COVID-19 in nursing homes affected not only clients but also staff. However, staff perspectives on the importance of these measures remain underexplored. Objective: To investigate measures related to staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, staff perspectives of important measures and the involvement of staff in deciding on these measures. Design: A qualitative study. Settings: We analysed minutes of nursing home outbreak teams in the Netherlands and conducted group meetings with Dutch nursing home staff in different positions, prioritizing measures and discussing staff' involvement in deciding on the measures. Participants were recruited purposefully. Participants: The minutes of 41 nursing home organizations were collected during March-November, 2020. Four group meetings were organized in the same period, each with 5 to 7 participants, resulting in 23 participants. Methods: The meeting minutes were analysed using qualitative content analysis, whereas reflexive thematic analysis was used for the group meeting data. The group meetings were conducted online and structured by the Nominal Group Technique to discuss the importance of measures for staff. Results: Measures implemented for staff focused on prevention of COVID-19 transmission, (suspension of) educational activities, testing, additional tasks and staffing capacity, promoting well-being, and other means of support. The implemented measures overlapped with the measures considered important by staff. In addition, staff considered measures on decision-making support and communication to be important. Staff prioritized the measures in the group meetings because they affected their well-being, workforce scheduling, decision-making, or infection prevention. Furthermore, the group meetings revealed that decision-making shifted from mainly implementing national measures to more context-adjusted decision-making in the staff's or clients' situations. Conclusions: We showed that although nursing home staff were not always involved in decision-making during the first COVID-19 wave, there was overlap between the measures implemented by the organizations and measures considered important by staff. We suggest that organizations should be encouraged to explore ways of promoting timely involvement of staff in decision-making; for example, through monitoring staff needs and well-being and giving staff more autonomy to deviate from standard measures during future outbreaks or medical emergencies.

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During the pandemic, stress of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on a radiology department has caused major change in the workflow and protocol, which can inflame unnecessary anxiety among the staff. We have adapted and responded quickly however, to the volatile clinical situations owing to a close consultant in infection control. Our repeatedly revised procedures since the 2014 Ebola outbreak possess the expertise and were very useful. In-house training sessions have been held and updated accordingly. In-house networking service has now become more common in our department instead of the emergency contact network relaying the message to the person on the phone tree. Up until January 2022, we examined 10,861 chest X-rays with no in-hospital infection. We sincerely hope our chest X-ray strategies comply with infection prevention and control standards and minimize use of personal protective equipment will be embraced as a positive initiative by frontline radiologic technologists and relieve their anxiety.

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OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis response in Sweden was managed foremost by a collaboration of several national agencies. Normally, their strategical and operational collaboration is limited, but the pandemic required new and unfamiliar collaborations. This study aimed to clarify the facilitators and barriers of perceived effective staff work within and between 4 national agencies. METHODS: A qualitative study of 10 participants with leading roles within the 4 national agencies' crisis organization was conducted via snowball sampling. The participant interviews were conducted between August and November 2020 and analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: Four categories emerged from the analysis: individual characteristics, intra-agency organization, interorganizational collaboration, and governmental directives. Subcategories crystallized from the data were analyzed and divided into factors for facilitating or to function as barriers for effective staff work. CONCLUSION: Individual factors such as attitude and approach were important for perceived effective staff work as well as clear mandates and structure of the organization. Barriers for perceived effective staff work include lack of network, the complexity of the mission and organizational structures, as well as lack of preparations and unclear mandates. Although flexibility and adaptability are necessary, they cannot always be planned, but can be incorporated indirectly by selecting suitable individuals and optimizing organizational planning.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 emergency has created an enormous stress on providers that have been transformed into coronavirus disease hospitals. This article presents the experience of the clinical laboratory of Spedali Civili in Brescia (a teaching hospital in Lombardy with over 1500 beds) in managing the crisis, and to offer practical considerations for laboratory testing for this cohort of patients. Our contribution is threefold: by comparing the demand for tests in two representative period before and within the crisis, we show the change in compositions of the analytes that other labs may expect; we present the new panels of tests that hospital staff can order with different advantage for wards and laboratory; and we show how to reorganize staff on the basis of changes mentioned above.

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Introducción: Para garantizar los cuidados 24h en instituciones hospitalarias es esencial la existencia de Equipos de Enfermería cuya actividad se desarrolle en horario nocturno. Existen factores organizativos que provocan, entre los equipos nocturnos, la percepción de menos oportunidades de desarrollo profesional y menos atención institucional. Esto puede repercutir en la calidad de los cuidados e incluso en la salud de los profesionales. Las enfermeras líderes tienen la responsabilidad de crear y mantener un entorno laboral con influencia positiva. Objetivo: Evaluar un proyecto de gestión de enfermería mediante el impacto sobre la percepción del entorno laboral en el turno de noche. Métodos: Estudio casi-experimental pre-post, con intervención sobre la población. De una población de enfermeras del turno de noche n = 268 se obtuvo muestra n = 159. Se utilizó el instrumento "Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index", que permite evaluar y comparar factores del entorno de la práctica de enfermería. Se realizaron estadísticos univariables de tendencia central y dispersión, y estadísticos de contraste con significancia p < 0,05. Resultados: En el 41,94 por ciento de las cuestiones obtuvieron diferencias significativas, destacando el Factor 3 "Habilidad, liderazgo y apoyo a las enfermeras por parte de sus responsables". El valor medio global obtenido en la prueba PRE fue de 2,37 (IC95 por ciento 2,22 2,52) y la media global para el valor POST fue 2,49 (IC95 por ciento 2,34 2,95), con p = 0,0254. Conclusiones: La evaluación de un proyecto de gestión de enfermería mediante el impacto sobre la percepción del entorno laboral en turno de noche muestra mejoras con diferencias significativas(AU)

Introduction: To guarantee 24 hours of care in hospital institutions, the existence of nursing teams is essential whose activity is carried out at night. There are organizational factors that provoke, among night teams, the perception of fewer opportunities for professional development and less institutional attention. This can have an impact on the quality of care and even on the health of professionals. Leader nurses are responsible for creating and maintaining a positively influencing work environment. Objective: To evaluate a nursing management project through the impact on the perception about the work environment on the night shift. Methods: Pre-post quasi-experimental study carried out with intervention on the population. From a population of night-shift nurses (n=268), we obtained a sample of 268. The instrument "Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index" was used, which allows evaluating and comparing factors from the nursing practice setting. Univariate statistics of central tendency and dispersion were determined, as well as contrast statistics with significance p < 0.05. Results: In 41.94 percent of the questions, significant differences were obtained, highlighting factor 3 (nurses' skill, leadership and support by their heads). The global mean value obtained in the PRE test was 2.37 (95 percent CI, 2.22-2.52) and the global mean for the POST value was 2.49 (95 percent CI, 2.34-2.95), with p=0.0254. Conclusions: A nursing management project's evaluation through the impact on the perception about the work environment in the night shift shows improvements with significant differences(AU)

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OBJECTIVES: To describe a staff management and quality improvement system implemented in an assisted-living facility (ALF) that provides dementia care. DESIGN: Prospective quality improvement project over 13 consecutive months. SETTING: One ALF that provides dementia care services. PARTICIPANTS: ALF residents with dementia (N=57). INTERVENTION: A staff management and quality improvement system was implemented for 3 aspects of daily care: morning and evening activity of daily living (ADL) care, nutritional care, and activity engagement. MEASUREMENTS: Supervisory staff monitored the quality of daily care processes of all residents and direct care staff using standardized observations. Observational data were summarized into quality measures for each of the 3 daily care areas and ranged from 0% to 100%, with a higher score indicative of better quality. These quality measures were shared with direct care staff in weekly huddles at which feedback was provided about areas in need of improvement. The management team also reviewed the data weekly to discuss strategies for improvement. RESULTS: The quality measures in each of the 3 areas improved or remained consistently high over the 13 study months: morning and evening ADL care (83-96%), quality nutritional of care during meals (74-95%), activity engagement (69-97%). CONCLUSION: A staff management and quality improvement system that relies on standardized observations of quality of care, weekly review by managers, and feedback to direct care staff informs areas in need of improvement and supports consistent implementation of quality of care over time for ALF residents receiving dementia care.

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The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS) is an informant-based tool designed to identify the variables responsible for performance problems. To date, the PDC-HS has not been examined with individuals with intellectual disabilities. In the current study, two supervisors with intellectual disabilities completed the PDC-HS to assess the productivity of two supervisees with disabilities who performed a pricing task in a thrift store. The PDC-HS suggested that performance deficits were due to a lack of training; a PDC-HS-indicated intervention was effective to increase accurate pricing. • The PDC-HS is an informant-based tool designed to identify the variables responsible for employee performance problems in human service settings. • The PDC-HS can be completed by some individuals with intellectual disabilities in a supervisory position to identify the variables responsible for problematic job performance among their supervisees. • A PDC-HS indicated intervention was demonstrated to be effective to improve the job performance of individuals with disabilities. • The PDC-HS may be a useful tool to support performance improvement and job maintenance among individuals with intellectual disabilities.

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Effective and efficient staff scheduling has always been a challenging issue, especially in health service organisations. Both the extremes of staff shortage and overage have an adverse impact on the performance of healthcare organisations. In this case, an electronic and systematic staff scheduling (e-rostering) system is the often seen as the best solution. Unless an organisation has an effective implementation of such a system, possible cost savings, efficiency, and benefits could be minimal. This study is aimed to research key success factors for the successful effective implementation of an electronic rostering system, especially at healthcare organisations. A case study research method was used to evaluate critical success factors for effectively implementing an e-rostering system. The data were collected through interviews and observations. The findings indicate that technical support, an effective policy, leadership, clear goals and objectives, gradual change, evidence of the advantages of the new system, senior management support, and effective communication are the critical success factors in implementing an e-rostering system in healthcare organisations. Prior to this study, no such factors were grounded in the current context, so this research would help in bridging the gap towards effective implementation of an e-rostering system in the healthcare sector. This research also suggests future studies in different cultures and contexts.

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BACKGROUND: Front-line managers play an important role in managing the performance of staff working in services for people with intellectual disability, but little is known about the practices they prefer to use to improve staff performance and whether these align with what research has shown to be effective. METHOD: This study comprised two phases. First, the present authors tested the validity and reliability of a short questionnaire designed to evaluate managers' preferences for performance improvement practices. Then, the present authors collected and analysed responses from 175 managers working in disability services in Queensland, Australia. RESULTS: The questionnaire demonstrated good content validity, concurrent validity and test-retest reliability. The participants believed strategies related to changing employee individual characteristics to be more effective than strategies aimed at improving environmental factors. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides important considerations regarding the professional development needs of front-line managers working in organizations that provide services to people with intellectual disability.

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BACKGROUND: A new organizational model of educational administrative support was instituted in the Department of Medical Education (DME) to better meet increasing national accreditation demands. Residency and fellowship programs were organized into four 'Communities of Practice' (CoOPs) based on discipline similarity, number of learners, and geographic location. Program coordinator reporting lines were shifted from individual departments to a centralized reporting structure within the DME. The goal of this project was to assess the impact on those most affected by the change. METHODS: This was a mixed methods study that utilized structured interviews and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI). Eleven members of the newly formed CoOPs participated in the study. RESULTS: Three major themes emerged after review and coding of the interview transcripts: improved group identity, improved availability of resources, and increased opportunity for professional growth. OCAI results indicated that respondents are committed to the DME and perceived the culture to be empowering. The 'preferred culture' was very similar to the culture at the time of the study, with some indication that DME employees are ready for more creativity and innovation in the future. CONCLUSION: Reorganization within the DME of residency programs into CoOPs was overwhelmingly perceived as a positive change. Improved resources and accountability may position our DME to better handle the increasing complexity of graduate medical education.

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The Performance Diagnostic Checklist (PDC) has been used in a number of investigations to assess the environmental determinants of substandard employee performance. Carr et al. (2013) revised the PDC to explicitly assess the performance of employees in human-service settings who are responsible for providing care to others: the Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS). The originally published PDC-HS contained three minor scoring errors, which have been corrected in the present version.

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During each winter period hospital emergency rooms and pediatric wards are often overwhelmed by high patient influx with infectious diseases leading to chaotic conditions with poor quality of care (QoC) delivery as a consequence. The conditions could be improved if we were able to better control the influx by introducing for instance better prevention strategies against some of the most frequent infectious diseases. New prevention strategies using vaccination against rotavirus infection were introduced in Belgium in November 2006. We developed a measure of hospital QoC suitable for assessing the impact of pediatric rotavirus vaccination. The study is retrospective collecting routine data on bed and staff management in one pediatric hospital in Belgium. The data were divided in pre- and post-vaccination periods during rotavirus-epidemic and non-epidemic periods. The scores were constructed using Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA). All patients enrolled were admitted to the pediatric ward over the period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2009. The results of the epidemic period indicated that bed-day occupancy, bed-day turnover and unplanned readmissions for acute gastroenteritis were lower in the post-vaccination compared with the pre-vaccination periods. The QoC scores were therefore significantly lower (indicating improved QoC) after the introduction of rotavirus vaccination, compared with pre-vaccination. The data suggests that the reduction in the winter peak of rotavirus-related hospitalizations after the introduction of the vaccine reduces pressure on hospital resources and improves the quality of hospital care. The findings should be further tested in similar settings.

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The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS) is an informant-based tool designed to assess the environmental variables that contribute to poor employee performance in human services settings. We administered the PDC-HS to 3 supervisors to assess the variables that contributed to poor performance by 4 staff members when securing clients in therapy rooms at a treatment center for children with autism. The PDC-HS identified a lack of appropriate consequences as contributing to poor staff performance. We then evaluated a PDC-HS-indicated intervention as well as an intervention not suggested by PDC-HS results. The PDC-HS-indicated intervention (graphed feedback) was effective to increase performance; the non-PDC-HS-based intervention was ineffective.

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INTRODUÇÃO: A Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) elegeu o decênio 2006-2016 como a década de valorização do trabalho e dos trabalhadores da saúde. Dentre os motivos está o fato desses estarem adoecendo sistematicamente. Este artigo discute se este processo de adoecimento é inerente ao trabalho em saúde. OBJETIVOS: 1) apresentar a concepção de gestores municipais de saúde sobre a relação saúde do trabalhador-trabalho em saúde e 2) analisar como estes gestores explicam este fenômeno de adoecimento dos trabalhadores de saúde. METODOLOGIA: Foi utilizada a técnica do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo. Os dados foram coletados entre maio e julho de 2011 em um município do estado do Espírito Santo. RESULTADOS: Os gestores municipais afirmam não ter dados numéricos que justifiquem a situação estudada e apresentam dois tipos de explicação: questões ligadas à organização do trabalho e questões pessoais dos trabalhadores. Sugerem haver um processo de naturalização do adoecimento dos trabalhadores deste setor. CONCLUSÕES: Várias particularidades do trabalho em saúde ligadas a estratégias de gestão ou a características dos trabalhadores parecem impedir o aspecto socioafetivo do trabalho, propiciando adoecimento.

INTRODUCTION: World Health Organization proposed for the years 2006 to 2016 a ten year action plan to address occupational issues of health workforce. One of the reasons for this is the fact that health workers are systematically becoming ill. Is this sickening process inherent to health work? This article discusses this issue. OBJECTIVES: 1) To present the municipal health managers' conception on the relationship between occupational health and health work. 2) Analyze how these managers explain health workers' sickening phenomenon. METHOD: Data was collected between May and July 2011, in a municipality of Espírito Santo State, Brazil. We used the Discourse of the Collective Subject method. RESULTS: The municipal health system managers stated they did not have numerical data to explain the studied situation. They presented two different explanations: one concerning work organization and one related to workers' personal issues. They suggested workers' sickening has gradually been viewed as a natural process. CONCLUSION: Several singularities of health work related to management strategies or to the workers' characteristics seem to hinder the relational aspect of work, which leads to sickening.

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Este artigo apresenta os principais resultados de uma investigação exploratória, que tem como objetivo analisar uma empresa de engenharia quanto ao nível de gestão de pessoas e se contribui de forma efetiva ao clima organizacional. A pesquisa focaliza os seguintes aspectos: políticas e práticas de RH, gestão de pessoas, processos de liderança, comunicação e motivação (clima organizacional). O instrumento utilizado para a coleta de dados é um questionário de 33 questões, visando obter-se o entendimento sobre as variáveis da pesquisa. Os resultados, aplicados a uma amostra não-probabilística composta de 45 respondentes, mostram que a prática da gestão de pessoas é ainda incipiente; que há dificuldades de comunicação entre os níveis hierárquicos da empresa, impactando o exercício da liderança; que o nível motivacional dos respondentes está aquém de suas expectativas, uma vez que estes sentem-se subvalorizados e que as políticas e práticas de RH não conseguem, por si só, garantir um clima organizacional que atenda às expectativas dos funcionários da empresa(AU)

This article presents the main results of an exploratory survey with the objective of analysing an engineering company from the level of staff management, and if this contributes effectively toward the organizational atmosphere. The research focuses on the following aspects: the policies and practices of HR, the management of personnel and leadership, communication and motivation (organizational atmosphere) processes. The instrument utilized for collecting data is a questionnaire with 33 questions, in order to obtain the understanding about the variables of the research. The results, applied to a non- probabilistic sample composite of 45 respondents, indicate that the practice of staff management is still incipient; that there are communication difficulties between the hierarchical levels of the organization impacting on the performance of leadership; that the motivational level of the respondents is below their expectations, as they feel underestimated, and that the policies and practices of HR alone cannot guarantee an organizational atmosphere that could fulfill the expectations of the organization's employees(AU)