Allison P Squires

Abstract

Qualitative research is critical for studies about regulatory issues in nursing and across all health professions. When in-depth stakeholder perspectives are needed, qualitative approaches are often the best methodological choice to ensure their viewpoints and experiences are captured when evaluating the consequences of policy implementation or when informing regulation design. Unlike traditional qualitative health care studies that involve patients or providers in single settings, regulatory studies often have complex challenges related to the available sample sizes, sampling strategies, and data collection approaches. Reporting qualitative findings in ways that are informative, useful, and dialogue provoking about regulatory issues must go beyond inserting long quotes with a single sentence explanation. Artfully capturing the participants’ stories within the regulatory matter under study is vital for understanding potential and actual consequences of regulations. This article provides an overview of common methodological challenges researchers encounter when conducting qualitative research on professional regulation issues and offers solutions to enhance the quality, rigor, and trustworthiness of the findings. The recommendations may prove useful to researchers examining regulatory issues in nursing and other health professions.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Physician well-being impacts both doctors and patients. In light of high rates of physician burnout, enhancing resilience is a priority. To inform effective interventions, educators need to understand how resilience develops during residency.METHODS: A qualitative study using grounded theory examined the lived experience of resilience in residents. A cohort of obstetrics and gynecology residents were selected as a purposive, intensity sample.. Eighteen residents in all years of training participated in semi-structured interviews. A three-phase process of open coding, analytic coding and thematic analysis generated a conceptual model for resilience among residents.RESULTS: Resilience among residents emerged as rooted in the resident's calling to the work of medicine. Drive to overcome obstacles arose from personal identity and aspiration to professional ideals. Adversity caused residents to examine and cultivate coping mechanisms. Personal connections to peers and mentors as well as to patients and the work helped buffer the stress and conflicts that present. Resilience in this context is a developmental phenomenon that grows through engagement with uncertainty and adversity.CONCLUSION: Resilience in residents is rooted in personal and professional identity, and requires engagement with adversity to develop. Connections within the medical community, finding personal fulfillment in the work, and developing self-care practices enhance resilience.

Abstract

Introduction: We conducted a pilot study to examine the work environments of Mexican nurses using an internationally comparable instrument. Methods: We used the Spanish version of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nurses Work Index for the cross-sectional pilot study. Using both online and paper-based data collection methods, we recruited Mexican nurses from five sites around the country to participate. The study took place betwen 2011 and 2013. Principal component analysis analyzed the reliability and validity of the instrument in the Mexican context. Results: The Mexican Spanish translation of the instrument produced five factors which differed from the original factor loadings. Nonetheless, the instrument proved capable of differentiating problematic from non-problematic areas of the work environments of Mexican nurses. Conclusions: The Mexican Spanish verison of the instrument can be successfully used to evaluate nurses’ work environments in Mexican hospitals.

Abstract

Background: Recent methodological advancements should catalyze the evaluation of measurement invariance across groups, which is required for conducting meaningful cross-group comparisons. Objective: The aim of this study was to apply a state-of-the-art statistical method for comparing latent mean scores and evaluating measurement invariance across managers' and frontline workers' ratings of the organization of hospital care. Methods: On the 87 nursing units in a single institution, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking nursing unit managers' and staff nurses' ratings of their work environment were measured using the multidimensional 32-item practice environment scale of the nursing work index (PES-NWI). Measurement invariance and latent mean scores were evaluated in the form of a Bayesian 2-level multiple indicators multiple causes model with covariates at the individual nurse and nursing unit level. Role (manager, staff nurse) and language (French, Dutch) are of primary interest. Results: Language group membership accounted for 7 of 11 PES-NWI items showing measurement noninvariance. Cross-group comparisons also showed that covariates at both within-level and between-level had significant effects on PES-NWI latent mean scores. Most notably, nursing unit managers, when compared with staff nurses, hold more positive views of several PES-NWI dimensions. Conclusions: Using a widely used instrument for measuring nurses' work environment, this study shows that precautions for the potential threat of measurement noninvariance are necessary in all stages of a study that relies on survey data to compare groups, particularly in multilingual settings. A Bayesian multilevel multiple indicators multiple causes approach can accommodate for detecting all possible instances of noninvariance for multiple covariates of interest at the within-level and between-level jointly.

Abstract

Background: Tanzania is a low income, East African country with a severe shortage of human resources for health or health workers. This shortage threatens any gains the country is making in improving maternal health outcomes. This paper describes a partnership between Touch Foundation and NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing - Global, aimed at improving clinical mentorship and capacity among nurses and midwives at two rural hospitals in the Tanzanian Lake Zone Region. Clinical mentoring capacity building and supportive supervision of staff has been shown to be a facilitator of retaining nurses and would be possible to acquire and implement quickly, even in a context of low resources and limited technology. Methods: A case study approach structures this program implementation analysis. The NYU Meyers team conducted a 6-day needs assessment at the two selected hospitals. A SWOT analysis was performed to identify needs and potential areas for improvement. After the assessment, a weeklong training, tailored to each hospitals' specific needs, was designed and facilitated by two NYU Meyers nursing and midwifery education specialists. The program was created to build on the clinical skills of expert nurse and midwife clinicians and suggested strategies for incorporating mentoring and preceptorship as a means to enhance clinical safety and promote professional communication, problem solving and crisis management. Results: Nineteen participants from both hospitals attended the training. Fourteen of 19 participants completed a post training, open ended questionnaire for a 74% response rate. Fifty-seven percent of participants were able to demonstrate and provide examples of the concepts of mentorship and supervision 4 and 11 months' post training. Participants indicated that while confidence in skills was not lacking, barriers to quality care lay mostly in understaffing. Implementation also offered multiple insights into contextual factors affecting sustainable program implementation. Conclusions: Three recommendations from this training include: 1) A pre-program assessment should be conducted to ascertain contextual relevance to curriculum development; 2) flexibility and creativity in teaching methods are essential to engage students; and 3) access to participants a priori to program implementation may facilitate a more tailored approach and lead to greater participant engagement.