Research Purpose Autonomy is essential to professional nursing practice and is a core component of good nurse work environments. The primary objective of this study was to examine the relationship between nurse autonomy and 30-day mortality and failure to rescue (FTR) in a hospitalized surgical population. Study Design This study was a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data. It included data from three sources: patient discharge data from state administrative databases, a survey of nurses from four states, and the American Hospital Association annual survey from 2006–2007. Methods Survey responses from 20,684 staff nurses across 570 hospitals were aggregated to the hospital level to assess autonomy measured by a standardized scale. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the relationship between nurse autonomy and 30-day mortality and FTR. Patient comorbidities, surgery type, and other hospital characteristics were included as controls. Findings Greater nurse autonomy at the hospital level was significantly associated with lower odds of 30-day mortality and FTR for surgical patients even after accounting for patient risk and structural hospital characteristics. Each additional point on the nurse autonomy scale was associated with approximately 19% lower odds of 30-day mortality (p < .001) and 17% lower odds of failure to rescue (p < .01). Conclusions Hospitals with lower levels of nurse autonomy place their surgical patients at an increased risk for mortality and FTR. Clinical Relevance Patients receiving care within institutions that promote high levels of nurse autonomy have a lower risk for death within 30 days and complications leading to death within 30 days. Hospitals can actively take steps to encourage nurse autonomy to positively influence patient outcomes.

Objective-Although general hospitals receive nearly 60% of all inpatient psychiatric admissions, little is known about the care environment and related adverse events. The purpose of this study was to determine the occurrence of adverse events and examine the extent to which organizing factors of inpatient psychiatric care environments were associated with the occurrence of these events. The events examined were wrong medication, patient falls with injuries, complaints from patients and families, work-related staff injuries, and verbal abuse directed toward nurses.Methods-This cross-sectional study used data from a 1999 nurse survey linked with hospital data. Nurse surveys from 353 psychiatric registered nurses working in 67 Pennsylvania general hospitals provided information on nurse characteristics, organizational factors, and the occurrence of adverse events. Linear regression models and robust clustering methods at the hospital level were used to study the relationship of organizational factors of psychiatric care environments and adverse event outcomes.Results-Verbal abuse toward registered nurses (79%), complaints (61%), patient falls with injuries (44%), and work-related injuries (39%) were frequent occurrences. Better management skill was associated with fewer patient falls and fewer work-related injuries to staff. In addition, fewer occurrences of staff injuries were associated with better nurse-physician relationship and lower patient-to-nurse staffing ratios.Conclusions-Adverse events are frequent for inpatient psychiatric care in general hospitals, and organizational factors of care environments are associated with adverse event outcomes. Further development of evidence-based quality and safety monitoring of inpatient psychiatric care in general hospitals is imperative.A 1999 landmark report by the Institute of Medicine on the quality of care in general hospitals found high rates of patient injuries and preventable deaths associated with medical errors (1). Since that report, quality management of hospital care environments has become a high national priority, with a large emerging research base showing that organizational factors-such as institutional policies, nurse staffing, and other processes-may inadvertently contribute to worse outcomes and medical errors (2). This research was specific to the medical-surgical sector of general hospitals, and there are comparatively few studies of adverse events for inpatient psychiatric care settings even though inpatient psychiatric services are provided in Correspondence to: Nancy P. Hanrahan, nancyp@nursing.upenn.edu. The authors report no competing interests. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript most general hospitals (3). In our study, organizational features of the general hospital inpatient psychiatric care environment were examined in relation to adverse event outcomes.In the medical-surgical sector of general hospitals, an understanding of quality and safety has guided the development of...

Objective-Although general hospitals receive nearly 60% of all inpatient psychiatric admissions, little is known about the care environment and related adverse events. The purpose of this study was to determine the occurrence of adverse events and examine the extent to which organizing factors of inpatient psychiatric care environments were associated with the occurrence of these events. The events examined were wrong medication, patient falls with injuries, complaints from patients and families, work-related staff injuries, and verbal abuse directed toward nurses.Methods-This cross-sectional study used data from a 1999 nurse survey linked with hospital data. Nurse surveys from 353 psychiatric registered nurses working in 67 Pennsylvania general hospitals provided information on nurse characteristics, organizational factors, and the occurrence of adverse events. Linear regression models and robust clustering methods at the hospital level were used to study the relationship of organizational factors of psychiatric care environments and adverse event outcomes.Results-Verbal abuse toward registered nurses (79%), complaints (61%), patient falls with injuries (44%), and work-related injuries (39%) were frequent occurrences. Better management skill was associated with fewer patient falls and fewer work-related injuries to staff. In addition, fewer occurrences of staff injuries were associated with better nurse-physician relationship and lower patient-to-nurse staffing ratios.Conclusions-Adverse events are frequent for inpatient psychiatric care in general hospitals, and organizational factors of care environments are associated with adverse event outcomes. Further development of evidence-based quality and safety monitoring of inpatient psychiatric care in general hospitals is imperative.A 1999 landmark report by the Institute of Medicine on the quality of care in general hospitals found high rates of patient injuries and preventable deaths associated with medical errors (1). Since that report, quality management of hospital care environments has become a high national priority, with a large emerging research base showing that organizational factors-such as institutional policies, nurse staffing, and other processes-may inadvertently contribute to worse outcomes and medical errors (2). This research was specific to the medical-surgical sector of general hospitals, and there are comparatively few studies of adverse events for inpatient psychiatric care settings even though inpatient psychiatric services are provided in Correspondence to: Nancy P. Hanrahan, nancyp@nursing.upenn.edu. The authors report no competing interests. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript most general hospitals (3). In our study, organizational features of the general hospital inpatient psychiatric care environment were examined in relation to adverse event outcomes.In the medical-surgical sector of general hospitals, an understanding of quality and safety has guided the development of...

Background: Parents of infants born with critical congenital heart disease are at risk for adverse mental health symptoms. The purpose of this study was to identify infant-, parent-, and environmental-based stressors for mothers and fathers after their infants’ cardiac surgery, and to explore relationships between stressors and mental health symptoms of anxiety and depression. Methods: This study enrolled 28 biological mother-father dyads from families admitted to the paediatric cardiac intensive care unit for cardiac surgery at one free-standing children’s hospital in the Northeast. Paired t-tests were used to examine group differences between mothers and fathers on perceived stressors and mental health symptoms, while linear mixed effects modelling was used to explore the predictive relationship between perceived stressors, personal factors, and mental health symptoms. Results: Mothers reported higher perceived stressor scores of parental role alteration (t = 4.03, p < 0.01) and infant appearance and behaviour (t = 2.61, p = 0.02), and total perceived stress (t = 2.29 p = 0.03), compared to fathers. Mothers also reported higher anxiety (t = 2.47, p = 0.02) and depressive symptoms (t = 3.25, p < 0.01) than fathers. In multivariable analysis, parental role alteration significantly predicted anxiety (t = 5.20, p < 0.01, d = 0.77) and depressive symptoms (t = 7.09, p < 0.01, d = 1.05) for mothers and fathers. The consensus subscale of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale also significantly predicted depressive symptoms (t = −2.42, p = 0.02, d = 0.04). Conclusion: Parents were distressed during their infant’s admission for surgical repair for critical congenital heart disease. Parental role alteration was significantly associated with parental anxiety and depressive symptoms, while poor relationship quality was associated with depressive symptoms, highlighting areas for potential nursing-led psychosocial led interventions.

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The COVID‐19 pandemic and subsequent proliferation of misinformation have created parallel public health crises. Social media offers a novel platform to amplify evidence‐based communication to broader audiences. This paper describes the application of science communication engagement on social media platforms by an interdisciplinary team of female scientists in a campaign called Dear Pandemic. Nurses are trusted professionals trained in therapeutic communication and are central to this effort. The Dear Pandemic campaign now has more than 97,000 followers with international and multilingual impact. Public health strategies to combat misinformation and guide individual behavior via social media show promise, and require further investment to support this novel dissemination of science communication.

The World Health Organization has identified excessive COVID-19 pandemic–related information as a public health crisis, calling it an “infodemic.” Social media allows misinformation to spread quickly and outcompete scientifically grounded information delivered via other methods. Dear Pandemic is an innovative, multidisciplinary, social media–based science communication project whose mission is to educate and empower individuals to successfully navigate the overwhelming amount of information circulating during the pandemic. This mission has 2 primary objectives: (1) to disseminate trustworthy, comprehensive, and timely scientific content about the pandemic to lay audiences via social media and (2) to promote media literacy and information-hygiene practices, equipping readers to better manage the COVID-19 infodemic within their own networks. The volunteer team of scientists publishes 8-16 posts per week on pandemic-relevant topics. Nearly 2 years after it launched in March 2020, the project has a combined monthly reach of more than 4 million unique views across 4 social media channels, an email newsletter, and a website. We describe the project’s guiding principles, lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities. Dear Pandemic has emerged as an example of a promising new paradigm for public health communication and intervention. The contributors deliver content in ways that are personal, practical, actionable, responsive, and native to social media platforms. The project’s guiding principles are a model for public health communication targeting future infodemics and can bridge the chasm between the scientific community and the practical daily decision-making needs of the general public.

(1) Background: Critical gaps in the U.S. healthcare system perpetuate adverse reproductive health outcomes for Black people. Grounded in reproductive justice and trauma-informed care, Breastfeeding Awareness and Empowerment (BAE) has developed a program titled BAE Cafe to directly address these gaps by providing community-based lactation and perinatal mental health support. A literature review identified key programmatic gaps, namely, access to knowledge relevant to troubleshooting breastfeeding, peer support, community support and healthcare system support, and system-level factors that impede families and communities from accessing lactation support. (2) Methods: This paper describes BAE Cafe through a group process observation and participant survey. (3) Results: The observation of groups highlighted the core elements of the BAE Cafe model: knowledge, support and mental health support in a peer driven format. Participant survey feedback was overwhelmingly positive and highlighted the critical importance of lactation support for Black women by Black women and BAE’s role in participants’ decisions to continue breastfeeding. (4) Conclusions: BAE Cafe is a replicable, scalable, peer-driven and low-barrier intervention that has the potential to improve outcomes for Black families. Additional research and investment are now needed to assess large-scale implementation to reduce disparities and address health inequity across different contexts and settings.