The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate and summarise available research on nurse staffing methods and relate these to outcomes under three overarching themes of: (1) management of clinical risk, quality and safety; (2) development of a new or innovative staffing methodology; and (3) equity of nursing workload. The PRISMA method was used. Relevant articles were located by searching via the Griffith University Library electronic catalogue, including articles on PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Medline. Only English language publications published between 1 January 2010 and 30 April 2016 focusing on methodologies in acute hospital in-patient units were included in the present review. Two of the four staffing methods were found to have evidenced-based articles from empirical studies within the parameters set for inclusion. Of the four staffing methodologies searched, supply and demand returned 10 studies and staffing ratios returned 11. There is a need to develop an evidence-based nurse-sensitive outcomes measure upon which staffing for safety, quality and workplace equity, as well as an instrument that reliability and validly projects nurse staffing requirements in a variety of clinical settings. Nurse-sensitive indicators reflect elements of patient care that are directly affected by nursing practice In addition, these measures must take into account patient satisfaction, workload and staffing, clinical risks and other measures of the quality and safety of care and nurses' work satisfaction. i. Nurse staffing is a controversial topic that has significant patient safety, quality of care, human resources and financial implications. In acute care services, nursing accounts for approximately 70% of salaries and wages paid by health services budgets, and evidence as to the efficacy and effectiveness of any staffing methodology is required because it has workforce and industrial relations implications. Although there is significant literature available on the topic, there is a paucity of empirical evidence supporting claims of increased patient safety in the acute hospital setting, but some evidence exists relating to equity of workload for nurses. This paper provides a contemporary qualitative analysis of empirical evidence using PRISMA methodology to conduct a systematic review of the available literature. It demonstrates a significant research gap to support claims of increased patient safety in the acute hospital setting. The paper calls for greatly improved datasets upon which research can be undertaken to determine any associations between mandated patient to nurse ratios and other staffing methodologies and patient safety and quality of care. There is insufficient contemporary research to support staffing methodologies for appropriate staffing, balanced workloads and quality, safe care. Such research would include the establishment of nurse-sensitive patient outcomes measures, and more robust datasets are needed for empirical analysis to produce such evid...

Dementia is one of the most common illnesses worldwide, and is one of the most important causes of disability in older people. Currently, dementia affects over 35million people around the globe. It is expected that this number will increase to 65.7million by 2030. Early detection, diagnosis and treatment to control the principal behaviour symptoms may help reduce these numbers and delay the progression to more advanced and dangerous stages of this disorder with resultant increase quality of life for those affected. The main goal of the present systematic literature review was to examine contemporary evidence relating to non-pharmacological therapy in the treatment of dementia. To achieve the study goal, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was used. This study identified the five most common behaviours in patients with dementia as aggression, wandering, agitation, apathy and sleep disturbances. Two non-pharmacological therapies were the most studied treatment: music therapy and aromatherapy. Ten other non-pharmacological therapies were also identified, but these lack a sufficient evidence-base. Although all the therapies identified could be used as part of the treatment of behavioural symptoms, there is insufficient evidence relating to the indications, appropriate use and effectiveness of these therapies to apply in each behavioural treatment. Thus, the present study has demonstrated a significant research gap. Despite the widespread use of many different types of therapies, there is limited evidence regarding the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical therapies deployed in the management of behaviours of concern manifested by some people who suffer with dementia in all its forms. This systematic review examines contemporary evidence from the literature to determine whether there is an evidence base available that would underpin the use of these therapies. This report on a PRISMA systematic review of the available literature demonstrates that only two therapies have some evidence to underpin the use of these non-pharmaceutical therapies and that a significant research gap is exists. The implications for practitioners is that significant research effort is required to determine the efficacy of many of the therapies that are currently deployed, and thus many of the therapies used lack an evidence base at this time.

This Narrative Theoretical Literature Review relates to the evolution and translation of two contemporary leadership theories and anchors these to a leadership theory framework that demonstrates where they fit within the leadership theory body of knowledge. This literature review was an integral part of the preparation for a mixed-methods study related to leadership in the aged care sector which has successfully concluded and one of the major findings of that yet unpublished study is that the followership is positively influenced in their work performance with a reduced turnover intention if they considered that their leader was authentic and ethical.  Authentic and ethical leadership appear to be escalating in importance and translatability to the health and social care environments struggling with unmet workforce demands and high consumer expectations.  The review contains a description and timeline of the development of each of the theories included.  This literature review is useful for investigating either or both leadership theories or their application to health and social care or designing leadership training programs or leader performance assessment tools.

Open Disclosure is the process of open and honest discussion between a clinician and the patient and family when an adverse clinical event occurs while the patient is in care or treatment. While open disclosure is now a mandatory practice in many developed countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and Canada, it has yet to be made mandatory in Singapore. In most healthcare institutions in Singapore, the Clinical Governance or Quality Service Management Department manages the governance of patient safety and medical errors. This systematic literature review aims to understand the effect of Asian culture relating to apologies because of the implementation of Open Disclosure in Singapore's healthcare system. METHOD:The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was used to review and synthesize the contemporary literature qualitatively. RESULTS:This study identified that there are links between culture and apologies and in particular, the expression and acceptance of the apology. This study explored and identified the effects of Asian culture on open disclosure, specifically on apologies, and established that Asian and western cultures offer and accept apologies differently.Also, the study established the public's view and demand for open disclosure and the impact of culture on how a person presents oneself in delivering an apology. CONCLUSION:The study could only identify five high-quality articles in this systematic literature review; there were no papers on the mindset and perceptions of Asian healthcare professionals on apologies and open disclosure found. This present study has demonstrated a significant research gap that is a significant opportunity for future research.

Purpose This paper aims to determine the effects of leadership style (LS) on organisational identification (OID) in aged care provider organisations to inform talent management strategies for the sector, which has quite severe workforce shortages. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports on a mixed-methods study. Study 1 was quantitative in approach that measured responses to an online questionnaire containing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Identification with a Psychological Group scale. The analytical strategy provided results that demonstrated the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample, the reliability and distributions of data and calculated the correlations between the factors of the deployed tools. The relationship between the factors that comprise both tools was measured, and any differences between the two natural groups were labelled leaders and raters. Study 2 was qualitative in approach, using interpretive phenomenological analysis to provide an in-depth analysis of phenomena. Findings The results and findings of this study are that OID was not evident in the quantitative or qualitative samples. There are recommendations for future research relating to the social capital of organisations and the use of social media to determine how these could be harnessed in support of workforce recruitment and retention strategies. Research limitations/implications This research was conducted in Australia with participants from the workforces of aged care providers in three eastern states of Australia. The results and findings may be limited to the Australian aged care context. The researcher evaluated the limitations of this research relating to: Methodology: There may be an overstatement of the strength of the relationships between variables among those motivated to participate in the survey in the quantitative study; Transferability: The qualitative study required the researcher to be thorough in describing the research context, and it may be that those who wish to transfer the results of this study to a different context are responsible for making the judgement on the suitability of the transfer; Credibility: The qualitative analysis was not designed to directly reflect a relationship between each leader and their direct report raters’ experiences; and Confirmability: The researcher maintained an awareness and openness to the dynamism of the results. Frequent reflection and self-criticism about preconceptions that may have affected the research were recorded in field notes after each interview. Practical implications Aged care providers who must compete in the labour market for staff may use the results and findings of this research to inform recruitment and retention strategies relating to brand recognition and loyalty and social capital strategies. Social implications Providing an appropriate, skilled and well-led workforce will assist in providing the appropriate level of aged care service at a high standard of quality and safety that will benefit the community as a whole. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper reports on original research conducted following ethical clearance in part fulfilment of a successful conferral of a Doctor of Philosophy programme. After an extensive search of the literature, no research reports returned that examined LS and OID in the aged care service provision.

Purpose The themes that emerged from the qualitative data of a mixed methods study that explored the effects of leadership style on the job satisfaction of aged care workers. Design/methodology/approach The study is a mixed methods study with the qualitative approach informing the interpretative phenomenological analysis from the transcripts of semi-structured interviews. Findings Three themes related to the effects of leadership style on job satisfaction of aged care employees emerged from the IPA. These themes were, The Context of Aged Care, Employee Engagement and Voice and Leader Behaviour. Job burnout and organisational disengagement were prevalent in participants of the qualitative study. Research limitations/implications The research deployed quantitative measurements to determine the differences between aged care leaders and their followers and used these to explore participants’ lived experiences and how they made sense of their personal and social worlds at work. In the quantitative study, there may be an overstatement of the strength of the relationship between variables among those motivated to participate in the study. The qualitative study requires the researcher to be thorough in describing the research context, and it may be that those who wish to transfer the results of this study to a different one are responsible for making the judgement on the suitability of the transferability of findings. Practical implications Decreasing job disengagement and burnout will positively impact reducing attrition and turnover and, thus, the availability of the aged care workforce. It will inform leadership development programs and training in aged care and other health and social care sectors. Social implications The workforce is a primary consideration for aged care in Australia and globally. Reducing burnout and disengagement will reduce workforce attrition, thus, improving the care for some of the most vulnerable in the population. Originality/value This report is from original research with ethical clearance from a university human research ethics committee contributing to the knowledge of leadership practice in aged care in Australia.

The digitalisation of healthcare represents another change challenge for clinicians, and the most prominent of these is the Electronic Health Record (EHR).  Adopting the EHR, including the training of clinicians of all disciplines, often does not occur effectively, which increases the risk of adverse events and the reduction in the quality and safety of clinical care.   The competent use of the EHR requires clinician user training.  One form of training is scenario-based. The questions asked of the literature in this SLR are what evidence exists as to the effectiveness of using scenarios to train clinicians in using the EHR, and is there a research gap in this evidence to inform future research? To undertake this systematic review of the literature, the researchers implemented the PRISMA Method. Only highly ranked, health-related academic databases accessed through an electronic library catalogue were used to search for relevant peer-reviewed/refereed articles.  The decision to apply the PRISMA method was based on the PRISMA statement, which safeguards comprehensive reporting and transparency to ensure inferred recommendations and interventions are based on the best available evidence.   6,898 records were returned from Boolean searches for articles published between November 2018 to November 2021.  Five articles were included for greater analysis following exclusions by title review, abstract review, and quality assessment.  Quality assessment of articles reporting empirical studies relating to the effectiveness of using scenarios in this type of training was performed using the standard quality assessment scoresheet by Kmet [48]. Three themes emerged from the literature.  The centrality of workflow, Clinician engagement are key, and scenario-based training is one of many training strategies implemented.  The authors found that further rigorous research studies are required to enhance the evidence body for the continued usage of scenario-based training of clinicians to effectively use the EHR, particularly as the digital landscape within health continues to evolve.  Moreover, the authors posit that further research on scenario-based EHR training of clinicians should include: Scenario-based training is just one part of a broader and blended EHR training suite. Ensuring future studies encompass a diversity of all fields of clinical roles within the research and, Include standardised terminology naming for clinicians' scenario-based EHR training within the studies.

Objective: The purpose of this systematic literature review is to appraise contemporary research literature examining the effects of mentoring on graduate registered nurses’ transition to practice objectively and systematically.  These areas, specifically examined, are competence, job satisfaction, and retention. Three themes emerged from the research in this area. The themes are informal mentoring effectiveness, the extent of mentoring, and mentoring efficacy. Methods: The PRISMA method was implemented. Articles reviewed were written in English and published between December 2015 and December 2020 and obtained from the Griffith University Library electronic catalogue. A quality assessment of each record not excluded in the title and abstract analysis was undertaken using the method described by Kmet.[1] Those with a quality rating of 16 as a minimum are included in this systematic literature review. Results: Three quantitative, two qualitative and two - method research studies emerged after applying inclusion criteria, selection, and quality assessment. The analysis demonstrated the positive effects of mentoring on all three avenues with one mixed-method study that documented a downward trend in job satisfaction at six months. Conclusions: Mentoring is an effective transition to practice strategy for novice nurses. It affects competence, job satisfaction and retention positively. Retention and resignation rates worsen following 12 months of employment. Robust and rigorous studies are essential to justify long-term mentoring programs’ cost-effectiveness.