Introduction: Occupational injury is recognized as a key attrition factor in nursing with musculoskeletal injury the most common cause. Nurses, nurse aides and orderly injury rates are consistently listed in the top ten US occupations in terms of total numbers of injuries with patient transfer a primary etiologic factor. Patient transfer education for trainees as well as employees remains inconsistent and non-standardized. Legislative and policy efforts have not been effective.
Methods: Two methods are combined in this paper to approach the problem: hierarchical task analysis and a simulation educational intervention. Hierarchical task analysis has been used to solve industrial process problems for more than three decades and simulation education methods have been used in aviation since the 1920s. The hierarchical task analysis process is used to develop an optimal task set which was used to frame and implement a healthcare simulationtraining intervention.
Results: Performance evaluation tools for patient transfer were developed based on the optimum task set. Transfer of simulation training outcomes to the clinical setting was demonstrated on pilot study intervention and control units. The program was implemented in a community hospital with sustained improvement in transfer skill and reduction of injury rates and lost work days.
Conclusion: Because patient safety and improved outcomes are linked to adequate levels of nurse staffing, the public health implications of this project are significant. If nursing injury can be avoided using these methods then true progress can be made in arresting the injury epidemic with resultant reduction of nursing workforce losses with consequent healthcare system benefits.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-11292009-173439 |
| Date | 27 January 2010 |
| Creators | O'Donnell, John M |
| Contributors | Nicholas Bircher, Richard Henker, Sheryl Kelsey, Pamela Peele, Kim Sutton-Tyrrell |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11292009-173439/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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