2018’s Best & Worst States for Nurses

Dr. Edna Cadmus, Executive Director of the NJCCN, is one of the contributing experts in Wallet Hub’s publication on “2018’s Best & Worst States for Nurses.” Her comments include topics such as the biggest issues facing nurses today, the long term outlook for the field of nursing, tips for recent nursing graduates, and the role of local governments and health systems in attracting and retaining high quality nurses.

As always, we at the NJCCN are grateful for the opportunity to share our data and contribute to national discussions of the nursing workforce!

Full text of  “2018’s Best & Worst States for Nurses” is available at https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-for-nurses/4041/#edna-cadmus.

Human Trafficking Education

Hospital personnel – did you wonder why your organization required you to complete human trafficking education by March 18, 2018? This requirement was established by New Jersey Administrative Code 8:43E-14.1.

Click here to read the full text of the code.

Trafficking victims in need of healthcare are brought directly to emergency departments by their captors in an attempt to preserve anonymity. Victims may be brought to the same facility numerous times for serial health problems, and the healthcare professionals with whom they interact may be their sole contact outside of the framework of their captivity. This makes hospital personnel, especially nurses, uniquely able to identify victims and advocate on their behalf. The training mandated by NJAC 8:43E-14.1 will help nurses recognize and respond to evidence of human trafficking.

Education in human trafficking empowers nurses to keep saving lives.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement White Paper

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement published a white paper titled “IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work.” Please see the executive summary, below, and click the image to read the full publication.

With increasing demands on time, resources, and energy, in addition to poorly designed systems of daily work, it’s not surprising health care professionals are experiencing burnout at increasingly higher rates, with staff turnover rates also on the rise. Yet, joy in work is more than just the absence of burnout or an issue of individual wellness; it is a system property. It is generated (or not) by the system and occurs (or not) organization-wide. Joy in work – or lack thereof – not only impacts individual staff engagement and satisfaction, but also patient experience, quality of care, patient safety, and organizational performance.

This white paper is intended to serve as a guide for health care organizations to engage in a participative process where leaders ask colleagues at all levels of the organization, “What matters to you?” – enabling them to better understand the barriers to joy in work, and co-create meaningful, high-leverage strategies to address these issues.

This white paper describes the following:

  • The importance of joy in work (the “why”);
  • Four steps leaders can take to improve joy in work (“the how”);
  • The IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work: nine critical components of a system for ensuring a joyful, engaged workforce (the “what”);
  • Key change ideas for improving joy in work, along with examples from organizations that helped test them; and
  • Measurement and assessment tools for gauging efforts to improve joy in work.

Perlo J, Balik B, Swensen S, Kabcenell A, Landsman J, Feeley D. IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work. IHI White Paper. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Institute for Healthcare Improvement; 2017. (Available at ihi.org)

2017 Nursing Community Coalition

“For over a decade, the Nursing Community Coalition has been a partnership of national professional nursing associations that builds consensus and advocates on a wide spectrum of healthcare issues. Collectively, the Nursing Community is comprised of 58 national nursing organizations that represent the cross section of education, practice, research, and regulation within the profession. With over four million licensed registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, and nursing students, the profession embodied the drive and passion to continually improve care for patients, families, and communities across the nation.”

For more information, follow the links below to a fact sheet and the 2017 Nursing Community Roster.