A perioperative staffing schedule that meets coverage needs during high- and low-volume times and satisfies the demand for better work-life balance can be difficult to achieve. To help meet these challenges in its 50-room OR, the perioperative services department at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, designed a perioperative float…

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Just as nursing schools don’t include the operating room in their curriculums, they also don’t include any instruction on the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). And like the OR, the PACU is having trouble recruiting new nurses. In September 2015, Houston Methodist Hospital began a PACU residency program to train new…

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Editor's Note Healthcare workers and others who work the night shift, especially rotating night shifts, are significantly more likely to have Type 2 diabetes than those who work only days, this study finds. The analysis of more than 270,000 people also found that the more nights employees work, the greater…

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Kermit the frog famously said, “it’s not easy being green.” He longed to be some other color, and OR leaders faced with managing a bully have probably wished they, too, could be someone—or somewhere—else. Using some recommended approaches can help. In Part 2 of this three-part series on bullying, OR…

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Mergers and acquisitions of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) have increased recently, as organizations perceive the opportunities provided by growth markets, and ASCs realize the benefits of having access to a larger provider network, such as a pipeline of patients and more power in negotiating with insurers. Those transactions can have…

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Editor's Note Patients’ satisfaction with hospital care is strongly associated with missed nursing care, which is related to poor nurse staffing and poor work environments, finds this study led by Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania…

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Nurse bullying is a hot issue, even in the lay press—consider the 2015 Marie Claire article, “Mean Girls of the ER: The Alarming Nurse Culture of Bullying and Hazing.” Numbers vary, but the American Nurses Association reports that between 18% and 31% of nurses have experienced bullying at work. The…

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The leadership gap expected to occur when Baby Boomers retire leaves many OR managers worried about succession planning. About 40% of respondents to the annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey plan to retire between now and 2026. By 2020, about half of all nurses will be Millennials, according to the literature.…

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Where will new OR nurses come from in the future? Some OR leaders are answering that question with nurse externship programs for students. Although they require an initial investment, these programs can ultimately pay off financially. Externs who decide to train for the OR tend to be happy with their…

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The makeup of the nursing workforce, specifically the aging of that group, has been the subject of numerous publications and presentations in the last decade. Many have made dire predictions that a shortfall of nurses will likely occur in the near future, but a nationwide scarcity of severe impact has…

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