Welcome to the Reading Room

As a nurse manager, you need to know a little bit about everything. To help, we've compiled some of our best stories from our library of HCPro newsletters to provide you with advice, tips, and strategies on everything under the healthcare sun.

As a bonus, we've also provided you with continuing education opportunities (marked with an asterisk). Look for a new one each month!

• Tips to improve patient and family education
• CE Article: Bridging the generation gap with diverse, creative education*
• California Program Uses Telemedicine to Reach Medically Underserved
• Nurse leaders should champion peer review
• Helping Charge Nurses understand their leadership role (Part 3 of 3)
• Helping Charge Nurses understand their leadership role (Part 2 of 3)
• Helping Charge Nurses understand their leadership role (Part 1 of 3)
• Current EMRs May Be More Helpful With Billing Than Care Coordination
• Missouri health center survives thorough lab inspection
• Virginia hospital celebrates five years with no VAP events
• Twitter Can Play Key Role in Disaster Management
• Wound healing centers benefit hospitals financially, strategically
• ED wait times touted online, but docs point to a dangerous trend
• Do your orientees need help with critical thinking skills? Try concept mapping
• CE Article: Coaching project helps facilities prepare for patient falls*
• Patient photos help reduce hospital’s medication errors
• More attention being paid to diagnosis errors
• CDC video urges patients to insist they witness provider hand-washing
• CE Article: Stroke education for patient care technicians*
• Nursing Performance Database Hopes to Improve Quality
• Nursing Department improves quality and patient satisfaction with culture change
• Clinical nurse leaders improve patient care and quality
• Joint Commission, HHS Stress Importance of Healthcare Communication
• Facility cuts timelines, develops a standardized pain tool
• Nurses Use iTouch and iPhones to Communicate and Stay Connected
• The house that nurses built: Nurses design an innovative way to illustrate their professional practice model
• Five easy ways to protect staff from violent patients
• Outsourcing discharge follow-up calls keeps nurses at the bedside
• CE article: Patient advisory boards engage patients in their own care*
• New Flu Prevention Web Site Launched Specifically for Healthcare Workers
• Patient Safety First campaign focuses staff, patients on common goal
• Joint Commission: Smoke-free campuses will be the norm soon—ideas abound for execution and enforcement
• Prudence or wisdom? Can your policies pass muster?
• The many variations of CHF discharge instructions
• The 20 most common employer mistakes
• Time for Hospitals to Issue Holiday Decorations Memo
• New York requires flu vaccines for healthcare workers
• Medication safety: A complex puzzle
• Protecting your work force from MDRO infections
• Could a federal patient safety agency offer a solution to rising number of errors?
• PQO model takes on a successful new look
• Universal patient floor increases patient flow, decreases handoffs, improves patient safety
• SSI prevention measures include evidence-based guidelines
• Three life safety issues to watch for
• New ICU technology could improve IC processes
• New accreditation decision: What will this mean for your facility in 2010 surveys?
• 2009 Nursing Image Awards Leadership Winners
• 2009 Nursing Image Awards Clinical Practice Winners
• Proposed changes to National Patient Safety Goals
• CE article: Flu pandemic preparation: What does your facility need to know?*
• Five Steps to Improve Your Hospital's H1N1 Readiness
• Nursing students learn about rural healthcare
• Steam sterilization is on Joint Commission’s radar
• Engineering Tactics Can Identify Broader Inefficiencies in Your Hospital
• Nurse sues hospital after allegedly being forced to assist in abortion
• Examine risks and solutions related to Pseudomonas
• Standards update: Answering your questions on restraints and more
• More nurses seek help for substance abuse
• Confessions of a former life safety specialist: Corridor clutter is among common tour snags
• CE article: Don't forget infection control in the MRI suite*
• Nurse salaries remain on the rise
• Poll finds nurses believe staff shortages are affecting patient care
• Cut your energy bills with these award-winning ideas
• How to plan better for infectious waste disposal
• Electronic surveillance systems increase efficiency
• The emotional cost of nursing
• Forensic nurses provide care, help solve crime
• Greeley survey solutions: Time to start working on restraint
• Standard of the month: Making tracers work for you
• Survey prep: Identify the most frustrating standards
• Guidelines for fit testing N95 respirators during a pandemic
• CE article: Are checklists the future of infection prevention?*
• Recession may temporarily resolve nursing shortage
• Injecting entertainment into annual safety retraining
• Toolkit can show nurses the other side of the patient experience
• Clear organizational goals, effective data use help leaders comply with leadership standards
• Boston nurses rap in hand hygiene video
• Skepticism and some optimism surround new nurse dramas
• HHS plans to use $50 million to prevent infections
• CE Article: Florida hospital system weathers survey surprises*
• Sight gags abound in patient safety "room of horrors"
• Two-day survey turns into nine-hour success
• Nursing excellence: Turn to APNs to meet your nursing research needs
• Professional development: Ease nurses’ public speaking jitters
• Plan for the future and trust that your revamped policies are sound
• Enterprising Florida nurse earning high marks with RNReport Card
• Facility lowers rate of pressure ulcers, specifically on heel
• Proposed budget for 2010 increases nursing incentives
• College’s plan to phase out nursing program raises concerns
• Lessons learned, when the unimaginable happens
• Virtual patient advocate could enhance health literacy
• Health system lays off nurse during patient surgery
• CE Article: Health system lowers VAP rates with eICU*
• Motivate your nurses to conduct research
• Study finds a decline in MRSA in the ICU
• Comply to standard IC.02.01.01 with communication
• Study finds multicolored scrubs brighten pediatric care
• Use simulation training to boost your facility's culture of safety
• Make support staff part of infection control
• Spreading the word about new infection control policies or procedures
• 10 cost-effective and creative tips to boost staff morale
• Quick ideas keep nurses trained, but on the floor
• Hospitals feel weight of poor economy
• Improve patient safety performance with your patient safety officer
• Women in healthcare want to find a healthy work-life balance
• CE Article: Address health literacy by adopting patient-centered approaches*
• Prevent medical identity theft: Red flags rule compliance deadline is May 1
• Eight steps to protect patients with dementia
• Get a high five for your patient care
• Secret shoppers help improve hand hygiene compliance
• Facility eliminates staff irritants with WOW team
• Tennessee hospital reduces MRSA in long-term care patients
• Increase face time to improve staff performance
• CE Article: Overcome challenges to reduce surgical site infections*
• Dos and don’ts for conducting a successful interview
• Hand hygiene program achieves 99% compliance during three-year period
• Huddle up to get staff closer to evidence-based practice
• Make way for another nursing excellence award
• National Quality Forum updates Safe Practices for 2009
• Hone your skills as a nurse mediator to manage staff conflict
• Take a strong stand against the flu with declination forms
• Ten tips to prepare for a surge in pediatric patients
• Diversify your leadership style to motivate multigenerational staff
• CE Article: Shift reporting: Move it to the bedside*
• Seven time management tips and stress busters
• IHI launches map toward improved healthcare
• Novant Health receives 2008 Ernest Amory Codman Award
• Say goodbye to 2008 with a glimpse at your poll results
• 2009 HIPAA forecast
• C. diff more prevalent than previously believed
• Tips for writing an effective code of conduct policy
• Keep staff (and yourself) merry while working over the holidays
• AHRQ awards $3 million for CLABSI prevention program
• Train an interdisciplinary team for communication
• College serves as (camp)site for nursing knowledge
• CMS interpretive guidelines one year later: Is your facility in compliance with all the changes?
• Honeypots: A sweet tool for monitoring snooping
• CE Article: 2009 Leadership standards make patient safety a priority*
• Quiet time program brings peace to pediatric unit
• Take your seat for the evidence-based practice trial
• Compendium of strategies full of HAI prevention tips
• ’Nurse navigator’ leads patients through breast cancer battle
• Early warning system to be surveyed in January
• The new CMS payment policy might be more bark than bite with regard to SSIs
• Beware of monkeys on your back by managing your time
• CE Article: New rapid response teams stress family involvement*
• Spotlight on pain management
• Facility hosts pajama party to find nightshift nurses
• ISBAR: Adding an extra step in handoff communication
• Disaster preparedness: Design, update, practice your plan
• Nurse Manager Alert: But they looked good on paper!
• Document, monitor, and limit flash sterilization to stay out of hot water with The Joint Commission
• Robot rounds quicken hospital’s med delivery
• Leadership chapter changes: Defining top roles, relationships
• Peer into your nurse manager poll results
• The fundamentals of accountability
• Three keys to ensuring your anticoagulant therapy program is ready
• CE Article: Stay vigilant: Pandemic influenza is more likely than ever*
• Nurse inspires patients through song
• Go above and beyond to recognize your nurses
• Pennsylvania association promotes standardized wristbands to prevent errors
• RN satisfaction survey promotes positive change
• HIPAA in the ER: Exceptions, suggestions for compliance in a chaotic clinical setting
• Making a visible difference in nursing
• Catch debate fever at your facility
• New Patient Safety Goals focus on infection prevention
• CE Article: Most recent Sentinel Event Alert highlights disruptive behavior*
• Intensive, expensive, and, in some cases, controversial
• Inside life coaching: Care for yourself, care for others
• Crisis management starts at home but doesn’t end there
• Put on your best performance review
• Gwinnett Medical Center creates a three-tiered approach to address medication security questions
• Changing a culture of optionality to one of accountability
• Hourly rounding, huddles help prevent patient falls
• Increased documentation added to 2009 NPSGs
• California hospital team takes aim on VTE
• New patient care model helps staff do more for the patient and family
• Strategies to make time for the next wave of leaders
• Nursing new bonds: Program pairs first-time mothers with visiting nurses
• CE Article: Beat nursing stress and stay calm and collected*
• Leadership development: Teambuilding tips for nurse managers
• Language adds twist to unannounced survey
• Disseminate data to frontline staff members
• Hospital’s homemade recruitment campaign reels in nearly 80 nurses in 80 days
• Building a culture of safety into your patient safety plan
• The changing face of recruitment and retention
• How to set up an effective rapid response system
• CE Article: Screening for MRSA: Looking beyond a universal approach*
• Survey challenges addressed through firsthand experience
• Heparin recall brings attention to policies
• Consider using technology to help reduce infections
• Tending to geriatric care with NICHE
• Helping hospitals serve older patients: Nurse managers find NICHE
• Express care improves patient flow in the ED
• Nursing shortage strains emergency physicians
• The gift of a nursing residency
• Strategies to prevent the spread of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in your facility
• Learning and mastering the operating budget
• CE Article: Assess all patients to prevent pressure ulcers*
• The struggle to give children hope
• Becoming a nurse to the world
• Safety on the rise: How aviation concepts can lift nursing to a higher plane
• The NICU: Small patients pose big infection risks
• Baldrige award winners share experiences
• Linked in: Connecting nurses to professional online resources
• Follow five rules to make your HIPAA training program shine
• Poll taps into nursing staff challenges
• Hospital creates policy to make critical test results stick
• Nurse managers are key to revamping and reshaping staff motivation
• Program focuses on most difficult transition: Going home
• Hospital takes on three surveys in four months
• CE Article: Perfecting stroke care through certification*
• Avoid reimbursement, accreditation concerns by preventing catheter-associated infections
• Sharing some Nurses’ Week ideas
• Opening the doors of retention during exit interviews
• Stop keeping nightshift nurses in the dark
• Prevention, not punishment, key to patient safety
• Building awareness into the survey prep process
• CE Article: Follow these best practices to reduce falls*
• Strategies for collaborative nurse-physician relationships
• Cultivating new grad nurses: A preceptor's experience
• Designing shared governance councils
• Mouthing off the right way: How to keep your nurses happy
• Behavioral health challenges much like pathogens: Unique, unpredictable, everchanging
• How to find methods to assess continual survey readiness in your facility
• MD hospital avoids hand hygiene RFI, finds areas for improvement
• Med rec survey highlights compliance trouble spots
• Nintendo system kicking off wave of Wiihabilitation
• Interview 101: It's not just the candidate who should prepare
• New grad orientation program boosts growing ICU
• The difference between leadership and management
• CE Article: Talking trash may help improve hand hygiene*
• Groundbreaking study seeks to uncover truth about new grad nurses
• Prevent catheter UTIs with practical measures
• How one facility reduced MRSA and saved money
• Work together to eliminate pressure ulcers
• Washington state hospital keeps survey 'uneventful'
• Making tough decisions about your career
• CE Article: Two facilities share creative handoff strategies*
• Take a big step toward falls prevention
• Family activation: The next generation of rapid response
• Raising the bar for your nursing staff members
• Evaluate your organization's readiness plan
• Hospital improves medication reconciliation compliance by improving past practices
• Why conduct peer review?
• Standardizing colored wristbands improves patient safety
• Essential business skills for nurse managers
• When your patients are seeing red
• CE Article: Increase your nurses' knowledge of geriatrics*
• The cost and truths of human error
• NPSG #15A: Crafting a suicide risk assessment policy
• When your patients are seeing red
• Helping new grads adjust to the nursing world
• Making a New Year's (nursing) resolution
• CE Article: The evolution of mock survey tracers*
• New site aims to empty waiting rooms
• Added stress equals holiday mess
• Enhance employee motivation through play at work
• Online nursing degrees 101
• CE Article: Improving patient satisfaction one focus group at a time*
• Behind the scenes of a nurse recruitment event
• Recruiting international nurses
• Feeling the cycle of life
• Developing your staff members into nursing professionals
• Trick-or-treating their way to Kenya
• Remember the importance of inner quiet this holiday season
• In search of some shut eye? Give meditation a try
• Pack your bags and get on board: Why travel nursing is here to stay
• Halting assaults: Strategies to prevent workplace violence
• Use blue dots to help you relax
• CE Article: Take practical steps to protect your staff members, patients from the flu*
• The influence of yoga and meditation on women recovering from breast cancer
• CE Article: Unannounced surveys raising the bar for facilities*
• Interoffice relationships: Red light or green light?
• Do the right thing . . . just for the sake of it
• You've got a friend in me
• Venturing into new territory
• Solving the mystery behind managing new graduates
• CE Article: Hourly rounding improves patient safety*
• Stress reduction starts with a breath
• Can meditation lead to retention?
• Make HIPAA work for you: Take a customer service approach for better public relations
• How to find the perfect match for your IC program
• Leaving Venus and going to Mars
• Revised standards designed to align with CMS
• A little ice cream can tell you a lot
• Tackle substance abuse in the workplace with these preventive measures
• Strategies to improve nursing documentation*
• Four steps to a more secure retirement portfolio
• A little bit of this, a little bit of that
• Getting everyone on a level playing field
• Med rec: It's not just for inpatients
• Don't neglect IV pumps: Tips for getting the job done
• Nursing assessment, care planning, and education are crucial to care improvement
• The right culture change can improve staff retention
• A product of our experiences
• The new grad as the critical thinker
• 12 simple steps to Joint Commission survey success
• Tips for building a better patient safety training program