INQRI in the Spotlight
Nurses Key to Understanding the "Off-peak Effect"
Drs. Patti Hamilton, Gretchen Gemeinhardt, Sondip Mathur and their team had their article, "Expanding What We Know About Off-peak Mortality in Hospitals" published in the Journal of Nursing Administration's March 2010 issue.
Dr. Hamilton: For more than thirty years, weekend and/or night time hospitalizations have been associated with negative patient outcomes. Descriptive studies have verified the presence of this "off-peak" effect in twenty-five patient diagnostic groups but have done little to explain the cause of this effect. We believe nurses can help us to understand what happens on off-peak shifts that may lead to negative patient outcomes. The purpose of our INQRI-funded study is to describe challenges nurses encounter and deal with on off-peak shifts, and to explain how those challenges arose in institutions designed to avoid any such outcomes. Our research to date suggests a number of steps that nurse administrators might take to enhance their knowledge for handling off-peak challenges in their hospitals. Visit our study website at http://www.nursingopen247.com/ for more information about the study and for useful resources.
Click here to access the article on the Journal of Nursing Administration's website.