As healthcare institutions face a nursing shortage and a new generation of nurses enter the workforce, consideration of the factors that influence turnover is essential to creating a working environment that retains the nurse.

Background We describe a successful interdisciplinary liaison program that effectively reduced health care-acquired (HCA), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a university hospital setting. Methods Baseline was from January 2006 to March 2008, and intervention period was April 2008 to September 2009. Staff nurses were trained to be liaisons (link nurses) to infection prevention (IP) personnel with clearly defined goals assigned and with ongoing monthly education. HCA-MRSA incidence per 1,000 patient-days (PD) was compared between baseline and intervention period along with total and non-HCA-MRSA, HCA and non-HCA-MRSA bacteremia, and hand soap/sanitizer usage. Hand hygiene compliance was assessed. Results A reduction in MRSA rates was as follows in intervention period compared with baseline: HCA-MRSA decreased by 28% from 0.92 to 0.67 cases per 1,000 PD (incidence rate ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval: 0.62–0.83, P < .001), and HCA-MRSA bacteremia rate was reduced by 41% from 0.18 to 0.10 per 1,000 PD (incidence rate ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval: 0.42–0.84, P = .003). Total MRSA rate and MRSA bacteremia rate also showed significant reduction with nonsignificant reductions in overall non-HCA-MRSA and non-HCA-MRSA bacteremia. Hand soap/sanitizer usage and compliance with hand hygiene also increased significantly during IP. Conclusion Link nurse program effectively reduced HCA-MRSA. Goal-defined metrics with ongoing reeducation for the nurses by IP personnel helped drive these results.

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This study reports on the development and psychometric testing of inpatient and ambulatory patient satisfaction scales designed to measure patient satisfaction using the standards of nursing practice within a medical center. The surveys were administered to patients 4-6 weeks after discharge from the hospital or following a clinic visit. A total of 619 inpatient and 955 ambulatory patient questionnaires were analyzed. Factor analyses suggest there exist four scales for inpatient satisfaction anf five scales for outpatient satisfaction with high reliability and reasonable validity.