The healthcare arena, much like the manufacturing industry, benefits from many aspects of the Toyota lean principles. Lean thinking contributes to reducing or eliminating nonvalue-added time, money, and energy in healthcare. In this paper, we apply selected principles of lean management aiming at reducing the wasted time associated with drug dispensing at an inpatient pharmacy at a local hospital. Thorough investigation of the drug dispensing process revealed unnecessary complexities that contribute to delays in delivering medications to patients. We utilize DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) and 5S (Sort, Set-in-order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain) principles to identify and reduce wastes that contribute to increasing the lead-time in healthcare operations at the pharmacy understudy. The results obtained from the study revealed potential savings of> 45% in the drug dispensing cycle time.

Background: Shortage of nurses resulting from nurses migration, has created a health care crisis in developing countries and has adversely affected the quality of nursing care provided to patients. The main objective of this study was to investigate the factors influencing Jordanian public hospital nurses’ intent to leave their current employment. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 348 registered nurses randomly selected from two public referral hospitals, Al Bashier Teaching Hospital, and Amirah Basma Teaching Hospital, Jordan. Data to investigate the nurses’ satisfaction and their intention to leave were collected using self-administered questionnaire compromised 28 factors included in seven dimension: Administrative support, supervision and leadership, interaction with co-workers, work related factors, staff development practices, pay and promotion system, and control and responsibility. Data collected over a 4-month period (December 13, 2015 to April 7, 2016). Results: of the 348 registered nurses 212 (60.9%) had an intention to leave their current work. The average satisfaction rate for all dimensions was (2.83). The dominant factors were not satisfied nurses (mean<3) and influencing their intention to leave were Pay and benefits, nurse to bed ratio due to shortage of nurses, and praising and recognitions for achievement. The variables gender, work experience, and nursing role yielded significant associations with intent to leave (p<0.05). Conclusions: The study showed that the majority of nurses were dissatisfied and had intention to leave their current job. Developing strategies to increase retention of nurses such as salaries and benefits should be periodically reviewed in light of the national consumer index, in addition to other strategies could improve nursing retention and quality of nursing care.

This study assessed the learning needs of hospital nurses in northern Jordan to develop programming recommendations for future continuing education (CE) efforts. Although few CE programs exist, a response rate of 85% (n = 171) suggested these nurses have important learning needs. Nurses identified eight priority content areas: critical care, management of cardiac arrest, emergency room nursing, delegation and accountability, power and authority, teaching innovations, seminar management, and patient education. The findings showed that almost two thirds of subjects (n = 110) had not attended a CE program in the previous year, and very few (n = 8) had read nursing journals to supplement their nursing knowledge. Although data suggested lack of motivation to participate in CE programs was a frequent problem, they also indicated CE participation would increase if participants could earn some type of credit for this additional education.