Organizational Innovation

In 2003, the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing (Hartford Institute), in collaboration with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, conducted a survey of baccalaureate schools of nursing in the United States to compare gerontological content to baseline data collected by the Hartford Institute in 1997. Since last surveyed in 1997, baccalaureate nursing programs have been the recipients of substantial new resources and initiatives focused on gerontological curriculum enhancement. While these initiatives are ongoing, and some are in an early stage of development, resurveying baccalaureate programs was seen as a means of taking a midcourse "pulse" as to the effectiveness of these efforts. Data suggest that there has been a fundamental shift in baccalaureate curriculum toward incorporation of a greater amount of gerontological content, integration of gerontological content in a greater number of nursing courses, and more diversity of clinical ...

This article aims to initiate a discussion on the demarcation of the ethics of care. This discussion is necessary because the ethics of care evolves by making use of insights from varying disciplines. As this involves the risk of contamination of the care ethical discipline, the challenge for care ethical scholars is to ensure to retain a distinct care ethical perspective. This may be supported by an open and critical debate on the criteria and boundaries of the ethics of care. As a contribution, this article proposes a tentative outline of the care ethical discipline. What is characteristic of this outline is the emphasis on relational programming, situation-specific and context-bound judgments, a political-ethical perspective, and empirical groundedness. It is argued that the ethics of care is best developed further by means of an intradisciplinary approach. Two intradisciplinary examples show how within the frame of one discipline, other disciplines are absorbed, both with their body of knowledge and their research methodology.

This paper focuses on the specific role of mid-range universities in knowledge transfer and explores the knowledge flows from these mid-range universities which face a number of additional constraints in transitional Central Eastern European (CEE) regions. The first part focuses on the theoretical framework of knowledge transfers and on the types of university–industry linkages involving knowledge transfer in the case of mid-range universities. The next section examines the development path and specific trajectories of universities in post-communist countries. The following sections draw on the findings of the ERAWATCH research and focus on cases from the non-metropolitan regions of Hungary and the Czech Republic in order to examine the specific barriers to knowledge transfer and explain the reasons behind the traditionally weaker role of mid-range universities. The paper argues that ambitious university-based developmental models have to be revised in CEE regions and the future development role of universities has to be reconsidered from a more realistic perspective.

Improving access to primary healthcare (PHC) for vulnerable populations is important for achieving health equity, yet this remains challenging. Evidence of effective interventions is rather limited and fragmented. We need to identify innovative ways to improve access to PHC for vulnerable populations, and to clarify which elements of health systems, organisations or services (supply-side dimensions of access) and abilities of patients or populations (demand-side dimensions of access) need to be strengthened to achieve transformative change. The work reported here was conducted as part of IMPACT (Innovative Models Promoting Access-to-Care Transformation), a 5-year Canadian-Australian research program aiming to identify, implement and trial best practice interventions to improve access to PHC for vulnerable populations. We undertook an environmental scan as a broad screening approach to identify the breadth of current innovations from the field. We distributed a brief online survey to...

Background. The World Health Organisation's Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 sought to create a framework for health promotion action that conveyed the notion of capacity building as it related to specific settings. It provided the catalyst from which the health-promoting ...

Innovation provides for a certain organization the most important competitive advantages. Previous researches emphasized different influences and designed coherent organizational innovation factorial systems, suggesting particular relationships and models for different categories of innovations and organizations. An important issue of organizational innovation was, however, less considered and analyzed: it is the relation between different factors of organizational innovation and the performance of innovative activities, for which every organization spends important resources and puts into practice impressive strategies. Our study has as starting point a number of questions for which it intends to find answers or at least suggest possible solutions. The main question is: what elements (factors, variables, expenses and effects type) can be considered into the equation by a company in order to stimulate innovation and obtain a certain level of innovational performance? As an acceptabl...

At The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH), the patient safety committee created a safety program that focused on encouraging staff in selected units to identify and eliminate potential errors in the patient care environment. As part of this program, senior hospital executives each adopted an intensive care unit and worked with the unit staff to identify issues and to empower staff to address safety issues. JHH PATIENT SAFETY PROGRAM: The program consisted of eight steps, which together require six months for implementation: (1) conduct a culture survey; (2) educate staff on the science of safety; (3) identify staff safety concerns through a staff safety survey; (4) implement the senior executive adopt-a-work unit program; (5) implement improvements; (6-7) document results, share stories, and disseminate results; and (8) resurvey staff. The senior executive adopt-a-work unit program was successful in identifying and eliminating hazards to patient safety and in creating a culture of safety....

pentland d., forsyth k., maciver d., walsh m., murray r., irvine l. & sikora s. (2011) Key characteristics of knowledge transfer and exchange in healthcare: integrative literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing67(7), 1408–1425.pentland d., forsyth k., maciver d., walsh m., murray r., irvine l. & sikora s. (2011) Key characteristics of knowledge transfer and exchange in healthcare: integrative literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing67(7), 1408–1425.AbstractAim.  This paper presents the results of a review of literature relating to knowledge transfer and exchange in healthcare.Background.  Treatment, planning and policy decisions in contemporary nursing and healthcare should be based on sound evidence wherever possible, but research knowledge remains generally underused. Knowledge transfer and exchange initiatives aim to facilitate the accessibility, application and production of evidence and may provide solutions to this challenge. This review was conducted to help inform the design and implementation of knowledge transfer and exchange activities for a large healthcare organization.Data sources.  Databases: ASSIA, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, PsychInfo, Medline and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.Review methods.  An integrative literature review was carried out including an extensive literature search. English language systematic reviews, literature reviews, primary quantitative and qualitative papers and grey literature of high relevance evaluating, describing or discussing knowledge transfer or exchange activities in healthcare were included for review (January 1990–September 2009).Findings.  Thirty-three papers were reviewed (four systematic reviews, nine literature reviews, one environmental scan, nine empirical studies and ten case studies).Conclusion.  Robust research into knowledge transfer and exchange in healthcare is limited. Analysis of a wide range of evidence indicates a number of commonly featured characteristics but further evaluation of these activities would benefit their application in facilitating evidence-based practice in nursing.Aim.  This paper presents the results of a review of literature relating to knowledge transfer and exchange in healthcare.Background.  Treatment, planning and policy decisions in contemporary nursing and healthcare should be based on sound evidence wherever possible, but research knowledge remains generally underused. Knowledge transfer and exchange initiatives aim to facilitate the accessibility, application and production of evidence and may provide solutions to this challenge. This review was conducted to help inform the design and implementation of knowledge transfer and exchange activities for a large healthcare organization.Data sources.  Databases: ASSIA, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, PsychInfo, Medline and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.Review methods.  An integrative literature review was carried out including an extensive literature search. English language systematic reviews, literature reviews, primary quantitative and qualitative papers and grey literature of high relevance evaluating, describing or discussing knowledge transfer or exchange activities in healthcare were included for review (January 1990–September 2009).Findings.  Thirty-three papers were reviewed (four systematic reviews, nine literature reviews, one environmental scan, nine empirical studies and ten case studies).Conclusion.  Robust research into knowledge transfer and exchange in healthcare is limited. Analysis of a wide range of evidence indicates a number of commonly featured characteristics but further evaluation of these activities would benefit their application in facilitating evidence-based practice in nursing.

To review the role of theory as a means to enhance the practice of quality improvement (QI) research and to propose a novel conceptual model focused on the operations of health care. Conceptual model, informed by literature review. To optimize learning across QI studies requires the integration of small-scale theories (middle-range theories, theories of change) within the context of larger unifying theories. We propose that health care QI research would benefit from a theory that describes the operations of health care delivery, including the multiplicity of roles that interpersonal interactions play. The broadest constructs of the model are entry into the system, and assessment and management of the patient, with the subordinate operations of access; recognition, assessment, and diagnosis; and medical decision-making (developing a plan), coordination of care, execution of care, referral and reassessment, respectively. Interpersonal aspects of care recognize the patient/caregiver as...