Healthcare operations, in hospitals and home healthcare settings, are inundated with complex fuzzy features that impose difficulties in the creation of work schedules. This book presents in-depth research on emerging approaches to healthcare staff scheduling. It starts by reviewing the key issues and challenges inherent in staff scheduling, along with the basic concepts of fuzzy set theory. Examining cutting-edge research applications, it details fuzzy optimization algorithms derived from biologically inspired approaches and fuzzy theory. Facilitating a practical and in-depth understanding of modern fuzzy metaheuristic optimization approaches, the book presents recent research on multi-criteria algorithms and their applications in healthcare operations, particularly staff scheduling.
Life is unpredictable. Control over one’s time is a crucial resource for managing that unpredictability, keeping a job, and raising a family. But the ability to control one’s time, much like one’s income, is determined to a significant degree by both gender and class. In Unequal Time, sociologists Dan Clawson and Naomi Gerstel explore the ways in which social inequalities permeate the workplace, shaping employees’ capacities to determine both their work schedules and home lives, and exacerbating differences between men and women, and the economically privileged and disadvantaged. Unequal Time investigates the interconnected schedules of four occupations in the health sector—professional-class doctors and nurses, and working-class EMTs and nursing assistants. While doctors and EMTs are predominantly men, nurses and nursing assistants are overwhelmingly women. In all four occupations, workers routinely confront schedule uncertainty, or unexpected events that interrupt, reduce, or extend work hours. Yet, Clawson and Gerstel show that members of these four occupations experience the effects of schedule uncertainty in very distinct ways, depending on both gender and class. But doctors, who are professional-class and largely male, have significant control over their schedules and tend to work long hours because they earn respect from their peers for doing so. By contrast, nursing assistants, who are primarily female and working-class, work demanding hours because they are most likely to be penalized for taking time off, no matter how valid the reasons. Unequal Time also shows that the degree of control that workers hold over their schedules can either reinforce or challenge conventional gender roles. Male doctors frequently work overtime and rely heavily on their wives and domestic workers to care for their families. Female nurses are more likely to handle the bulk of their family responsibilities, and use the control they have over their work schedules in order to dedicate more time to home life. Surprisingly, Clawson and Gerstel find that in the working class occupations, workers frequently undermine traditional gender roles, with male EMTs taking significant time from work for child care and women nursing assistants working extra hours to financially support their children and other relatives. Employers often underscore these disparities by allowing their upper-tier workers (doctors and nurses) the flexibility that enables their gender roles at home, including, for example, reshaping their workplaces in order to accommodate female nurses’ family obligations. Low-wage workers, on the other hand, are pressured to put their jobs before the unpredictable events they might face outside of work. Though we tend to consider personal and work scheduling an individual affair, Clawson and Gerstel present a provocative new case that time in the workplace also collective. A valuable resource for workers’ advocates and policymakers alike, Unequal Time exposes how social inequalities reverberate through a web of interconnected professional relationships and schedules, significantly shaping the lives of workers and their families.
ENABLING HEALTHCARE 4.0 for PANDEMICS The book explores the role and scope of AI, machine learning and other current technologies to handle pandemics. In this timely book, the editors explore the current state of practice in Healthcare 4.0 and provide a roadmap for harnessing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Internet of Things, as well as other modern cognitive technologies, to aid in dealing with the various aspects of an emergency pandemic outbreak. There is a need to improvise healthcare systems with the intervention of modern computing and data management platforms to increase the reliability of human processes and life expectancy. There is an urgent need to come up with smart IoT-based systems which can aid in the detection, prevention and cure of these pandemics with more precision. There are a lot of challenges to overcome but this book proposes a new approach to organize the technological warfare for tackling future pandemics. In this book, the reader will find: State-of-the-art technological advancements in pandemic management; AI and ML-based identification and forecasting of pandemic spread; Smart IoT-based ecosystem for pandemic scenario. Audience The book will be used by researchers and practitioners in computer science, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, data scientists, biomedical statisticians, as well as industry professionals in disaster and pandemic management.
First Edition Awarded Second Place in 2013 AJN Book of the Year Awards! The second edition of this award-winning text, designed specifically for the DNP course in health care economics and finance, remains the only book to embed economic and financial concepts in the context of nursing practice and nursing health care systems. Well organized and clearly written, the second edition is updated to encompass key changes to reimbursement and health care regulations and provides revised statistics throughout. It offers new information on ambulatory care, cost and ratio analysis, additional examples of financial statements, and an updated sample business plan. Enhanced teaching strategies include real life case studies, challenging critical thinking questions, learning games, key words in each chapter, and an extensive glossary. New PowerPoint slides add to the text’s value as a robust teaching tool. Written by experienced DNP executives for DNPs, the book emphasizes critical skills nurse leaders need to participate in strategic health care planning. It delivers a practical approach to business, finance, economics, and health policy that is designed to foster sound business and leadership. The text clearly explicates the relationship between cost of care, quality of care, and ethics, and examines the economic and financial implications of evidence-based practice and quality. Also included is a special section on finance for independent practitioners. Additionally, the book delivers required competencies of the AACN Essentials and the AONE. New to the Second Edition: Updated statistics throughout New information on ambulatory care A cost and ratio analysis Additional examples of financial statements Updated business plan Enhanced faculty support PowerPoint slides
Written specifically for the experienced nurse enrolled in an RN-to-BSN program, this text guides nurses through an interactive critical thinking process to become effective and confident nurse leaders. All nurses involved with direct patient care already rely on similar strategies to oversee patient safety, make care decisions, and integrate plan of care in collaboration with patients and families. This text expands upon that knowledge and provides a firm base to reach the next steps in academia and practice, enabling the BSN-prepared nurse to tackle serious issues in care delivery with a high level of self-awareness and skill. Leadership and Management Competence in Nursing Practice relies on a keen understanding of what experienced nurses already bring to the classroom. This text provides a core framework and useful skills and strategies to successfully lead nursing and healthcare forward. Clear, concise chapters cover leadership skills and personal attributes of leaders with minimal repetition of material covered in associate’s degree programs. Content builds on the framework of AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education, IOM Competencies, and QSEN KSAs. Each chapter presents case scenarios to promote critical thinking and decision-making. Self-assessment tools featured throughout the text enable nurses to evaluate their current strengths, areas for growth, and learning needs. Key Features: Provides information needed for the associate’s degree nurse to advance to the level of professionally prepared baccalaureate degree nurse Chapters contain critical thinking exercises, vignettes, and case scenarios targeted to the RN-to-BSN audience Self-assessment tools included in most chapters to help the reader determine where they are now on the topic and to what point they need to advance to obtain competence and confidence in the professional nursing role Provides information and skills needed by nurses in a variety of healthcare settings Includes an instructor’s manual
Clinical Laboratory Management Apply the principles of management in a clinical setting with this vital guide Clinical Laboratory Management, Third Edition, edited by an esteemed team of professionals under the guidance of editor-in-chief Lynne S. Garcia, is a comprehensive and essential reference for managing the complexities of the modern clinical laboratory. This newly updated and reorganized edition addresses the fast-changing landscape of laboratory management, presenting both foundational insights and innovative strategies. Topics covered include: an introduction to the basics of clinical laboratory management, the regulatory landscape, and evolving practices in the modern healthcare environment the essence of managerial leadership, with insights into employee needs and motivation, effective communication, and personnel management, including the lack of qualified position applicants, burnout, and more financial management, budgeting, and strategic planning, including outreach up-to-date resources for laboratory coding, reimbursement, and compliance, reflecting current requirements, standards, and challenges benchmarking methods to define and measure success the importance of test utilization and clinical relevance future trends in pathology and laboratory science, including developments in test systems, human resources and workforce development, and future directions in laboratory instrumentation and information technology an entirely new section devoted to pandemic planning, collaboration, and response, lessons learned from COVID-19, and a look towards the future of laboratory preparedness This indispensable edition of Clinical Laboratory Management not only meets the needs of today’s clinical laboratories but anticipates the future, making it a must-have resource for laboratory professionals, managers, and students. Get your copy today, and equip yourself with the tools, strategies, and insights to excel in the complex and ever-changing world of the clinical laboratory.
Hospitals and nursing homes are responding to changes in the health care system by modifying staffing levels and the mix of nursing personnel. But do these changes endanger the quality of patient care? Do nursing staff suffer increased rates of injury, illness, or stress because of changing workplace demands? These questions are addressed in Nursing Staff in Hospitals and Nursing Homes, a thorough and authoritative look at today's health care system that also takes a long-term view of staffing needs for nursing as the nation moves into the next century. The committee draws fundamental conclusions about the evolving role of nurses in hospitals and nursing homes and presents recommendations about staffing decisions, nursing training, measurement of quality, reimbursement, and other areas. The volume also discusses work-related injuries, violence toward and abuse of nursing staffs, and stress among nursing personnelâ€"and examines whether these problems are related to staffing levels. Included is a readable overview of the underlying trends in health care that have given rise to urgent questions about nurse staffing: population changes, budget pressures, and the introduction of new technologies. Nursing Staff in Hospitals and Nursing Homes provides a straightforward examination of complex and sensitive issues surround the role and value of nursing on our health care system.
Building on the revolutionary Institute of Medicine reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Keeping Patients Safe lays out guidelines for improving patient safety by changing nurses' working conditions and demands. Licensed nurses and unlicensed nursing assistants are critical participants in our national effort to protect patients from health care errors. The nature of the activities nurses typically perform â€" monitoring patients, educating home caretakers, performing treatments, and rescuing patients who are in crisis â€" provides an indispensable resource in detecting and remedying error-producing defects in the U.S. health care system. During the past two decades, substantial changes have been made in the organization and delivery of health care â€" and consequently in the job description and work environment of nurses. As patients are increasingly cared for as outpatients, nurses in hospitals and nursing homes deal with greater severity of illness. Problems in management practices, employee deployment, work and workspace design, and the basic safety culture of health care organizations place patients at further risk. This newest edition in the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Quality Chasm series discusses the key aspects of the work environment for nurses and reviews the potential improvements in working conditions that are likely to have an impact on patient safety.
Across the country ambulances are turned away from emergency departments (EDs) and patients are waiting hours and sometimes days to be admitted to a hospital room. Hospitals are finding it hard to get specialist physicians to come to treat emergency patients. Our EDs demand a new way of thinking. They are not at a tipping point; they are at a break
