A comprehensive nurse preceptor program consists of structures and processes that are tied to two types of outcomes. There are no specific or prescriptive steps for developing a comprehensive program. Every organization will need to look at its culture, resources, and unique needs to determine the exact steps and content of its program. However, some universal guidelines and steps are helpful to consider when building a program from infancy.

This blog post continues our series of HealthStream Coaching's patient experience best practices. Every week we share information from our coaches that demonstrates their expansive understanding of the challenges faced by healthcare organizations and the solutions they have identified for improving the patient experience and patient and business outcomes. This week we examine standards for safety awareness and sense of ownership.

Forrest Health is a regional, multi-specialty system with 3,380 on staff providing care to 19 counties in South Mississippi. In 2011, Forrest General Hospital became the flagship hospital of Forrest Health—a network of hospitals in South Mississippi.

This blog post continues our series of HealthStream Coaching's patient experience best practices. Every week we share information from our coaches that demonstrates their expansive understanding of the challenges faced by healthcare organizations and the solutions they have identified for improving the patient experience and patient and business outcomes. This week we examine standards for elevator etiquette and privacy.

This blog post continues our series of HealthStream Coaching's patient experience best practices. Every week we share information from our coaches that demonstrates their expansive understanding of the challenges faced by healthcare organizations and the solutions they have identified for improving the patient experience and patient and business outcomes. This week we examine standards for commitment to coworkers and customer waiting.

This blog post continues our series of HealthStream Coaching's patient experience best practices. As we look at best practices for using healthcare standards of performance, we will share some specific examples. This week we examine standards for attitude and appearance.

In order for Standards of Performance to become ingrained in a healthcare organization's culture, they must be hardwired so that employees live and breathe them daily. Communication is the key to making a permanent connection between the Standards and the behaviors that most exemplify the culture, serving as the backbone of its success.

As an essential part of an organization’s workforce strategy, the annual employee engagement survey provides organization-wide feedback for an overall view of the health of an organization and the factors influencing business outcomes. Employee engagement is the metric that drives everything else, and when scores rise or fall, other metrics, such as financial or operational performance, and patient satisfaction can climb or dip with it.

This blog post is an excerpt from an article by Gen Guanci, MEd, RN-BC, CCRN, Creative Health Care Management, in the current issue of PX Alert, HealthStream's quarterly e-newsletter devoted to the wide range of challenges, situations, and issues that have an impact on the patient experience. Subscribe to PX Alert.\n\nThere’s no doubt about it: the pursuit of Magnet® designation has a lot more in common with a marathon than it does with a sprint. Here are seven tips for preparing for a Magnet journey.

Doctors, just like all of your staff, deserve and want to be recognized and rewarded for their contributions to the organization. The HealthStream Engagement Institute recommends developing multiple ways to recognize physicians. The following are some suggestions:

This blog post excerpts an article by Danielle R. Coleman, Director of Medical Technologies, HealthStream, in the Fall 2014 issue of HealthStream's PX Advisor, our quarterly magazine focused on improving the patient experience.

The beauty of using the pursuit of Magnet® designation as the framework for your cultural transformation is that it sets out clear parameters for all aspects of the transformation. The very pursuit of Magnet® designation will almost certainly bring your organization a myriad of improvements in nursing excellence, nurse satisfaction, and nurse retention.

We believe that everyone in an organization deserves a chance to be a hero—to make a difference; thus we recommend tiers of recognition and awards. Your award system can be similar or take a different form. Use your own judgment about the culture you want to create. And remember it may take time to make it happen.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act has initiated broad and transformational change to our healthcare system, with reimbursements shifting from fee-for-service care to value-based care. In response to the changes upon us, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) launched a two-year initiative to assess and provide thought leadership on transforming the nursing profession.

Turnover and retention are a growing problem for organizations across the continuum of care. Increased volume demands on our healthcare system mean that organizations cannot afford to waste time hiring the wrong people. Two of our partners, Assess Systems and NurseCompetency, help care organizations improve their hiring processes and identify and assess better potential candidates.

The Physician Payment Sunshine Act requires that all manufacturers of drugs, devices, and biological and medical supplies covered by federal health care programs report all financial relationships with physicians and teaching hospitals to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

According to research, four out of ten workers globally are disengaged. In the healthcare industry, the situation is worse. Nurses in the U.S. are overworked, stressed, and emotionally and physically exhausted, causing nearly 50% of staff to be either disengaged or just moderately engaged. This situation is not helpful to an industry that is seeking to increase its workforce.

Leaders often ask which tool is most effective for improving the patient experience in the emergency department. If they were to select and implement just one item with the most impact for enhancing service in the ED, what would it be? The answer to that question is simple.

Are your employees aware of your healthcare organization’s vision and top objectives? If your organization is like most hospitals and healthcare organizations, employees do not have any insight into your key objectives.

Emory Healthcare is a six-hospital system with multiple physician offices in and around Atlanta, Georgia. As the HealthStream Learning Center System Administrator, Pat understands the value of continuing education. She is passionate about helping Emory staff get the credits they need to keep doing what they love doing.