Greetings! In January 2023, I will transition into the Editor-in Chief position for the Journal of Nursing Care Quality. I follow in the footsteps of Marilyn H. Oermann, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN who served in this role for over 20 years. I want to thank Dr. Oermann for her wonderful leadership and expertise in publishing, which has allowed JNCQ to be the information leader in patient safety and quality care. I am excited to begin this new chapter, as well as introduce a new focus for JNCQ on implementation science. This issue contains a short editorial on implementation science, and how to incorporate these methodologies into quality-focused projects and studies. I urge authors to provide detailed information on implementation science frameworks, methods, and strategies into their projects and publications. Please also see the call for implementation science articles found on the JNCQ website.
In this issue: Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is an urgent health problem as it can negatively impact patient outcomes. Authors implemented a robust hand hygiene quality improvement project to reduce health care associated-CRE, including real-time hand hygiene observations and strategies that mitigated local barriers. Hand hygiene compliance increased from 49% to 76.9%, p=.0001, and the rate of health care associated-CRE decreased from 24.9% to 5.6%, p=.0001. Researchers conducted a cross-sectional study to explore the relationship between workplace violence, burnout, patient safety, and workplace violence reporting. Data were collected from 1781 nurses at a large medical center. The authors found that workplace violence increased nurse burnout, which affected patient safety.
Staci S. Reynolds, Editor