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New ARAMARK Healthcare Research Designed to Measure Nursing Satisfaction With Support Services

Posted on: Thursday, 14 August 2008, 09:01 CDT

To facilitate greater collaboration and enable nurses to focus more on patient care, ARAMARK Healthcare is conducting a new phase of its research to improve nursing satisfaction with support services. Using a survey tool developed with the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) in Phase I, the Phase II work is a practical study incorporating feedback generated this spring from more than 6,000 nurses to identify opportunities to improve nurse/support service relationships and incrementally measure nursing satisfaction with support services.

"This phase of our work is part of our journey to improve nursing satisfaction with support services such as food service, housekeeping, clinical technology, central supply, laundry, facility services, security and patient transportation," said John Babiarz, Group President of ARAMARK Healthcare. "Now that we've developed the tools, we are focused on applying them to make a fact-based impact on nursing satisfaction outcomes."

The survey was conducted in May and June at participating hospitals in the U.S. and Canada, which represent both large and small, urban and rural operations that are ARAMARK Healthcare clients and hospitals who manage support service functions in-house. Individual results will be distributed to participating hospitals throughout this month and overall findings will be highlighted at a special conference in October hosted by AONE and ARAMARK Healthcare involving chief nursing officers and hospital support service leadership.

The conference is designed to bring together nursing and hospital support service leaders to strategically plan how to best foster a more collaborative working environment between the groups. The Phase II research will help guide the work that will take place at the conference.

This study is intended to establish a baseline for nursing satisfaction at each participating hospital using the Nursing Satisfaction with Support Services survey tool, a first of its kind instrument for evaluating nursing satisfaction, which was developed in Phase I by ARAMARK Healthcare, AONE, the Studer Group, and Psychological Associates. This survey tool is designed to measure nursing satisfaction with support service functions by identifying positive aspects of the relationships as well as each hospital's unique opportunities for improvement. Hospitals participating in this project will have their survey scores compared against the national average, which was established when the tool was created last year with feedback from 1,300 nurses.

More information on the Nursing Satisfaction Survey may be found at: http://www.aramarkhealthcare.com/UtilityDetailNoHeader

To encourage participating hospitals to make changes against the data, each hospital received the Guiding Principles for Relationships among Nursing and Support Services in the Clinical Setting, which ARAMARK Healthcare also developed in Phase I with the AONE and 50 chief nursing officers in 2006. These guiding principles combined with the baseline nursing satisfaction data are designed to help hospitals begin to close any gaps in their respective scores.

More information on the Guiding Principles may be found at: http://www.aramarkhealthcare.com/DetailNoHeader

"Patients and their families are at the center of this work," Babiarz added. "We believe that if we establish stronger collaboration among nurses and support service staff, then nurses will entrust more non clinical tasks to the support service teams and then be able to devote more time to patient care."

About American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE)

The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) is the national professional organization for nurses who design, facilitate and manage care. With more than 6,000 members, AONE is the voice of nursing leadership in health care. Since 1967, the organization has provided leadership, professional development, advocacy and research to advance nursing practice and patient care, promote nursing leadership excellence and shape public policy for health care. AONE's 48 affiliated state and metropolitan chapters and its alliances with state hospital associations give the organization's initiatives a regional and local presence. AONE is a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association.

About the AONE Institute for Patient Care Research & Education

The Institute is a 501(c) (3) unit of the Health Research and Education Trust, and was launched in 1999. It is designed to support research and special projects that further AONE's mission and vision in the areas of nursing leadership, patient care excellence and health care policy.

About ARAMARK Healthcare

ARAMARK Healthcare is a leader in providing best-in-class clinical support services that are essential to healthcare delivery. Understanding that clinical excellence and the environment are interdependent, ARAMARK Healthcare directly impacts the entire healthcare continuum - patient, employee, nurse and physician satisfaction, operational efficiency and service excellence. Through its facility, food and clinical technology services, ARAMARK Healthcare helps nearly 1,300 hospitals and senior living facilities deliver the optimal experience for patients and residents, their families, and the physicians, nurses and staff who care for them. For more information, visit http://www.aramarkhealthcare.com.

Source: Business Wire

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