Enhancing Patient Safety through Nurse Manager Development

This project (in collaboration with the Rutgers College of Nursing) will conduct a series of evidence-based workshops that provide patient safety training to frontline nurse managers with the goal of reducing in-hospital medical errors. The effectiveness of the workshops will be evaluated using information from 20 participating hospitals and a control group of 20 non-participating hospitals in New Jersey. Evaluation outcomes include the frequency of in-hospital adverse events (e.g., medication errors) and a quantitative assessment of the nursing practice environment and nurse participation in medication safety processes derived from a survey administered to staff nurses. The evaluation will also include an ethnographic analysis of the experiences of workshop participants. Project findings will be disseminated broadly to nurse managers, hospital administrators, policymakers, and the mass media.