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The term “knowledge worker” was first coined by management consultant and author Peter Drucker in his book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow (1959). Drucker defined knowledge workers as high-level workers who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge, acquired through formal training, to develop products and services. Does this sound familiar? Nurses are very much knowledge workers. What…
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March 21, 2010, was not EBP’s date of birth, but it may be the date the approach “grew up” and left home to take on the world. When the Affordable Care Act was passed, it came with a requirement of empirical evidence. Research on EBP increased significantly. Application of EBP spread to allied health professions,…
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Nature offers many examples of specialization and collaboration. Ant colonies and bee hives are but two examples of nature’s sophisticated organizations. Each thrives because their members specialize by tasks, divide labor, and collaborate to ensure food, safety, and general well-being of the colony or hive. Of course, humans don’t fare too badly in this regard…
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Healthcare organizations continually seek to optimize healthcare performance. For years, this approach was a three-pronged one known as the Triple Aim, with efforts focused on improved population health, enhanced patient experience, and lower healthcare costs. More recently, this approach has evolved to a Quadruple Aim by including a focus on improving the work life of…
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Word cloud generators have become popular tools for meetings and team-building events. Groups or teams are asked to use these applications to input words they feel best describe their team or their role. A “word cloud” is generated by the application that makes prominent the most-used terms, offering an image of the common thinking among…
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As their names imply, the honeyguide bird and the honey badger both share an affinity for honey. Honeyguide birds specialize in finding beehives but struggle to access the honey within. Honey badgers are well-equipped to raid beehives but cannot always find them. However, these two honey-loving species have learned to collaborate on an effective means…
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Regardless of political affiliation, individuals often grow concerned when considering perceived competing interests of government and their impact on topics of interest to them. The realm of healthcare is no different. Some people feel that local, state, and federal policies and legislation can be either helped or hindered by interests other than the benefit to…
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Architect Daniel Libeskind is credited with saying “To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history, but to articulate it.” The suggestion is that his work does not copy the efforts of others but relies on it. Understanding the work of others is critically important to new work. Contributions to the nursing body of knowledge…
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Where can you find evidence to inform your thoughts and scholarly writing? Throughout your degree program, you will use research literature to explore ideas, guide your thinking, and gain new insights. As you search the research literature, it is important to use resources that are peer-reviewed and from scholarly journals. You may already have some…
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In Module 4 Discussion, you considered how professional nurses could become involved in policy-making. A critical component of any policy design is the evaluation of the results. How comfortable are you with the thought of becoming involved with such matters? Some nurses may be hesitant to get involved with policy evaluation. The preference may be…