Integrating Human Caring Science into a Professional Nursing Practice Model

This article shares the results of a 4-year project to reduce work intensity for hospital nurses and create a human caring environment in the acute care workplace. The research consisted of a two-phase interventional study using four medical units and four surgical comparison units at four hospitals within the Inova Health System. Key caring interventions were selected for implementation into professional nursing practice with measurement of patient satisfaction, nurse satisfaction and turnover, and registered nurses' vacancy rates on the pilot units. Results revealed a statistically significant increase in the nurses' perception of the health care environment overall, improvement in relationships with coworkers, and improvement in workload perception. Qualitative data revealed themes of improvement in nurses' job fulfillment because of the ability to spend time caring for their patients.