Peter Buerhaus to Share Research Findings at Sixth Annual National Magnet Nursing Conference at Mayo Clinic on Oct. 13-15

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D, will share the results of two major research efforts at the Sixth Annual National Magnet Nursing Conference to be held at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Buerhaus will present "Update on the Labor Market and What Needs to be Done to Strengthen the R.N. Workforce" and "Relationship Between Hospital Nurse Staffing and Quality Outcomes" on Oct. 14. His presentations are scheduled for 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. in Phillips Hall, Siebens Building, 100 Second Ave. S.W.

The Magnet Nursing Conference is geared toward organizations that are interested in achieving Magnet status. Nursing experts will discuss the impact the Magnet Award has on the nursing profession, patient outcomes, and recruitment and retention of nursing staff. The conference, which runs from Oct. 13 through 15, will include keynote presentations and breakout sessions on best practices, the nursing shortage, preparing for Magnet status and strategies for achieving Magnet status.

The Magnet Award, conferred by the American Nursing Credentialing Center, is the highest level of national or international recognition available to nursing departments. Only 59 health-care organizations in the country have achieved the designation. Mayo Clinic Department of Nursing first received the designation, which is granted once every four years, in 1997. The Department has since been redesignated.

Dr. Buerhaus speaks throughout the country on workforce issues and changes in the health-care system. His research on the nurse labor market has focused on how the aging nurse population will affect health care in coming years. Dr. Buerhaus has also researched the impact nurse-staffing levels have on patient-care outcomes. A comprehensive study led by Dr. Buerhaus and Jack Needleman of the Harvard School of Public Health revealed that having appropriate nurse-staffing levels was an essential component in reducing several adverse patient outcomes. The negative outcomes studied included urinary tract infections, pneumonia, shock, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and length of hospital stay in medical and major surgery patients.

Dr. Buerhaus is the Associate Dean for Research and Valere Potter Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Nashville, Tenn. Prior to his position at Vanderbilt, Dr. Buerhaus spent nearly a decade as director of the Harvard Nursing Research Institute. He maintains an active research program involving studies that analyze trends in employment and earnings of nursing personnel; effects of managed care on the nurse labor market; implications of the rapidly aging R.N. workforce; changes in nurse staffing and the relationship/quality of patient care; nurses' and other providers' opinions of how managed care is affecting patients; and forces behind the slow growth of minorities in the nursing profession.

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Contact:
John Murphy
507-284-5005(days)
507-284-2511 (evenings)
e-mail: newsbureau@mayo.edu

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