Healthcare systems are undergoing major transformation driven by technological progress, growing patient involvement, workforce shortages, complex care needs, and rising costs. Against this backdrop, value-based healthcare has gained traction, yet the notion of ‘value’ remains ambiguously defined.
To clarify the concept of ‘value’ in value-based healthcare.
We conducted a concept analysis using Walker & Avant's eight-step method: (1) Select a concept; (2) Determine the aims; (3) Identify uses; (4) Define the concept's attributes; (5) Identify the model case(s); (6) Identify additional cases; (7) Identify antecedents and consequences; and (8) Define empirical referents. Data Sources: Scoping review methods following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) recommendations were used to introduce rigour in locating, screening, and extracting data. We used a deductive thematic analysis for data analysis.
We selected the concept of value in value-based healthcare because it lacked conceptual clarity to support healthcare systems transformations. We propose that value arises when outcomes-to-costs ratios (empirical referents) are considered in processes (uses) addressing healthcare systems transformations, characterised by more informed and engaged patients and rising costs (antecedents). Model case included consideration for all components (health, non-health outcomes, and direct, indirect, social costs) of the ratio, whereas additional cases showed that consideration for most, not all, or none of these components led to partial or no value creation. Value is used from individual to collective dimensions and at clinical, organisational and system levels (attributes) to improve patient experience, care team well-being, health equity, and population health, and to reduce costs (consequences).
A shared understanding of ‘value’ can guide its design, measurement, and implementation to support successful transformations toward value-based healthcare. Implications: Our conceptual proposition of ‘value’ within value-based healthcare establishes a framework for a common understanding of ‘value’ that enables the successful transformation of health systems toward value-based healthcare.
Identify desired training content for shift-working nurses to improve their sleep and fatigue.
A descriptive qualitative design.
We recruited night shift nurses (N = 23) to provide feedback during virtual focus groups/interviews. Data collection occurred in the U.S. between March and June 2024. Participants were presented with sleep and fatigue topics derived from the literature. Focus group/interview data were collected and transcribed. Data were analysed using a hybrid deductive-inductive manifest content analysis with an a priori coding schema based on topics shared during data collection. Data not fitting the schema, yet informing content, were analysed inductively.
Three themes aligned with literature-derived topics. Theme 1, Why We Sleep and Why Should Nurses Care, explains the importance of sleep to health. Theme 2, Sleep Practices for Nurses to Support Health and Social Relationships, describes healthy strategies to promote sleep for enhanced quality of life. Theme 3, Fatigue and Work, illustrates the significance of nurse sleep and fatigue risk mitigation to safe working conditions and patient care.
Study findings highlight night shift nurses' interest in gaining evidence-based information to promote their sleep. Sleep education and training could fill a knowledge and skills gap, not often offered in school or workplace.
Identifying themes relevant to nurses may help increase the development and availability of sleep education and training currently tailored for nurses.
Study findings describe content night shift nurses' desire for sleep and fatigue training, serving as an important first step in developing programmes most relevant to shift-working nurses. Our analysis found the findings largely align with key components workers should receive in sleep education and training and reinforced the need for employers to offer such training. This study could benefit the nursing workforce and employers who expect rested, high-functioning nurses to care for patients.
Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research.
No patient or public contribution.
Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT06105307
To report on the unique perspectives of senior nursing leaders on the value proposition of the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) role, their organisational experience and the barriers and facilitators to optimise and promote the long-term sustainability.
A qualitative sub-study of a larger multi-method study focused on informing policy recommendations to optimise the CNS workforce, informed by integrated knowledge translation.
Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) and other senior leaders in all health authorities in British Columbia, Canada, were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews via video call between August–December 2023. We recruited 13 participants from diverse health regions, including 5 CNOs.
Leaders collectively conveyed a renewed interest in the CNS role to support nursing and multidisciplinary teams to better meet patient and system needs, and a sense of urgency to optimise the role in diverse settings. The overarching theme of “success by design” was supported by three thematic priorities: (1) understanding the CNS role, (2) a role that needs protection and connections and (3) moving forward together. Views were aligned to co-construct implementation-ready policy recommendations to guide provincial strategies.
Senior leaders reported a common understanding of the value-add of the CNS workforce and had a shared experience of barriers to optimisation. Contemporary policy guidance is needed to equip health systems to address this gap.
Across international regions, the role of CNSs is not fully optimised. This is a wasted opportunity to address the pressing need for nursing practice leaders to transform health systems and improve outcomes. This study provides new knowledge about the perspectives of Chief Nursing Officers and other nursing leaders to shape comprehensive and targeted policy recommendations and address enduring and new challenges to realise the full impact of the CNS workforce.
We have adhered to COREQ reporting guidelines (See supplemental file).
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.
Limited literature has focused on people with cancers' preference for care providers in scenarios where trade-offs may have to be made.
To report the results of a comprehensive search and synthesis of discrete choice experiments or best-worst scaling studies (± willingness to pay estimates) in scenarios involving cancer nurses, with a focus on: (1) preferred care provider; and (2) relative importance of attributes of care provision for people with cancer.
A search was conducted across: CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EconLit, Medline, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and Google Scholar for discrete choice experiments published between January and July 2025. Data were extracted and appraised by two authors. Results were narratively synthesised.
Of 461 studies screened, 11 were included, published in Australia (n = 3), UK (n = 3), and China (n = 5) including people with breast (n = 4), gastric (n = 4), prostate (n = 1), or mixed cancers (n = 2). In six studies exploring scenarios of follow-up care (i.e., survivorship/surveillance), cancer medical specialists were the preferred care provider, followed by cancer nurses, and then general practitioners. In four of the five studies of supportive care scenarios (i.e., diet and exercise advice, anxiety and depression screening), cancer nurses were the preferred care provider, followed by allied health professionals, then cancer medical specialists. The highest WTP estimate was $US226.15 for a medical specialist to provide follow-up care. For supportive care, the highest WTP was $US137.52 for a cancer nurse to provide diet-based lifestyle advice post-treatment for breast cancer.
Cancer nurses are highly valued by people with cancer, particularly for supportive care provision. Opportunities exist for an increase in cancer nurse specialists with expanded scope of practice, to support the preference of people with cancer to have cancer medical specialists, or cancer nurse specialists provide expert cancer follow-up care.
Employees of a cancer patient advocacy group were involved in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and the preparation of the manuscript. No patients were involved in this work. However, this systematic review prioritized patient voices by including studies that reported on the preferences of people with cancer.
To co-identify adaptations with key stakeholders needed to optimise elements of a video-based intervention (i.e., PREEMIE PROGRESS [PP]), which trains parents in evidence-based family management skills to care for their very preterm infant in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Descriptive qualitative study oriented with a pragmatic philosophy, informed by the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance (RE-AIM) framework and the framework for reporting adaptations and modifications-expanded (FRAME).
Semistructured interviews to identify potential adaptations with key stakeholders: family management researchers (n = 5), clinicians (n = 9), technology experts (n = 5) and parents of preterm infants (n = 17). Weekly design team meetings to select and implement high-priority adaptations necessary for the next research phase. Monthly NICU parent partnership meetings to review adaptations and make recommendations for potential adaptations with conflicting data.
Stakeholders (N = 36) suggested 98 potential adaptations: 32 (33.0%) were completed, 8 (8.2%) were abandoned, 5 (5.2%) have work that is ongoing and 52 (53.6%) were tabled for future research phases. Content adaptations (70, 71.4%) were the most frequently suggested adaptation type. Potential adaptations mostly addressed RE-AIM dimensions of effectiveness (43, 43.9%), and implementation (46, 46.9%) and were directed at the parent (i.e., intervention recipient) level (79, 81.4%).
Use of the RE-AIM framework ensured we systematically identified needed adaptations with key stakeholders across a range of dimensions that would improve PP for parents now and in future phases of this research.
Co-identifying potential adaptations with key stakeholders, paired with FRAME documentation, can help nurses prioritise adaptations most appropriate for each phase of implementation.
Our paper highlights for nurse clinicians and researchers how FRAME documentation of potential adaptations can support stakeholder engagement and a systematic approach to incorporating adaptations throughout all phases of the research process, thereby shortening the evidence to practice gap.
COREQ guidelines for qualitative reporting.
The research team was supported by members of the NICU's Parent Partnership Council (PPC), whose mission is to promote family-centred care improvement projects and research within the NICU. This committee is comprised of nursing, physician, allied health leadership and parents of infants previously hospitalised in the NICU. The NICU PPC met monthly to review conflicting data on potential adaptations and provide recommendations on adaptation decisions.
To describe a knowledge translation capacity-building initiative and illustrate the roles of nurses in practice change using an exemplar case study.
The report uses observational methods and reflection.
The Knowledge Translation Challenge program involves a multi-component intervention across several sites. The advisory committee invited eligible teams to attend capacity-building workshops. Implementation plans were developed, and successful teams receive funding for a 2 year period. Evaluation involved collecting data on program uptake and impact on practice change. Data has been collected from five cohorts. The exemplar case study employed an action-research framework.
Four nurse-led teams have demonstrated successful implementation of their practice change. The case study on implementing a clinical toolkit for clozapine management further illustrates a thoughtful planning process, and implementation journey and learnings by a team of nurses.
The Knowledge Translation Challenge program empowers nurses to use implementation science practices to enhance the quality and effectiveness of healthcare services. Success of this initiative serves as a model for addressing the persistent gap between knowledge and practice in clinical settings and the value of activating nurses to help close this gap.
As the most trusted and numerous profession, it is vital that nurses contribute to efforts to translate research evidence into clinical practice. The Knowledge Translation Challenge program supports nurses to lead practice change.
The Knowledge Translation Challenge program successfully equips nurses and other health care providers with the knowledge, skills and resources to implement practice improvements which enhance the quality and effectiveness of healthcare services and nursing practice.
The Knowledge Translation Challenge advisory committee has three patient-public partners that support teams to develop a patient-oriented approach for their projects by providing feedback on the implementation plans. Each team was also supported to include patient-public partners on their project.
To explore oncology nursing advance care planning practices and understand how to better support nurses in conducting advance care planning with patients and their families.
Qualitative interpretive descriptive methodology.
Semi-structured, individual telephone or Zoom interviews with 19 oncology nurses in a Western province of Canada between May and August 2022. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, de-identified, and analysed using inductive, thematic, and constant comparative techniques.
Oncology nurses highlighted several factors affecting their ability to engage in advance care planning, including (1) uncertainties related to the nursing role in advance care planning, such as how and when a nurse ought to engage; (2) the educational, experiential, and training environment; and (3) structural barriers, such as a lack of time, space, and privacy; models of care that inhibit nurses from developing longitudinal relationships with their patients; and team dynamics that affect advance care planning interdisciplinary collaboration.
To create environments that support oncology nurses to conduct advance care planning, the findings suggest uncertainties be addressed through a clear and cohesive organisational approach to advance care planning and ongoing, integrated educational opportunities. Further, service delivery models may need to be restructured such that nurses have dedicated time and space for nurse-led advance care planning and opportunities to develop trusting relationships with both patients and their interdisciplinary colleagues.
Oncology nurses recognised the value of advance care planning in supporting patient-centred care and shared decision making, yet they reported limited engagement in advance care planning in their practice. To support oncology nurses in conducting advance care planning, healthcare leaders may address (1) advance care planning-related uncertainties and (2) structural barriers that prevent nurses from engaging in advance care planning with patients and their families. Findings may guide modifications to care models, enhancing support for oncology nurses in conducting advance care planning.
We selected and adhered to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) as the most applicable guideline.
No patient or public contribution.