Janet discusses the importance of implementing orientation strategies tailored to meet the needs of the new “Generation X” workforce. She shares her experience as a Public Health Nurse supervisor in Rock County, and some successful new staff orientation and retention strategies she has employed. This presentation will benefit both health care administrators and educators interested in improving their recruitment and retention strategies, and to foster positive workplace morale.

Susan Zahner, DrPH, RN, provides an overview of the development and major components of Wisconsin's Public Health Nursing Practice Model.

Workarounds are idiosyncratic solutions to perceived blocks in work flow. While they are widely acknowledged by health care professionals, there remains relatively little research on the impact that they have on health care professionals and patients. This talk summarizes a AHRQ- and NIOSH-funded stream of research examining how workarounds influence patient safety and nurse safety and occupational health. Through both quantitative and qualitative research designs, our research echoes significant concerns about patient safety from the literature, particularly in the medication process. Moreover, our research extends the literature by finding that workarounds can also lead to high levels of stress and increase risk of occupational injuries for nurses. In addition to sharing our findings, I discuss the implications of our findings for work design and patient safety.

Timothy Ringhand, MPH, RN, provides an overview of key elements of communicable disease prevention and control in Wisconsin.

Timothy Ringhand, MPH, RN, explains the different reporting requirements for communicable disease, identifies the legislative mandates for communicable disease investigation, and describes how to conduct an epidemiologic investigation of a communicable disease.

Kathleen Buckwalter, PhD, RN, FAAN, speaks on key points, issues and recommendations from the Geropsychiatric Nursing: State of the Future Conferences in Philadelphia.

Katharyn May, DNSc, RN, FAAN, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing, spoke on "Nurses Do Research? How Nursing's Public Image Obscures Nursing Science" at the Health Sciences Learning Center on April 25, 2007.