Coworker Observation System Promotes Nursing Professional Accountability

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) — The Coworker Observation System (CORS) can be successfully implemented with nurses, according to a study published in the January issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.

Cynthia A. Baldwin, R.N., from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues examined the feasibility and fidelity of implementation of CORS to report unprofessional behavior at three academic medical centers. The analysis included 590 reports from the three sites (Sept. 1, 2019, through Aug. 31, 2021) that used a project bundle with 10 essential implementation elements.

The researchers found that most reports included more than one problematic behavior. A total of 78.9 percent of the peer messages were considered delivered. A total of 21.1 percent of the messages were not shared, with 4.7 percent of reports intentionally not shared because the issue stemmed from a new system or policy implementation (4.0 percent) or because of known factors affecting the nurse (0.7 percent).

“Special considerations need to be incorporated for this professional population due to differences in employment structure, contracts, policies, scheduling, and uniqueness of identifying nursing peers, as RNs hold various roles in an organization,” the authors write.