title: Effects of policy manual reorganization on user proficiency.
abstract: This study compared the proficiency of nurses who located policies in a traditional, alphabetically arranged policy manual vs. a reorganized, indexed manual. Nurses were asked to locate policy statements that would resolve issues presented in three vignettes that were typical of the decisions nurses must regularly make. Answers were scored as correct or incorrect; time to respond and search strategies were also recorded. Data analyses show the overall superiority of the reorganized, indexed manual.
authors.affiliation: University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics, Columbia.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Whitener
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Geden
mesh_terms: D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008370:Manuals as Topic / Q000592:standards; D008923:Missouri; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D016134:Organizational Policy; D013338:Students, Nursing