Theresa Brown, an oncology nurse, is concerned about surveys that ask patients about their hospital experience. For many years, hospitals have been collecting data regarding patient satisfaction, and now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services developed the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey and announced that Medicare reimbursements and bonuses were […]
An article in the New York Times explains a new type of health care practice called accountable care organizations, or A.C.O.s The article takes the case of Fannie Cline as an example of how A.C.O.s work. Mrs. Cline, a 69-year-old retiree, was struggling to manage her Type 2 diabetes, suffering setbacks like dizzy spells that […]
Nursing curricula today focus on the nurse-to-patient relationship, backed with heavy content and a plethora of facts to be memorized. Most nursing students graduate without a basic understanding of the entire healthcare system, team nursing concepts and quality and safety practices within the healthcare realm. In a predominantly passive learning environment of school, nursing students […]
Physicians are resisting legislation that is geared towards allowing advance practice registered nurses (APRNs) like nurse practitioners to practice independently. This has been proposed as a solution to the problem of increasing health care costs. The main objection stated by physicians has been that while they understand that NPs have an important role, NPs simply […]
A study from France has found that a shortage of beds in hospital intensive care units may mean that more patients die. An article from Reuters reports on the study, which focused on 10 hospitals in western France. The researchers found that almost 15% of the 1,332 patients who had been referred to the hospitals’ […]
There are so many challenging decisions in nursing, and not all of the ethical issues are clear-cut. A nurse ethicist can be a resource in those difficult situations. Nurse.com has an interview with a nurse ethicist who explains this little-known specialty. Lucia D. Wocial, RN, PhD, is a nurse ethicist with Indiana University Health, plus […]
Editor’s Letter As I write this, I am listening to the weather forecasters spend hours trying to create informative newscasts about a possible impending storm coming to the Northeast tonight. Quite often when I hear the reporters, I think they must be scrambling for interesting news as many of the stories are rather trivial and […]
The US News and World Report has published a list of the top ten jobs of 2012. At the very top of the list — above jobs such as web developer and pharmacist — is “Registered Nurse.” All ten of the best jobs of 2012 fall one of two broad categories, either healthcare or computers. […]
The face of the nursing profession is changing as as healthcare morphs into a new paradigm of care for the twenty-first century. The number of nursing positions in hospitals has declined and there has been a shift to more community-based positions that define new models of nursing care. In order to prepare new nurses for […]
People rarely want to leave home to enter a nursing home, even if their level of care requires it. A new emphasis on home health care is allowing more people to stay at home for longer, while also saving money, according to this article in the New York Times. In this new model of home […]
