Category: Nursing

Jonathan D. Rockoff
New programs are underway to help nurses cope with compassion fatigue, an occupational hazard for caregivers that also puts patients at risk of substandard care, today’s Informed Patient column reports.
Though the intense emotional demands on nurses are as old as the profession itself, researchers have only in recent years begun to […]

MEwens
A decade ago, things looked pretty bleak for the future supply of nurses. A study published in JAMA, for example, found that fewer younger people were opting for nursing, and that the supply would likely be 20% below projected requirements in 2020.
Since then, though, there has been a resurgence of interest in nursing […]

MEwens
The overall jobs picture is looking pretty dismal, with no net growth at all in nonfarm payrolls in August and the unemployment rate stuck at 9.1%. (Here’s the government’s press release on the report.)
The health-care sector, however, continued to add jobs last month — some 29,700 positions, on top of a revised 29,800 […]

Katherine Hobson
Given the growing cost of malpractice suits from missed or delayed diagnoses in the emergency department, hospitals and their liability insurers are mining resolved claims for lessons on how to reduce such errors, today’s Informed Patient column reports.
In one of the more ambitious efforts, Crico/RMF, which insures Harvard-affiliated hospitals, last year convened […]

MEwens
We’ve written about how a small but significant number of health-care workers show disrespect for colleagues, dole out verbal abuse and engage in other unacceptable behavior. Now a new report suggests this kind of poor workplace communication can also contribute to medical errors, even if other preventive steps are being taken.
According to a […]

MEwens
Nurse practitioners have been “operating ‘under the radar’ regarding research and policy on the influences of pharmaceutical marketing.”
Read more this great post here

MEwens
Here’s a pop quiz!
Read more this great post here

MEwens
The most controversial recommendations of the committee are likely to be those that deal with so-called “scope of practice.”
Read more this great post here

Katherine Hobson
It’s well-nigh impossible to conduct the type of study that would settle this question.
Read more this great post here

Suzanne Sataline
Nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists receive about the same amount of actual anesthesia-related clinical and classroom training.
Read more this great post here