Ultimate Nurse Blog

Hospitals are places of recuperation, and sleep is essential to recuperation. But hospitals can be very, very noisy places. Patients have criticized the clatter for years, but the alerts emitted by all of the various alarms, whistles and buzzers have typically been deemed by hospital administrators to be more important overall. That attitude has been changing though with a greater focus on patients, new policies linking hospital reimbursement to patient satisfaction, and more research on the effects of a noisy…
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Uncompensated health care is a major issue for hospitals, with an estimated $39.3 billion of care going uncompensated in 2010. The size of this financial burden has forced hospitals to use more creative debt collections, such as asking for payment at time of service versus asking solely for insurance information. Hospital debt has lead to the development of companies like Accretive Health. Accretive Health states on it’s website, “Accretive Health increases access to care by bringing increased discipline to the…
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In this article on Canada.com, a professor of nursing named Laurie Gottleib examines the role that nurses have in educating doctors. She points to the combination of theoretical and practical knowledge that nurses possess, as well as their tendency to be much more accessible than senior doctors. Nurses frequently point out the warning signs of a patient’s deterioration to medical interns and residents, correct their misinterpretations of signs and symptoms, suggest diagnoses, and anticipate when and how to intervene. In…
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The Supreme Court has upheld almost all of the Affordable Care Act, a fact applauded by many nurses. It’s a complicated law, though, and many people are not completely sure what’s in it. NPR solicited questions from their audience online and on air and received many questions, and then went ahead and answered those health care questions in this article. Many of the questions have a short answer and a long answer — which is part of why there is…
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