Ultimate Nurse Blog

The Nurse-Family Partnership in Virginia assigns a nurse to visit low-income, first-time mothers at home every week, starting early in pregnancy and not ending until the child’s second birthday. This article in the Virginian-Pilot followed nurse Glenda Asterilla-White as she visited a pregnant 24-year-old named Crystal Stewart in her home. They discuss things like nutrition, what to expect from each doctor’s appointment, and the need to decrease caffeine intake. The nurses in the program offer information about how to achieve…
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Communication has a direct impact on patient safety, according to a new report which found that hospitals where physicians and nurses scored highest on communication also had fewer patient safety events. The report from HealthGrades is summarized in this article on Nurse.com. The report analyzed patient safety data for hospitalizations between 2008 and 2010. They found that during that time period, 254,000 patient safety events among Medicare patients could have been prevented, and that 56,367 Medicare patients who died experienced…
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A single program can cut the number of abused or neglected children in America in half; reduce the number of babies or toddlers hospitalized for accidents or poisonings by more than half; and provide a 5 to 7 point I.Q. boost to children born to the most vulnerable mothers. This program is the Nurse-Family Partnership program or NFP, founded by David Olds in the early 1970’s. It has been studied carefully and has shown “sizable, sustained effects on important life…
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