By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing Jobs, Nursing News, Nursing School, Nursing Specialties
In honor of National Nurses’s week, Sherry R. Siegel, R.N., M.S.N., C.H.P.N, is featured in an article on GoErie.com, relaying her story of being a nurse over the past twenty years. Her story begins more than 20 years ago when she was a single mother with two children and lots of bills to pay. She was a waitress at the time and actually enjoyed that job, but the pay was not enough to give her family financial security (or health…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News, Nursing Specialties
An RN named Kelly Jantz loves being a nurse, and loves making people laugh. Once a week, she shows up at her hospital in a vintage nursing uniform, wheeling her cart full of supplies. No hypodermic needles here — it’s all the likes of stuffed animals, comic DVDs, and clown noses. These supplies are used for laugh therapy with staff members, patients, and their families. She’s dubbed her program Positive Hopeful Individuals Laughing, or PHIL. In this article on the…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News
One of Tim Flynn’s first duties as the first full-time nurse for the Texas State Capitol was to give then-Governor Ann Richards a flu shot. He was nervous enough that he forgot to bring a band-aid, which led Gov. Richards to warn him that he better not let any blood sully her $300 silk blouse! He did his job carefully and well and her blouse was safe. His job was safe too evidently, because he’s been the Capitol nurse for…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News
Debt collection agencies have been embedding debt collectors as employees who run interference in emergency rooms and visit patients’ bedsides to demand payment, among other aggressive tactics. The Minnesota attorney general, Lori Swanson, revealed that Accretive Health, one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, has been engaging in these tactics. The New York Times notes that this raises concerns that “such practices have become common at hospitals across the country.” Hospitals are increasingly desperate to recoup payments as…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nurse Safety, Nursing, Nursing News
Most nurses can expect to face at least one instance where legal representation becomes necessary in the course of their career. Although most healthcare institutions carry malpractice insurance for nurses and will provide their own in-house counsel or insurance counsel, there may be times when nurses feel they need their own private lawyer to protect their interests. Generally, the amount of malpractice insurance an institution carries will suffice for protecting a nurse from personal financial loss, but in high liability…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News
Dr. Otis Brawley is concerned how health care is currently consumed. He’s written a book called “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America” that examines and explains these concerns. Tara Parker Pope of the NYT’s Well blog spoke to him about his book and how broken he considers the United States health care system to be. He states that “failure is in the system” — that no horror stories (and he has some doozies,…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News, Nursing Specialties
A Minneapolis-based hospital group will require that their employes wear matching uniforms distinguished by colors starting in May, one color per job category. Think Star Trek, but in a more Earth-bound (and medical) setting. Nurses get navy scrubs. Licensed practical nurses will wear eggplant. Respiratory therapists get olive green. The idea is to make it easier for patients and family members to identify their care team by the color of their uniform. However, unionized nurses are not happy that the…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News, Nursing School, Nursing Specialties
The White House is leading an initiative to improve health care for former troops and their families. The White House’s Joining Forces campaign includes an agreement with 150 nursing organizations and 500 nursing schools to educate nurses on combat-related injuries. There will be additional coursework and training opportunities regarding injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The effort aims to reach 3 million nurses on the “front lines of health care,” as Joining Forces Director Navy Capt….
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News, Obesity
Dr. David Eisenberg, an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, is the founder and chief officiant of an annual event called “Healthy Kitchens/Healthy Lives.” This is an “interfaith marriage,” as he calls it, that brings together physicians, public health researchers and distinguished chefs. The program seeks to tear down the wall between “healthy” and “crave-able” cuisine. Health care providers are on the front lines of America’s diabetes and obesity…
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By Jenna
Posted in Nursing, Nursing News
These days, your social life is never farther than your desktop, laptop or phone. Through a variety of devices and social platforms, not only can you stay in touch with all your friends from college, but also the ones from high school, grade school, Sunday school and your gym. Unfortunately all of this intermingling of social spheres often leads to an information seep, where what you plan for only some people to see is in fact seen by many others….
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