General

Emergency Nursing & Workplace Violence

Feb 9, 2015

ED nurses are too commonly exposed to workplace violence, according to findings of a study...

Logistics Programs Benefit ED Wait Times

Dec 7, 2014

A Focus on Improving Patient Flow With ED crowding continuing to be an important public health issue, hospitals across the United States are scrambling to pursue aggressive strategies that improve patient flow in EDs. A...

A Data-Driven Approach for Nurse Staffing

Jan 23, 2014

Unplanned nurse turnover is a primary threat to a hospital’s sustainability. Foremost, the price...

Overcoming Barriers to Clinical Research in the ED

Jul 2, 2013

Clinical research in the ED is important to providing supporting evidence for the development of practice guidelines and is vital to enhancing patient outcomes. A recent study was conducted to describe barriers and lessons...

Do BSN Nurses Provide Better Care?

May 28, 2013

A paper entitled “An increase in the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees is linked to lower rates of postsurgery mortality” appeared in Health Affairs in March and generated quite a lot of buzz on the...

Improving Sepsis Care in the ED

May 1, 2013

For patients with severe sepsis and septic shock in the ED, studies have shown that goal-directed therapy is effective. However, many EDs throughout the country have not implemented such protocols. In a recent study, a survey...

Finding a Teachable Moment in Nursing

Apr 12, 2013

Patient education is one of the most important aspects of nursing care. It builds patients’ self-esteem, self-awareness, sense of responsibility, and provides them with effective coping mechanisms. Furthermore, it reduces...

The “Second Victims” in Nursing

Mar 28, 2013

Tears rolled down my face as I came across an article written 2 years ago. A veteran pediatric nurse took her own life several months after administering a fatal overdose of an electrolyte to an infant. After investigations and...

Male Nurses Up 7% – And Earning 19% More Than Women

Mar 7, 2013

The influx of patients spurred by healthcare reform as well as today’s shortage of primary care physicians is creating enormous demands on an unprepared healthcare system. In the wake of nurses redefining and expanding their...

Mild TBI: Identifying Patients at Risk

Feb 28, 2013

For emergency nurses, it can be challenging to identify patients with a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and how best to manage these individuals at discharge. A study has found that emergency nurses need to be aware that...

The Impact of the Next Generation of Nursing

Feb 19, 2013

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will mean the addition of as many as 35 million...

NPs Practicing Independently? AAFP Says No

Sep 21, 2012

The idea of advanced practice nurses directing primary care practices on their own without a physician on staff has been a hot topic of discussion lately among the healthcare and public policy communities. The rationale behind...

What Happens When a Doctor Is Paged

Jun 11, 2012

It’s 8:15 p.m. I am at home. My beeper goes off, and I check it instantly. It reads, “555-1212” [Number changed to comply with HIPAA regulations]. It’s the inpatient surgical floor. Within 10 seconds, I have dialed the number....

Nursing Shortage? Mmm, Maybe Not

Dec 9, 2011

While the retiring baby-boomer nurses have warned of a dangerous nursing shortage, the number of full-time registered nurses aged 23 to 26 increased by 62% between 2002 and 2009, according to this month’s Health Affairs. At...

Legislating Semantics: Should a Nurse Be Called ‘Doctor’?

Oct 5, 2011

Nurses introducing themselves as “doctor” may not be too common today, but by 2015 doctorates may be required of all nurse practitioners. The question is, will these highly educated nurses be able to use the title of...

Identifying Families at High Genetic Risk of Cancer

Apr 30, 2011

Cancer can be defined as sporadic, familial, or hereditary. This classification can assist nurses...

Nurses Keep Silent on Physicians’ Shortcuts

Mar 28, 2011

Almost 60% of nurses report they have at one time or another felt unsafe to speak up or were unable to get others to listen when medical software alerted them to a problem that may have been missed and harmed a patient (eg, drug...