August 28, 2024
A New Edition of Nursing Ethics Is Now Available
Nursing Ethics (vol. 31, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Nursing
August 19, 2024
Study Exposes the Dangerous ‘Hidden’ Mental Burden of Cancer on Patients’ Spouses
(STAT News) – Risk of suicide increased in year after diagnosis, suggesting caregivers need more support The distress from receiving a cancer diagnosis is something that clinicians widely anticipate in patients, but suffering often doesn’t just afflict the patient. It … Read More
August 15, 2024
Samsung’s New Family Care Service Helps Caregivers Monitor Loved Ones
(The Verge) – The smart home-powered service uses Samsung’s SmartThings platform and Galaxy smartphones to help remote caregivers keep tabs on those they’re caring for. Samsung is launching a new service to help caregivers remotely monitor and assist loved ones … Read More
August 12, 2024
Nurse Began Working at Hospital During WWII and Hasn’t Stopped. She’s 97.
(Washington Post via MSN) – Grace Carr was 17 when she left her family home in the coal town of Freeland, Pa., to pursue a dream she’d had since she was 5 years old. “Ever since I can remember, I … Read More
August 9, 2024
‘Scared to Death’: Nurses and Residents Confront Rampant Violence in Dementia Care Facilities
(KFF Health News) – Violent altercations between residents in long-term care facilities are alarmingly common. Across the country, residents in nursing homes or assisted living centers have been killed by other residents who weaponized a bedrail, shoved pillow stuffing into … Read More
August 5, 2024
When Elder Care Is All in the Stepfamily
(New York Times) – Adult children are less likely to assist an aging stepparent, studies show. A growing “step gap” in senior care worries experts. Calculating the growth in stepfamilies isn’t simple, but a demographic analysis published last year estimated … Read More
July 30, 2024
Older Adults Are Often Misdiagnosed. Specialized ERs and Trained Clinicians Can Help
(NPR) – Errors in diagnosis are relatively common among older people. The reasons are many: older adults may have multiple conditions, take many medications, and illnesses can look very different in older people than they do in younger ones. Older … Read More
July 12, 2024
Why Nursing Home Residents Still Suffer Despite Tough State Laws
(New York Times) – The Biden administration set stringent new federal staffing rules. But for years, nursing homes have failed to meet the toughest standards set by states. California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island have sought to improve … Read More
July 10, 2024
A New Edition of Nursing Ethics Is Now Available
Nursing Ethics (vol. 31, no. 2-3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Residents’ Experiences of Paternalism in Nursing Homes” by Anne Helene Mortensen, et al. “Ethical Issues in long-term Care Settings: Care Workers’ Lived Experiences” by Anna-Liisa … Read More
July 4, 2024
Medicare Explores a New Way to Support Caregivers of Dementia Patients
(NPR) – In hopes of easing that burden, Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance program for people 65 and over, is launching an eight-year pilot project this summer with a groundbreaking plan. The government will pay to directly support the … Read More
June 26, 2024
Visa Freeze Worsens America’s Nursing Shortage
(Axios) – Longstanding caps on green cards for foreign-educated nurses are limiting one potential fix for America’s stark shortage of health care workers. Why it matters: As burned-out nurses leave the field, many hospitals and nursing homes have sought to … Read More
June 10, 2024
Personal Conflicts, Even Violence, Are Not Uncommon in Long-Term Care
(New York Times) – In long-term care facilities, residents sometimes yell at or threaten one other, lob insults, invade fellow residents’ personal or living space, rummage through others’ possessions and take them. They can swat or kick or push. Or … Read More
June 10, 2024
Health Care Needs More Spirituality, Experts Say
(Axios) – Increased attention to patients’ spiritual needs would improve U.S. public health, researchers argue in a new Health Affairs article. Why it matters: A growing body of scientific evidence shows that spiritual beliefs and practices positively affect health, but patients’ … Read More
June 7, 2024
The Health Care Workforce Crisis Is Already Here
(Axios) – Demoralized doctors and nurses are leaving the field, hospitals are sounding the alarm about workforce shortages and employees are increasingly unionizing and even going on strike in high-profile disputes with their employers. Why it matters: Dire forecasts of … Read More
May 29, 2024
Virtual Reality App Lets Medical Staff Get a Patient’s-Eye View
(Times of Israel) – “The doctor needs to look at the patient as a person with a problem and not as a problem,” she said. Palter-Dycian is co-founder and chief operating officer of OtheReality, a virtual reality (VR) technological solution … Read More
May 15, 2024
Nursing Homes Wield Pandemic Immunity Laws To Duck Wrongful Death Suits
(KFF Health News) – More than four years after covid first raged through many U.S. nursing homes, hundreds of lawsuits blaming patient deaths on negligent care have been tossed out or languished in the courts amid contentious legal battles. Even … Read More
May 14, 2024
In Medicine, the Morally Unthinkable Too Easily Comes to Seem Normal
(New York Times) – To embark on a career in medicine is like moving to a foreign country where you do not understand the customs, rituals, manners or language. Your main concern on arrival is how to fit in and … Read More
May 13, 2024
A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Sven Babies. Did She Do It?
(The New Yorker) – Colleagues reportedly called Lucy Letby an “angel of death,” and the Prime Minister condemned her. But, in the rush to judgment, serious questions about the evidence were ignored. (Read More)
May 13, 2024
Hospitals’ New Message for Patients: Stay Home
(Politico) – Hospitals want you to visit them less often. Empowered by Washington and armed with Covid-inspired health innovations, health executives are seeking to increasingly move care outside of the hospital — despite the seeming risk to their bottom line. … Read More
May 9, 2024
Forget the Nurse Call Button. Patients Now Stay Connected by Wearing One
(Fortune) – Patients admitted to Houston Methodist hospital get a monitoring device about the size of a half-dollar affixed to their chest — and an unwitting role in the expanding use of artificial intelligence in health care. The slender, battery-powered … Read More
May 9, 2024
Nurses Push for a STEM Designation
(Axios) – As the country struggles with nursing shortages, some in the field are pushing for a federal solution: a new STEM designation. Why it matters: Classifying nursing as a STEM field would unlock millions in federal funding for recruitment … Read More
May 6, 2024
Senior Homes Refuse to Pick Up Fallen Residents, Dial 911. ‘Why Are They Calling Us?’
(Washington Post via MSN) – Lift-assist 911 calls from assisted living and other senior homes have spiked by 30 percent nationwide in recent years to nearly 42,000 calls a year, an analysis of fire department emergency call data by The … Read More
May 6, 2024
Hospice Remains a Blind Spot for Medicare Advantage
(Axios) – As Medicare Advantage grows bigger and bigger, there’s one area the industry and regulators haven’t figured out how to make work yet: hospice. Why it matters: The end-of-life care option is the only Medicare service that can’t be … Read More
May 3, 2024
How Do You Help Patients Who Show Up in the ER 100 Times a Year?
(NPR) – Moore largely credits the Camden Coalition, a team of nurses, social workers and care coordinators for his transformation. The nonprofit organization seeks out health care’s toughest patients — people whose medical and social problems combine to land them … Read More
April 29, 2024
Who Will Comfort Me? The Total Care of Cicely Saunders
(Acton Institute) – Finding better answers means asking better questions. Nowhere is this truer and more consequential than with questions surrounding matters of life and death. By asking better questions about care for the terminally ill, Dame Cicely Saunders (1918–2005)—a … Read More
