Should a murderer ever be allowed to practice medicine? The question has come into focus in the case of a Nazi sympathizer who entered a famed Swedish medical school in 2007, seven years after being convicted of a hate murder. A killer turned healer might seem to be a shining example of prison rehabilitation. Yet it is hard to think of a case in which a murderer should become a medical doctor. Murder and medical practice are simply incompatible.
The nation's largest pediatricians' group said ABC should cancel the first episode of a new series, "Eli Stone," because it perpetuates the myth that vaccines can cause autism. The show's co-creators say they're not anti-vaccine and would be upset if parents chose not to immunize their children after seeing the show.
Cold medicines send about 7,000 children to hospital emergency rooms each year, according to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its first national estimate of the problem. About two-thirds of the cases were children who took the medicines unsupervised. However, about one-quarter involved cases in which parents gave the proper dosage and an allergic reaction or some other problem developed, the CDC reports. The study included both over-the-counter and prescription medicines.
If we can clearly define the doctor's role, says writer Dr. Michael Wilkes, it becomes far easier to select medical students who deliver on this job description. Additionally, such guidelines will then help to retool medical education (medical school, residency and continuing training) so as to create the doctor who will meet the public's expectations. And, Wilkes say, once defined, the doctor's role can be used to measure how well any doctor is performing.
Nurses at Marion County's privately run jail were forced to escort dangerous inmates, faced retaliation when they reported co-workers' errors and were sidelined because they are black, according to a recently filed lawsuit. The suit alleges mismanagement and mishandling of inmates' medications at Marion County Jail II. Five of the six plaintiffs have quit their jobs, and the suit says supervisors all but forced them out through "a deliberate and successful campaign to rid Jail II of African-American nurses."
Aurora Health Care has dropped its bid to persuade SynergyHealth, the parent of St. Joseph's Hospital near West Bend, to join the Aurora system. The decision comes two days before SynergyHealth's board is scheduled to decide among competing offers from Aurora and two other health care systems. Columbia St. Mary's and Froedtert & Community Health, which plan to combine their operations in a partnership, and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare also hope to align with SynergyHealth.