Michelle McMahan stole her patients' pain medications so she could take them herself. Diana Bjorneberg supported her drug habit by tampering with syringes and putting patients at risk for infection. Catherine Callaway replaced liquid anesthetics with saline, feeding her addiction while leaving patients to suffer. They are three of the 112 Minnesota nurses who since 2010 are licensed to practice despite having either stolen narcotics on the job, fraudulently obtained prescriptions, or practiced while impaired by drugs or alcohol, a Star Tribune examination of more than 1,000 Minnesota Board of Nursing disciplinary records has found.
Midwives, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other non-doctors do as good a job as MDs in the care they deliver — and patients often like them better, a World Health Organization team reported on Thursday. These non-physicians are especially effective in delivering babies, taking care of people infected with the AIDS virus, and helping people care for chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure, the team reported in a WHO bulletin. The findings extend from the poorest nations to the United States and Europe, they said. While some physician groups have resisted wider use of such professionals, they should embrace them because they are often less expensive to deploy and are far more willing to work in rural areas, the WHO experts said.
A Maine nurses group on Monday said President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, which is criticized by conservatives as overreaching, doesn't go far enough toward universal health coverage. The Maine State Nurses Association held Monday afternoon health screenings and an evening "town hall" event at the First Parish Church on Congress Street in Portland to advocate for the expansion of the federal Medicare program to cover all Americans, regardless of age. The organization is planning to hold a second wave of screenings and another town hall event Tuesday afternoon and evening at the Bangor Public Library.
One of the country's largest and most profitable hospital chains has been defeated in its effort to take away its nurses' sick days, according to the union that mounted nine strikes there over the past two years. "The nurses would've come to work sick, and the patients' health would've declined," said California Nurses Association Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. "Because the nurses would be exposing current patients to the past patients' illnesses." While nurses "take the risk of being around very sick people," DeMoro told Salon, they "are not super-women." According to CNA, eliminating paid sick days was one of nearly 200 concessions sought by California healthcare giant Sutter Health, in negotiations over union contracts covering 3,000 nurses and hundreds of other employees at central California hospitals.
Records examined by the Star Tribune of more than 1,000 disciplinary actions by the Nursing Board over the past four years show that it tolerates or forgives misconduct that would end nursing careers in other states. Among The Star Tribune?s findings:
The board actively licenses more than 260 nurses since 2010 who have records of unsafe practice, including botched care that led to patient harm or even death.
Eighty-eight nurses are allowed to practice despite having been charged or convicted of crimes such as physical or sexual assault and drug thefts ? some against their own patients.
Getting fired for incompetence, even multiple times, rarely means Minnesota nurses lose their licenses.
Orlando Health nurses rallyed this morning for unions at Lake Eola, according to a press release from the National Nurses Organizing Committee. According to the release, pay cuts are expected to cause the loss of 90 indirect jobs and have a $12 million economic impact in the community. Orlando Health delayed some of the pay cuts until January, originally announced in early August. Dr. Jamal Hakim is Orlando Health Inc.'s interim CEO after Sherrie Sitarik was ousted by the board Sept. 26.