Kaiser Permanente, one of the country's largest healthcare providers, plans to announce Thursday that it is converting its intravenous equipment to more eco-friendly alternatives free of two chemicals that have been shown to harm humans and the environment, officials said. Kaiser will buy IV solution bags that are 100 percent free of PVC and DEHP and intravenous tubing that is free of DEHP. The two chemicals are widely used in medical products. DEHP, or di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, used to make plastic bags and tubing more pliable, has been linked to reproductive problems and other health effects. When PVC plastic is manufactured or incinerated, it creates dioxin pollution, a known carcinogen.
The Dallas Veteran's Administration Medical Center nurse who told a lesbian Marine her depression was the result of "living in darkness" as a homosexual will no longer be working for the VA. According to an e-mailed statement from the VA, the nurse will "retire from federal service January 21, 2012." The email also states that the Administrative Investigation Board "was able to substantiate material portions of the veteran's claims."
Tougher laws and new regulations targeting the state's pain clinics and rogue doctors are having an unintended consequence on Florida hospitals: More and more people are turning to the emergency room for painkillers, including prescription drug addicts. Emergency department doctors and nurses now find themselves treating hostile patients who are verbally and physically abusive. Some of those pill-seekers even make threats against hospital staff if they don't receive the drugs they want.
A new AMA report on patient safety in ambulatory care finds that safety problems are widespread but that little is known about which problems cause the most harm. Among the uncertainties cited by the AMA researchers is the contribution of electronic health records (EHRs) to patient safety. The report cites studies indicating that EHRs encourage providers to "copy and paste" clinical data and that they support "automatic behavior" rather than careful reasoning and analysis.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis is one of a growing number of hospitals and nursing groups that help combat the constant assault on nurse's psyches. In addition to meditation and stress-reduction workshops, such programs include discussions about difficult patient situations, support groups, and staff retreats focused on the emotional aspects of care giving. Compassion fatigue is a combination of secondary traumatic stress from witnessing the suffering of others and burnout. It can lead nurses to feel sadness and despair that impair their health and well-being.
New registered nurses would have to earn bachelor's degrees within 10 years to keep working in New York under a bill lawmakers are considering as part of a national push to raise educational standards for nurses, even as the healthcare industry faces staffing shortages. The "BSN in 10" initiative backed by nursing associations and major health policy organizations aims to attack the complex problem of too few nurses trained to care for an aging population that includes hundreds of thousands of nurses expected to retire in the coming years.