Operating room nurse John Kauchick says he's worked 17-hour shifts and once stayed on the job for 23 hours straight – risking fatigue that could lead to medical mistakes. Now the American Nurses Association seeks to reduce such risks with a new set of recommendations spelling out the dangers of nurse fatigue and ways employers can reduce it. The group is spreading the word to nurses and health care facilities across the USA. "With truck drivers and airline pilots, they'll pull the driver out of the truck or the pilot out of the plane" to avoid fatigue, says Kauchick, a traveling nurse who works mostly in Texas and New Mexico.
Kaiser Permanente nurses in California have approved a new contract that boosts pay and improves patient care along with health and safety protections for nurses, a union official said. Registered nurses and nurse practitioners who work at 21 hospitals and 65 clinics across Northern and Central California voted last week to approve the new three-year deal, the California Nurses Association said Monday. About 18,000 Kaiser nurses in the state went on a two-day strike in November, and another walkout was planned for last week but an agreement was reached. California Nurses Association represents the Kaiser nurses. Those workers are part of the National Nurses United organization.
Nurse practitioner and physician assistant (NP/PA) care in the ICU could have a mortality benefit compared with care teams solely comprising resident physicians, a study showed.
The number of U.S. nurse practitioners nearly doubled over the last 10 years, rising from roughly 106,000 in 2004 to 205,000 as of Dec. 31, the profession's trade group said Wednesday. More than 15,000 people graduated from nurse practitioner programs between 2012 and 2013, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) also reported. The AANP is hoping to leverage the rising number of nurse practitioners to further shape policy debates in Washington, D.C., particularly amid the current doctor shortage. "The explosive growth of the nurse practitioner profession is a public health boon considering our nation's skyrocketing demand for high-quality, accessible care," said AANP President Ken Miller in a statement.
A high nurse-to-patient ratio in intensive care units was independently associated with a lower risk of in-hospital death, according to results from a study involving more than a thousand ICUs in 75 countries.
As of Jan. 1, 2015, nurse practitioners (NPs) in New York who have more than 3,600 hours of clinical experience are no longer required to submit patient charts for review to "collaborative" physicians.