That's the number of vacant registered nursing positions across the state, according to a new report from the Florida Center for Nursing. Nursing shortages have come and gone for decades. But there's reason to believe this one could be a prolonged problem. Observers are particularly troubled because the number of vacancies has increased more than 30 percent since 2013, according to the report. Compounding the problem, another 9,947 nursing positions are expected to be created in 2016.
Nurses are patient advocates — and by extension advocates for our patients' families and our communities — and today we are sounding an alert on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an international agreement that puts the public health of Maine, and the nation, at risk. Maine nurses urge Congress to reject this fatally flawed agreement and strongly encourage the Legislature to speak out in the public interest and against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. While there are many good reasons to reject this trade pact, Maine's registered nurses are particularly appalled by this agreement's threat to public health and safety.
Hospitals and same-day surgery centers would be required to meet minimum nursing-to-patient requirements or face fines by the state Department of Health under a bill approved Thursday by a state Assembly committee. The Assembly Health and Senior Citizens Committee voted 7-4 to allow the legislation to move to the full Assembly for a vote. But even its committee allies said that more work needed to be done to allay concerns raised by nursing managers and hospital executives, who argued the law would cost hospitals millions of dollars and undermine the judgment of professionals on a daily basis.
Lora Krall says delirium made her mother's final days a nightmare. The 73-year-old didn't recognize her daughter or husband. The delirium took hold while Krall's mother, Harriet, was in the hospital, being treated for pneumonia. "She would see things," Krall recalled, like "mice in the room. The walls were moving. She would a lot of times just grab at things and there wasn't anything there." Delirium is a common and a terrifying experience for elderly hospital patients and their loved ones. But the hallucinations, paranoia and other symptoms can be avoided. More than two dozen Minnesota hospitals have new programs to help.
On the day testimony is being given at the State House on proposed legislation to curb the state's prescription drug abuse and heroin use epidemic, the Massachusetts Nurses Association has released a statement calling one of the proposals a "disservice" to the target population. The proposal would expand the state's involuntary commitment law to allow doctors to hospitalize drug addicts involuntarily for 72 hours without a court order if they pose a danger to themselves or others. "Our emergency departments are already overcrowded with patients suffering from mental health conditions due to the lack of beds and services in the system," said Donna Kelly-Williams, MNA president and registered nurse, in the release.
When can your Facebook posts get you in trouble with the boss? That issue, which has already roiled workplaces from schools to police departments, was front and center in recent contract negotiations involving two New Jersey hospitals and the nurses' union. Some 1,200 nurses at Southern Ocean Medical Center and Jersey Shore University Medical Center ratified their new contract with parent company Meridian Health Monday, paving the way for resolution of a dispute over Facebook posts. During contract negotiations, the union, Health Professionals and Allied Employees, took its beef about staffing levels to the general public, handing out leaflets and even sending out a giant billboard mounted on a flatbed truck.