Nurses believe medical errors could be reduced if the medical devices hospitals rely on for testing, monitoring, and treating patients could seamlessly share information, according to results of a new national survey. According to the survey of more than 500 nurses conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of the Gary and Mary West Health Institute, half of the nurses said they witnessed a medical error resulting from a lack of coordination among medical devices in a hospital setting. Devices include everything from infusion pumps, ventilators, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs to electronic health records. The weighted survey was conducted online by Harris Poll from January 7-16, 2015 and included 526 nurses.
Minnesota's hospitals and nurses have come down on different sides of a bill aimed at protecting health care workers from attacks. Sen. Chuck Wiger drafted his Violence Against Health Workers bill in response to a November attack at St. John's hospital in Maplewood, part of Wiger's district. In that case a 68-year-old patient with no prior history of violence suddenly assaulted four of his caregivers with a steel rod he pulled off of a piece of equipment. A chilling surveillance video clip showed the man chasing nurses and others around the ward, striking them with the rod.
If you live in a rural area in Nebraska chances are you may have to drive up to an hour away to get adequate healthcare , sometimes even further. A legislative bill is cutting the red tape for Nurse Practitioners to be more independent and provide greater access to healthcare. In Sutherland Herb and Sandra Meissner say it can be tough finding good healthcare because they live in a smaller community. "Every time we go to North Platte it's a 46-mile round trip and to here it's less than a mile and a half," said Herb.
Experimental drugs and special care helped make Nina Pham Ebola free. But today she fears she may never escape the deadly disease. The 26-year-old nurse says she has nightmares, body aches and insomnia as a result of contracting the disease from a patient she cared for last fall at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. She says the hospital and its parent company, Texas Health Resources, failed her and her colleagues who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola.
A KVUE Defenders investigation uncovered a substantial increase in Texas nurses disciplined by the state and losing their licenses. Years after year, nursing ranks as the most trusted profession in the country, but even nurses make mistakes. The Defenders discovered the state is citing them for one type of crime more than any other. Dante Fair found that out the hard way. The 29-year-old father died after registered nurse Dana Tackett hit him head-on driving the wrong way just outside of Killeen on Highway 130 in 2013. Hours before, Tackett left a hospital and went drinking. Tests revealed her blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit.
Bernard Valencia's room in the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., illustrates how hospitals across the country could fight a nationwide epidemic. As soon as you enter the room, you can see one of the main strategies: A hook hangs from a metal track that runs across the ceiling. This isn't some bizarre way of fighting hospital-acquired infections or preventing the staff from getting needle sticks. The contraption is a ceiling hoist designed to lift and move patients with a motor instead of muscle. As NPR has reported in our investigative series Injured Nurses, nursing employees suffer more debilitating back and other injuries than almost any other occupation — and they get those injuries mainly from doing the everyday tasks of lifting and moving patients.