The most violent job in Washington state isn't being a police officer or a security guard. It's working as a nurse's aide. Seattle public radio station KUOW-FM made that finding as part of an investigative series on workplace safety airing this week. The station found that violence strikes healthcare workers in Washington at six times the state average, and frontline caregivers in emergency rooms and psychiatric wards get assaulted even more than that. The single most violent workplace in the state is at Western State Hospital, where criminal defendants are taken when they are found incompetent to stand trial. Workers at psychiatric hospitals are assaulted on the job more often than anybody else -- 60 times more than the average worker in Washington State.
A new charter high school designed to train nurses is expected to win final approval from the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education Thursday afternoon. The school, which would be public and paid for by taxpayers, is scheduled to open in downtown Providence in September, starting with 136 10th and 11th graders.Supporters of the Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College say the school will serve a dual purpose: help the state address a growing nurse shortage and provide a high-quality education to hundreds of students, many of whom come from low-income families and are stuck in low-performing schools. Students from across the state can apply. The first year's class is already full and there is a wait list of more than 20 students, say the school's sponsors.
We've all made mistakes, most of them small and inconsequential to the patient's health, but sometimes the mistakes are serious. Most of the time, our errors don't amount to much because the hospitals where we work have put in place systems of checks and balances to be sure serious mistakes don't slip through. But even when your mistake is caught and a potential crisis averted, you are left with the knowledge that you almost harmed a patient you were trying to protect. My worst mistake ended up not mattering at all, but it still pains me to think about what could have happened as the result of my error.
The University of Washington's top-ranked School of Nursing is losing its dean and — according to a sharply critical consultant's report — is beset by low morale, internal strife and a lack of shared purpose among its faculty and staff members. Hit with budget cuts, the school is suffering from a lack of trust between faculty and Dean Marla Salmon, according to the report, commissioned by Salmon in collaboration with top UW administrators. The consultants, who presented their report to the school earlier this month, said that instead of a shared vision for the future, they found what they termed "tribal behavior," with separate departments and specialty areas pitted against one another and the school as a whole. Last month, Salmon tendered her resignation, effective a year from now. The situation couldn't come at a worse time for the school, which is not only braced for another round of cuts in state funding but is under pressure by lawmakers and hospitals to help relieve an acute shortage of both nurses and the teachers to train them.
Licensed practical nurses will keep their jobs for at least one year at Schuylkill Medical Center-South Jackson Street, their union announced."They are keeping the LPNs," said Sherri Rada, Lavelle. "I'm satisfied. I get to keep my job as an LPN." Hospital spokesman M. Michael Peckman announced April 5 that the Schuylkill Health board of directors was planning to phase out the LPNs at the South Jackson Street facility, replacing them with registered nurses and nursing aides in order to establish a new health care delivery model. The LPNs would have had the opportunity to become nursing aides - which requires no training but means a pay cut - or train to become RNs - which requires additional training that would only have been partially reimbursed by the hospital. Friday's agreement means the 51 LPNs at the former Pottsville Hospital & Warne Clinic have their employment guaranteed at least through June 30, 2012.
While drug thefts have long been an issue in hospitals and nursing homes, health officials are taking new steps to address the problem. The Minnesota Hospital Association and state Health Department are organizing a coalition of hospitals and licensing boards to identify and close loopholes in drug-handling protocols that make it easier to steal. "People are starting to realize that this is a serious and ongoing problem," said Keith Berge, who chairs the Mayo Clinic's medication diversion prevention committee. "They're starting to recognize what they've been seeing. I think we've been seeing this all along and not recognizing it for what it is." In perhaps the most dramatic recent case, a nurse anesthetist in Minneapolis was accused of taking most of the painkiller intended for a patient undergoing kidney-stone surgery in November. A criminal complaint said the nurse told the patient to "man up" as he endured the worst pain. Opioid pain relievers such as fentanyl or oxycodone are the most commonly stolen prescription drugs, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.