Emergency rooms are becoming increasingly crowded, leading Sentara Health to implement a new tool designed to expedite patient care.
Before admitting new patients from the emergency room, nurses must first discharge those they have already seen.
“When we have more than one patient being discharged, two or three, it gets kind of hectic trying to get everyone out the door in a timely manner,” registered nurse Kierra Maddox said.
With one nurse typically managing care for four patients, the process can be time-consuming.
“Going over their medical history, medications, and primary care doctor takes a majority of the time, usually upwards of an hour,” Maddox said.
New research published in the Journal Nursing Outlook shows that labor and delivery units that are adequately staffed by nurses have lower cesarean birth rates.
“Our findings highlight how crucial nurse staffing is for optimal maternal outcomes,” said Audrey Lyndon, the Vernice D. Ferguson Professor in Health Equity and executive vice dean at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. C-sections account for nearly a third of births in the US and are the most common surgery performed in hospitals. While C-sections can be lifesaving, and some are necessary for the health of the mother and child, the surgery carries more risks and a longer recovery than vaginal births and can complicate future pregnancies.
Yale New Haven Health announced they are ending one of their visiting nurse programs this June.
A spokesperson said Yale New Haven Health at Home-Southeast is stopping their Wellness and Nurse Family Partnership Program starting June 30.
"Any decision to change a service that has been provided to the community and involves employees is extremely difficult, but we need to focus on our core mission of caring for our patients in hospital and home settings," the spokesperson said.
The Nurse-Family Partnership Program helps first-time, low-income and other eligible mothers become successful and competent parents, according to their website.
The healthcare system said they are giving five months notice in an effort to allow human resources staff to help employees look for new positions.
Healthcare is at a turning point, with persistent challenges threatening the system’s sustainability.
Workforce shortages – projected to exceed 100,000 healthcare workers by 2028 – and increasing clinician burnout highlight the urgent need for a more sustainable and effective approach to care delivery. Integrated care models are emerging as a vital solution, blending advanced technologies, redefined clinical roles, and cross-disciplinary collaboration to meet our healthcare providers’ mounting pressures. These models provide a pathway to a more resilient healthcare system that is focused on both the needs of patients and clinicians.
Nurses on strike at eight Providence hospitals in Oregon have rejected tentative agreements that would have ended the largest health care workers’ strike in state history.
Nearly 5,000 health care workers, including nurses and physicians, began striking Jan. 10 at hospitals around the state. Next steps are uncertain after nurses overwhelmingly voted against tentative contracts. On Monday, officials for the Oregon Nurses Association and Providence Health & Services said they have no date scheduled for mediation sessions.
Hospitals affected by the strike include Portland’s St. Vincent, Providence Portland Medical Center and hospitals in Hood River, Medford, Milwaukie, Newberg, Seaside and Oregon City.
Overall, 83% of nurses voted against the contracts, the Oregon Nurses Association said in a release.
Bushnell University's plans to double its nursing program numbers gets a boost of more than $4 million dollars in grant funding.
Staff in the School of Nursing say most of those nurses will stay local beefing up Lane County's healthcare workforce. According to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), overall, the nursing workforce has grown by just over 15 percent since 2020; but only about 74 percent of the state's licensed registered nurses were practicing in 2023.
OHA says the state's education programs only graduate enough nurses to fill about 72 percent of spots available each year.