A program credited with reducing trips to emergency rooms and saving patients and emergency services more than $700,000 over the past 20 months is significantly expanding in East County.
El Cajon became the first city in the state to participate in the nurse navigator program when it was launched as El Cajon Community Care in 2023.
Doctors and nurses at Providence facilities in Portland have authorized a strike amid ongoing contract negotiations.
The walkout would include physicians, physician associates, nurse midwives and clinic nurses at Providence St. Vincent and six Providence Women’s Clinics in the Portland metro area. Physicians are represented by the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, and nurses by the Oregon Nurses Association. According to the nurses union, about 150 staff would be impacted in the walkout, and it would be the “first doctor’s strike in Oregon history.”
As fall arrives, ushering in flu season and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) has released concerning findings from its latest survey: more than a quarter of Americans are not up to date with essential health screenings and immunizations.
This includes vital screenings for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer—interventions that could be life-saving during this high-risk period. The AANP’s State of Primary Care in America survey reveals that 27% of respondents have fallen behind on preventive health measures. Alarmingly, nearly one-third of adults—particularly younger individuals, Hispanics, and those in rural areas—are struggling to access necessary healthcare services.
The Alabama Board of Nursing is on the cusp of launching a new process for certifying nursing support technicians, a process designed to both eliminate redundancies and ease workloads for nurses, of which there remains a growing shortage.
The new certification process will create a new credential for nursing support technicians, or NSTs, and thereby, make education and testing among NSTs uniform. It went into effect earlier this month after the passage of Senate Bill 25 earlier this year, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Brierfield, the Alabama Legislature’s only nurse.
Akron Children's Hospital and the University of Akron are partnering to offer a free Associate of Applied Science in Nursing degree program through Akron Children's Career Launch Program. Through the program, 30 students will receive 100% prepaid tuition, along with funds to cover uniforms, books and supplies, according to the university. In exchange, accepted students will agree to work at Akron Children's Hospital for 2-3 years.
The number of nurse practitioners has nearly quadrupled since 2010, and the profession's meteoric rise will likely continue. BLS projects the number of nurse practitioners will grow 40% between 2023 and 2033. Increasingly, though, NPs are doing work that doctors have historically done, leading to tension between the groups over training, experience, and pay. "One of the most intense and acrimonious, non-partisan policy debates right now is between MDs and NPs," says Michael Barnett, a primary care physician and associate professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.