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.
A bill that makes it harder for insurance companies to deny coverage for mental healthcare passed in the Colorado House on Monday. Under federal law, insurers are required to treat physical and mental health care in the same way, but state Sen. Judy Amabile, the sponsor of the bill, says that many insurers are refusing to cover mental health care based on what their definition of what's medically necessary. The Democrat from Boulder County's bill would establish a standard definition of medical necessity based on criteria developed by mental health professionals.
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.
High school students interested in pursuing careers in nursing anesthesia have a new option to ensure they meet their education goals thanks to the University of Akron’s new Early Assurance Pathway to Nurse Anesthesia Program.
The university launched the program to offer early access to the program for 12 incoming undergraduate students. The pathway will ensure students meet critical program milestones and offers hands-on training in anesthesiology, pain management and perioperative care. The program prepares students to take the National Certification Examination to become licensed Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists.
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which are infections contracted by patients during or soon after health treatment, are a serious threat to healthcare safety. The impacts of HAIs are detrimental and include sickness, death and billions of dollars in healthcare costs each year.