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Posts Tagged ‘Nursing News’

Nursing Jobs Shortage News -  Today Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed legislation to create incentives for healthcare workers to become nurses and for current nurses to become nurse faculty.

The nursing shortage in Illinois could top 21,000, Durbin said. According to information from the senator, 2,523 qualified nursing students were turned away due to lack of faculty and resources.

“Everyone depends on nurses for quality patient care, yet the healthcare system in America lacks an adequate supply of nurses and the problem is getting worse,” Durbin said. “Today’s legislation proposes a new, innovative program that builds on our existing healthcare workforce — an important, but currently untapped resource.”

Durbin’s legislation proposes a new grant through the Department of Labor to train healthcare workers to earn a nursing certificate or degree and assist current nurses in obtaining specialty training or advanced degrees to serve as educators.

This information was obtained from Marion Daily Republican

This video is from Politico.com where Obama uses nurses to push his health reform agenda.

According to The U.S. Department of Labor’s March 2008 Employment Summary reports, employment in the health care sector continues to grow, adding 360,000 jobs during the past 12 months. The Labor Department estimates employment of registered nurses will grow 23 percent from 2006 to 2016 and the country will need 500,000 new RNs by 2016.

“I’ve been a nurse since 1969 and have experienced different economic up and down turns,” said Linda Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, senior associate dean for academics at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee. “There has always been a sustained need for nurses and a shortage of nurses.”

“Nursing not only is a recession-proof profession but it is one that has multiple opportunities,” Norman added. “The value of nursing is being appreciated throughout the health care industry.”

“The number of nurses who graduated has gone up during the last 40 years, but, the interesting piece is the demand for nurses also has increased,” Norman said. “Nursing programs have had difficulty keeping up with the demand.”

Pat Witzel, RN and chief nursing officer at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center located in New York, stated, “Nursing is not generally affected by the economy. People becoming ill or needing health care services is not dependent on what happens economically.”

The average age of a nurse  is almost 50 years with many possibly retiring soon.

“The workforce will be consistently losing nurses during the next five, 10, 15 years, and those nurses will need to be replaced,” said Hila Richardson, director of the undergraduate, continuing education and community health programs at New York University (NYU) College of Nursing.

Nursing jobs  and travel nursing  will always be in demand because people will always need medical care, however schools are just not producing enough nurses.

June 19th, 2009 New York Daily News – Two doctors and two nurses are facing possible criminal charges for covering up the death-by-neglect of patient Esmin Green last year in the psychiatric ward at Kings County Hospital, the Daily News has learned.

Watch surveiilance video of neglected dead woman

The city Department of Investigation will release a report today of its probe of misconduct by medical personnel after a shocking surveillance tape documenting Green’s death – one year ago today – revealed major inconsistencies with reports documenting her care in the emergency room.

“Discrepancies were uncovered that called into question the acuracy of the medical records created by certain Kings County Hospital doctors,” according to the report obtained by The News.

“DOI’s investigation further disclosed that the failures docmented in Ms. Green’s ill fated stay at the facility in all likelihood were not aberrations, but rather the result of systemic weaknesses in the emergency room’s operating procedures…”

The findings of fabricated records and false testimony include:

*A nurse identified only as Gonzalo admitted that after Green was pronounced dead, she made three false entries in the patient’s progress notes to make it appear that Green had appeared fine in the prior 45 minutes while under the nurse’s care.

In fact, Green was out cold on the emergency room floor for one hour, ignored by staffers and security as she lay face-down on the floor.

“Nurse Gonzalo who feared she would lose her job, admitted to DOI that she fabricated portions of the entries in Ms. Green’s progress noptes in order to mislead,” the report states.

*Nursing Aide Royal Easton made false entries in an observation sheet indicating she observed Green asleep. When questioned by investigators, Easton invoked her 5th Ammendment right against self-incrimination.

*The surveillance tape showed Dr. Rashed Abedin and Dr. Dimitru Magardician made no attempt to examine Green after she was brought into the emergency room for observation as they asserted in a medical records. Both doctors also invoked the 5th Ammendment when questioned.

The 18-page report will be forwarded to Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes “for whatever action they deem appropriate.”

Lawyer Sanford Rubenstein who represents Green’s children in a suit against the city said: “I have the utmost confidence in Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn D.A., that based on the evidence in this report he will take appropriate action against all parties.”

Green’s daughter Tecia Harrison, recently settled the suit for $2 million, said the DOI report was a long time coming.

“Those who are guilty should be prosecuted and sent to jail,” Harrison said today. “That’s more important than the settlement.”

The American Medical Association (AMA) said  it opposes a proposal by President Obama to create a public health insurance plan as part of a massive effort to reform the health care industry.

Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and ranking member of the Finance Committee is urging Mr. Obama to support taxing employer health benefits to pay for reform, an idea which President Obama denounced Sen. John McCain for proposing during the presidential debates.

“It looks like he’s looking at doing similar to what McCain wanted to do, and I think for the benefit of making this bipartisan, presidential leadership in this area would be very good based upon the tune of the last campaign,” said Sen. Grassley.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd on the other hand while appearing Sen. Grassley on “Fox News Sunday” that he’s against taxing the benefits.

“I mean, the idea that you’re going to have people out there that are struggling to make ends meet today, they’re falling further and further behind with wages, people losing jobs, losing homes – to turn around and say, ‘You basically have no change in your health care plan, and by the way, we’re going to tax you now for those benefits’ – we can actually pay for this with proposals Mr. Obama has made”, he said.

Obama plans to pitch the AMA’s annual meeting in Chicago. President Obama is expected to walk through the case for health care reform, including how medicine is delivered and how efficiency could be improved, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.