Literature Review

Nurse arrested after morphine, other stolen medical drugs seized in Owensboro14 News WFIE, by Aaron Chatman; 3/26/24 Eight suspects were arrested and facing numerous charges after a massive drug bust in Owensboro. That’s according to the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office, who says they opened an investigation after receiving dozens of tips about a drug trafficking operation at the home of Pamela Bartimus. Deputies say Bartimus was an employee of Hospice & Palliative Care of Western Kentucky and had been stealing medication at her job.

How CoxHealth flattened nurse turnover Becker's Health IT, by Naomi Diaz; 3/22/24 CoxHealth was able to reduce its turnover rate from around 25% to around 11%, which is more than a 50% decrease after its virtual nursing program was able to bring back the passion for its staff members. The Springfield, MO-based health system started its virtual nursing program after it was facing reduced staffing levels after the COVID-19 pandemic.   

Nominate an influential clinical executive todayModern Healthcare; 3/20/24 Modern Healthcare is seeking nominations through April 15 for our annual 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives awards. The recognition program recognizes clinical leaders across the industry who are paving the way to better health through their executive responsibilities, leadership qualities, innovative ideas, community service and achievements inside and outside of their organizations. Nominations are open.

Nurse managers' 4-day workweeks: How it's going at Mount Sinai Becker's Clinical Leadership, by Mariah Taylor; updated 3/22/24In fall 2022, New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System launched its four-day workweek program for nurse managers. More than a year later, the program continues to improve staff engagement, satisfaction and has become an important retention strategy, Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, chief nurse executive for the system, told Becker's. Dr. Oliver added, experienced nurse managers play a critically vital role in supporting staff retention and engagement, championing organizational culture, and ensuring quality and safety of patient care.

How the healthcare sector is handling cybersecurity trainingModern Healthcare, by Mari Devereaux; 3/21/24... Healthcare entities should use the Change Healthcare incident as a lesson on how to strengthen their own cybersecurity and an opportunity to have conversations about third-party risk, contingency planning and vendor backups, said John Riggi, national adviser for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association. ... Both executives and lower-level staff need to be trained on how to spot a potential social engineering attack, best practices around cyber hygiene, and how to enact downtime procedures in the event that third party services are lost for up to 30 days or longer, Riggi said.

8 likely next in-demand nursing roles, per Tampa General's chief nurse Becker's Clinical Leadership, by Laura Dyrda; 3/15/24 ... "In the next two to three years, the nursing team may require new roles and skills to adapt to the changing healthcare landscape," said Wendi Goodson-Celerin, DNP, APRN, senior vice president and chief nursing executive at Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital. Dr. Goodson-Celerin outlined potential roles and skills that may be in demand over the next two to three years:

Providence Chief Nursing Officer: All hospitals should be using these 3 tools MedCity News, by Katie Adams; 3/19/24 The workforce shortage is especially acute among nurses. There are 193,100 projected job openings per year for nurses in the U.S. between 2022 and 2032, but only 177,400 new nurses are predicted to enter the workforce during that entire 10-year period. That isn’t even enough to fill one year’s worth of the projected job openings. In order for this issue to improve, hospitals must embrace the technology on the market that has been proven to alleviate nurse burnout, said Syl Trepanier, chief nursing officer at Providence, in a recent interview at the ViVE conference in Los Angeles. ...

Amid tense negotiations, Oregon nurses allege patient neglect by PeaceHealth during strike Eugene Register-Guard, by Miranda Cyr; 3/20/24 Tensions between PeaceHealth and Sacred Heart home health and hospice nurses persist, with the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) claiming last week that PeaceHealth neglected patients during the nurses' two-week strike in February. ... ONA has been negotiating a new contract with PeaceHealth for a full year. The last contract expired in April of 2023. Despite 40 negotiation meetings, no agreement has been reached, according to ONA.

How the analytics of care can balance workforce capacity MedCity News, by Derek Streat; 3/19/24 U.S. healthcare is experiencing a supply and demand crisis as it races to keep pace with an aging population amidst a workforce shortage and mounting financial pressures. And the situation appears unlikely to improve anytime soon. In fact, recent projections anticipate a shortfall of 139,000 physicians in the next decade, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. One limiting factor preventing the efficient management of workforce resources is a lack of data interoperability. ...

Private equity-backed consolidation divides physicians Modern Healthcare, by Alex Kacik; 3/18/24 ... Fewer physicians — only 46.7% in 2022 compared with 60.1% in 2012 — work in practices wholly owned by doctors amid struggles to manage reimbursement cuts, regulation and rising expenses. As a result, more physicians are joining health systems, private equity-backed management services organizations and insurers. That trend has spurred research, lobbying groups, regulation and legislation on physician employment models. 

Where states stand on medical marijuana in the workplace JD Supra, by Madalyn Cohee; 3/18/24 A federal judge in Vermont last month ruled a plaintiff’s medical marijuana use was not protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. In Skoric v. Marble Valley Regional Transit District et al., the plaintiff was fired by his employer for failing a random drug test by testing positive for marijuana despite having a valid, state-issued medical marijuana card and being prescribed medical marijuana to treat his chronic pain and depression.

Navigating difficult conversations with patients with terminal cancer diagnoses Oncology Nursing News, by Darlene Dobkowski, MA; 3/18/24 Although oncology nurses need strong communication skills to help all of their patients navigate their cancer journeys, it is critical to have the ability to have difficult conversations with patients who received a terminal diagnosis, ... Betty Ferrell, Ph.D., M.S.N., CHPN, director and professor in the Division of Nursing Research and Education in the Department of Population Sciences at City of Hope in Duarte, California, said in an interview with Oncology Nursing News. For the past 24 years, her institution has been directing a project called the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC), which is a palliative care training program and includes a module focused on communication.  ... “One of the things that we teach nurses is … that your No. 1 job is to listen,” Ferrell said. “Another thing that we say to nurses is, it is not your job to have all the answers. Patients ask very unanswerable questions. ‘Why me?’ is not an answerable question. But when a patient says, ‘Why me,’ then we want nurses to have good communication skills to say, ‘I can imagine why you're asking that question. Because as you've shared with me, you had no idea that you might be diagnosed with cancer, or you're the first person in your family to ever have cancer.’”

Sylvester researchers, collaborators call for greater investment in bereavement care NewsWise, by Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center; 3/15/24The public health toll from bereavement is well-documented in the medical literature, with bereaved persons at greater risk for many adverse outcomes, including mental health challenges, decreased quality of life, health care neglect, cancer, heart disease, suicide, and death.  ... Wendy G. Lichtenthal, PhD, FT, FAPOS, who is Founding Director of the new [Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer] Center and associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, noted, “We need a paradigm shift in how healthcare professionals, institutions, and systems view bereavement care. Sylvester is leading the way by investing in the establishment of this Center, which is the first to focus on bringing the transitional bereavement care model to life.”