The Health Care Blog

After Nurses Investigation, Scrutiny Turns to Other California Health Boards

By ALEXANDRA ANDREWS Earlier this month, ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times published an investigation detailing the failure of the California Board of Registered Nursing to investigate and discipline nurses accused of misconduct in a timely manner. An examination of...
July 24, 2009 in California, Nursing, ProPublica | Permalink | Comments (4)

Schwarzenegger replaces most of state nursing board

By TRACY WEBER AND CHARLES ORNSTEIN Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced most members of the California Board of Registered Nursing on Monday, citing the unacceptable time it takes to discipline nurses accused of egregious misconduct. He fired three of six sitting...
July 14, 2009 in California, Nursing, ProPublica, Quality | Permalink | Comments (5)

Op-Ed: No Need for Alarm Over Need for Foreign Nurses

By MICK WHITLEY Recent news coverage (“Amid Nation’s Recession, More Than 200,000 Nursing Jobs Go Unfilled,” Reuters, March 8th) validly and vividly calls attention to a nursing shortage in the U.S. healthcare system that “threatens the quality of patient care...
April 9, 2009 in Nursing | Permalink | Comments (10)

Op-Ed: Let's Pay Nurses Minimum Wage!!

By ANGRY AMERICAN Every morning I wake up and thank God that we still have some Republicans in Congress. Representative John Shadegg (R) from Arizona, is one of those blessings. He has introduced a bill in Congress called the Nursing...
April 5, 2009 in Nursing | Permalink | Comments (58)

The Hospitalist as Bed Czar: Indispensability, But At What Cost?

By Bob Wachter In last week’s Annals of Internal Medicine, Eric Howell and colleagues describe an innovative experiment in which the hospitalists at Johns Hopkins Bayview became the institution’s bed czars. It worked. So should my program and yours take...
December 18, 2008 in Hospitals, Nursing, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (1)

Communication 101: Shedding power imbalances to protect patients

By Katie Fiebelkorn Westman Katie Fiebelkorn Westman is a registered nurse at an acute care hospital in the Minnesota Twin Cities. She is working toward a clinical nurse specialist degree, focusing on improving patient care quality. The Joint Commission’s recent...
July 24, 2008 in Hospitals, Nursing, Patient Safety, Quality | Permalink | Comments (1)

Overcoming the challenges facing rural health care

By Sarah Arnquist Kensington, Minn. is barely a dot on the map. This small grid of concrete, where fewer than 300 people live, is a brief interruption amid the sprawling acres of green corn, soybean and wheat fields that cover...
July 8, 2008 in Nursing, Policy, Sarah Arnquist, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (18)

Advice to future nurses: ask questions, be proud

By Kim McAllister It's that time of year when nursing and medical students shed their label (and protection) of student and head out to the workforce with their new licenses. Over at Emergiblog, veteran emergency room nurse Kim McAllister shared...
May 18, 2008 in Nursing | Permalink | Comments (6)

Snooping at Britney's Chart: Why Should Docs and Nurses Have Different Rules?

By Robert Wachter Should doctors and nurses be subject to different penalties for precisely the same infraction? Of course not. Are they? Sure. Just ask Britney Spears. Britney was hospitalized at UCLA at least twice in the past few years...
April 22, 2008 in Nursing, Privacy | Permalink | Comments (6)

THCB UPDATE

Careseek CEO Gale Wilson Steele writes in to comment on the ongoing controversy over physician ratings: "It's not surprising that physicians are uncomfortable with the idea of others "rating" them. After all, what do others know about how well they...
February 22, 2008 in Hospitals, Nursing | Permalink | Comments (2)