Nurses

Slowly and surely, we’ve been burning out a generation of doctors and nurses. The numbers are startling: Over 50 percent of physicians report one or more symptoms of burnout. Over 50 percent of nurses are emotionally exhausted, and 25 percent are clinically depressed. Most doctors won’t recommend…
Trustee talking points As health care transforms, the health care workforce will have to change, too. Hospital boards should make workforce planning and development part of their strategic process. Self-assessment is critical for hospitals to begin workforce planning. A diverse workforce…
Trustee talking points A growing number of small and rural hospitals, unable to recruit or afford physician hospitalists, are staffing their hospital medicine programs with nurse practitioners. Hospitals that use this approach must comply with state and federal regulations regarding scope of…
When the independent primary care group that served Rusk County Memorial Hospital started referring patients to a competing facility in another community, the critical access hospital in Ladysmith, Wis., faced a crisis. The hospital’s market share fell from 43 percent to 21 percent from 2011…
On her first day of work in September at Florida’s Memorial Hospital Miramar, Grisel Fernandez-Bravo, R.N., was given a hospital ID badge displaying her new title: chief executive officer. But Fernandez-Bravo felt that something was missing. So she attached a badge buddy that says “Nurse…
Trustee talking points The vast majority of the nation's hospitals and health systems do not have a nurse on their board. Adding nurses to boards adds diversity and a broader range of perspectives. Nurses' experience and skills lead to boards making more effective operational, financial…
Maureen Swick, R.N., took the helm as chief nursing officer of the American Hospital Association and CEO of the American Organization of Nurse Executives last summer. She had been top nurse executive at Inova health system in Virginia and is a 30-year veteran in the health care field. Swick…
In her book Notes on Nursing, originally published in 1859, Florence Nightingale stressed the importance of a number of environmental factors that are now understood to be critical to patient care, such as cleanliness, noise control, natural light and views of nature. Nurses have long…
Is there a more intimidating phrase out there today than Big Data? It sounds like some sort of bully. Oh-oh, avert your eyes, Big Data is swaggering this way.
For years, Caitrin Houlihan sought solace in drugs and alcohol. She started smoking marijuana at age 12 and gravitated toward painkillers, angel dust, cocaine and heroin in her teens. “Where I grew up, it was very acceptable,” Houlihan, 38, says of her Boston neighborhood. “That’s how I knew how to…