NurseZone Newsletter | 6-12-2009

According to a report released today in Health Affairs, the country's ongoing recession seems to have eased the nursing shortage in the short-term. NurseZone spoke to workforce expert Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., RN, who along with his co-authors urged caution and encouraged health care leaders to address the underlying issues that led to the nursing shortage and will continue to have an impact on supply and demand.

 READ FULL STORY 

Nurses have often been relegated to the background of television programming. They've served as extras and ancillary characters, but rarely has the profession taken center stage. Things are changing in prime time, however, as two new shows airing this summer bring nursing into the limelight.

 READ FULL STORY 

Nurses and physicians learn early on to use a needle and syringe only once, yet unsafe practices by health care professionals have exposed more than 60,000 patients to hepatitis B or C during the past decade. The Safe Injection Practices Coalition, a group of professional and patient-advocacy organizations, has launched the One & Only Campaign to remind health care workers to use one needle, one syringe, on only one patient.

 READ FULL STORY 

 

Creating hospital environments that promote, protect and support breastfeeding is the main goal of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, which is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund.

 READ FULL STORY 

In May 2003, Trinity Health, which operates hospitals and health clinics in seven states, launched an ambitious health information technology initiative known as Genesis, with the goal to install common computer systems and evidence-based clinical practices at every hospital in its health system.

A little knowledge of Spanish can go a long way, especially when it comes to caring for the country's growing number of Hispanic patients. Nurses are finding it more and more important to learn the second most-common language spoken in the United States.