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Nurses are at higher risk of suicide than general population, national study finds

In the first national study of its size, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Health, Department of Nursing, have found that male and female nurses are at higher risk of suicide than the general population.

3 Feb 2020

Recognizing the signs of overdose and knowing how to respond can save lives

Every day nearly 200 people die from an overdose of drugs or from alcohol poisoning, with opioids responsible for the majority.

26 Jan 2020

Recognizing the critical role of CRNAs in providing quality health care

In honor of National CRNA Week (Jan. 19-25, 2020), Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), and Sam Graves (R-MO) today introduced a bipartisan resolution on the House floor, "Recognizing the roles and the contributions of America's Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists and their role in providing quality health care for the public."

26 Jan 2020

APRNs have expanded roles in national response to opioid crisis

As we enter a new year and a new decade, many states have enacted legislation affecting the roles of advanced practice registered nurses in terms of practice authority, reimbursement, and prescriptive authority, according to the 32nd Annual Legislative Update in the January issue of The Nurse Practitioner, published by Wolters Kluwer.

24 Jan 2020

CRNAs offer safe, affordable solution for care as rural hospitals continue to close

As the 2020 presidential candidates propose to fix U.S. healthcare, rural hospitals across the country continue to close. Since the 2018 midterms, about 66 percent of primary care physician shortages have been in rural and partially rural areas.

24 Jan 2020

Quality of end-of-life care in ICUs higher than other hospital departments

Family caregivers of the deceased rated the quality of end-of-life care in the intensive care unit (ICU) higher than the end-of-life care in other hospital departments (also called wards), according to new, large Penn Medicine study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

23 Jan 2020

Scientists use human stem cells to make pain-killing neurons

Researchers at the University of Sydney have used human stem cells to make pain-killing neurons that provide lasting relief in mice, without side effects, in a single treatment.

23 Jan 2020

Treatment for low back pain in older adults does not match guidelines

Many Medicare patients with new episodes of low back pain receive care inconsistent with current guidelines - including high use of opioids and advanced imaging tests, reports a study in the February issue of Medical Care.

23 Jan 2020

Patients want a ‘good death’ at home, but hospice care can badly strain families

“I’m not anti-hospice at all,” said Joy Johnston, who relocated to New Mexico years ago at age 40 to care for her dying mother.

23 Jan 2020

Pain management program uses new approach to reduce narcotic prescriptions after surgery

Surgeons at Houston Methodist Hospital are stemming the tide of addiction to prescription opioids by managing patients' pain after surgery.

22 Jan 2020

Study: Non-medical cannabis use is more common in adults suffering from pain

A new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons found that non-medical cannabis use--including frequent or problematic use--is significantly more common in adults with pain than in those without pain.

22 Jan 2020

Daily chronic pain, opioid use disorder add to the challenges of relieving pain among patients

The combination of more Americans reporting daily chronic pain and the rapidly increasing prevalence of opioid misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD) adds to the challenges of relieving patients' pain effectively and safely.

14 Jan 2020

Family doctors in rural America tackle crisis of addiction and pain

Dr. Angela Gatzke-Plamann didn’t fully grasp her community’s opioid crisis until one desperate patient called on a Friday afternoon in 2016.

10 Jan 2020

Effort to control opioids in an ER leaves some sickle cell patients in pain

India Hardy has lived with pain since she was a toddler — ranging from dull persistent aches to acute flare-ups that interrupt the flow of her normal life.

6 Jan 2020

New software helps prevent ICU delirium and improve patient outcomes

Intensive care unit delirium, a fertile area of clinical research and patient care innovation associated with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is beginning to reshape how commercial electronic health record systems are engineered with regard to intensive care.

22 Dec 2019

A veteran started vaping THC to cope with chronic pain. Then he got very sick.

As vaping has grown more popular in recent years, the trend has been fueled by the habit’s pleasurable allure: Compared with smoking cigarettes or pot, vaping is discreet and less smelly. Vaping fluids come in hundreds of flavors. There’s no tar or other byproducts of burning. And vape pens are high-tech, customizable and sleek.

20 Dec 2019

Study points to unsafe opioid self-management practices among cancer patients

Despite a national opioid crisis, prescribed opioid analgesics remain a viable option for pain management for patients with cancer. In effect, patients with cancer represent one of the few groups excluded from most state legislation and policy initiatives on prescribing opioids as well as from opioid stewardship programs of many health systems.

19 Dec 2019