Nursing News and Research

Latest Nursing News and Research

State roundup: Mental health problems complicate immigrant detention hearings; Penn. hospital replacing nursing assistants with all RNs

Immigrant advocates say there are hundreds of mentally ill immigration defendants such as [Ever Martinez Rivas], left to fend for themselves without any meaningful protections in court. As with Martinez, their cases are delayed repeatedly while immigration judges struggle to deal with them fairly. A recently certified federal class action suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Los Angeles-based pro bono law firm Public Counsel and other advocacy groups, seeks to address the issue by compelling the government to provide competency hearings, lawyers and bond hearings for defendants such as Martinez.

7 Feb 2012

Ovid and LWW journals Technical Services team earns BenchmarkPortal certification

Wolters Kluwer Health is pleased to announce that its Ovid and LWW journals Technical Services team received certification as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal in collaboration the Center for Customer-Driven Quality, founded at Purdue University. Only 10% of companies that submit data under BenchmarkPortal's program are awarded a "Certification of Excellence."

7 Feb 2012

State roundup: Legislatures, govs juggling costs and health programs

Medicaid spending is a matter of urgency almost everywhere in the country right now, but in few places is the urgency as palpable as it is here, where the governor refers to the federal-state health insurance program for the poor as "welfare," says it's necessary to eliminate coverage for 65,000 adults, and wants to stop paying room and board for some 2,000 elders who live in group homes. All these ideas are part of Republican Governor Paul LePage's plan to close a $220 million hole in the state's biennial Medicaid budget.

7 Feb 2012

Low-dose MNC hUCB therapy effective in ALS-modeled mice

Repeated, low-dose injections of mononuclear cells derived from human umbilical cord blood have been found effective in protecting motor neuron cells, delaying disease progression and increasing lifespan for mice modeling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, report University of South Florida researchers and colleagues from Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., and the Ribeirao Preto School of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

7 Feb 2012

New scoring method helps predict functional outcomes in stroke

A new scoring method can help doctors quickly decide which stroke patients will respond well to the clot-busting drug alteplase, according to a study published in the February 7, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

7 Feb 2012

U-M develops new system to reduce incidence of retained surgical instruments

It may sound like something from a TV medical drama, but the incidence of surgeons leaving something behind in the body is very real at hospitals across the country. For decades, surgical teams have relied on counting -- and recounting -- the sponges, needles, blades, retractors, and other items used during operations.

6 Feb 2012

Online dating surpasses all forms of matchmaking in the U.S.

Online dating has not only shed its stigma, it has surpassed all forms of matchmaking in the United States other than meeting through friends, according to a new analysis of research on the burgeoning relationship industry.

6 Feb 2012

State developments: Florida hospitals dodge budget bullet

Spending cuts to health programs will be less than half as much as forecast in the Senate budget, that chamber's health-spending chief announced today. Now, the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Human Services Appropriations will have to cut only $390 million from current spending levels, rather than the more-draconian $850 million that had originally been assigned, said Sen. Joe Negron, chair of the panel.

6 Feb 2012

AACN launches Critical Care Pharmacology

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and Elsevier | MC Strategies announce the launch of AACN: Critical Care Pharmacology, a comprehensive, evidence-based online nursing course to help nurses further develop their competencies in the safe administration of medications commonly used in critical care.

4 Feb 2012

Newly divorced middle aged women more vulnerable to contract HIV and other STDs

Newly divorced middle aged women are more vulnerable to contract HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to Christopher Coleman, PhD, MPH, RN, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, because they tend to let their guard down with new sexual partners and avoid using protection since they are unafraid of getting pregnant.

3 Feb 2012

Plasma can be an effective method to kill pathogens on uncooked poultry

A new study by food safety researchers at Drexel University demonstrates that plasma can be an effective method for killing pathogens on uncooked poultry. The proof-of-concept study was published in the January issue of the Journal of Food Protection.

3 Feb 2012

Medicaid managed care takes hold in Louisiana; Florida report notes problems in longer waits for long-term care help

The first-stage of Gov. Jindal's Medicaid restructing begins today. In Florida, the legislative report casts doubt on some efforts there to revamp the system. Meanwhile, Illinois' governor is urging changes to Medicaid to help fix the state's budget.

3 Feb 2012

Employing freedom-restraining measures correctly can prevent fatal consequences

Being confined to bed can have fatal consequences. Incorrect fastening of restraints and inadequate monitoring led to the death of 19 people in care. Andrea M. Berzianovich and her colleagues, forensic medicine specialists from Munich and Vienna, investigated these fatalities in patients subjected to freedom-restraining measures.

3 Feb 2012

Version of 'Goldilocks' gene could determine future treatment for TB patients

'Goldilocks' gene could determine best treatment for TB patients Tuberculosis patients may receive treatments in the future according to what version they have of a single 'Goldilocks' gene, says an international research team from Oxford University, King's College London, Vietnam and the USA.

3 Feb 2012

CBO: Federal health spending to double over the next decade

In its budget and economic outlook, the Congressional Budget Office projects an 8 percent annual increase in health spending between 2012 and 2022, mainly because of an aging U.S. population and rising treatment costs. The analysis includes a bigger pricetag for a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment formula.

2 Feb 2012

Nursing homes, hospitals warn against reimbursement cuts

As the House and Senate conferees continue to hold meetings to reach an agreement to extend the payroll tax break and the Medicare "doc fix," health care interests are offering input into the process and making pleas to ward off what they say would be deep and damaging spending reductions.

2 Feb 2012

State roundup: Mass. lawmakers fight Medicare charges

A Monterey County hospital district, which came under fire last year for giving its chief executive one of the largest public pensions in California history, announced this week that several other top officials are receiving generous retirement packages.

2 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Debt estimates and Medicare plans; Sen. McConnell on fate of health law

Debt projections released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office illustrate three fiscal paths: dangerous, dumb and smart. ... President Obama has called for a balanced solution but has neither proposed serious tax reform nor adequately outlined the ways in which he would get entitlement spending, particularly Medicare, under control. The position of most Republicans, on the presidential campaign trail and in Congress, is wildly less responsible.

2 Feb 2012

Abnormal tau protein propagates along linked brain circuits

For decades, researchers have debated whether Alzheimer's disease starts independently in vulnerable brain regions at different times, or if it begins in one region and then spreads to neuroanatomically connected areas. A new study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers strongly supports the latter, demonstrating that abnormal tau protein, a key feature of the neurofibrillary tangles seen in the brains of those with Alzheimer's, propagates along linked brain circuits, "jumping" from neuron to neuron.

2 Feb 2012

Effort to address void in worldwide medical education

Dr. Rebekah Gee, Assistant Professor at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Schools of Public Health and Medicine, is the lead author of an article published in the January 28, 2012 issue of The Lancet regarding the initial effort to address a void in medical education worldwide - leadership.

1 Feb 2012