Nurse Practitioners

Leadership: Key to quality care and retention among nurses

Nurses faced with abusive managers are more likely to quit.

Interest in Child-Specific Nurse Practitioner Programs Dwindling

While the number of graduates from family or adult nurse practitioner programs continues to rise, student applications to pediatric nurse practitioner and neonatal nurse practitioner programs are falling. Yet there is capacity in PNP and NNP training programs and unmet demand for graduates.

Annual Income For Full-time Nurse Practitioners Up 10%

Overall compensation for full-time nurse practitioners is on the rise, according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), which today released data from its 2015 National Nurse Practitioner Compensation Survey.

Little Change Seen in Fast-Food Portion Size, Product Formulation Between 1996 and 2013

Two new reports from researchers at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University show little change in fast-food portion sizes and product formulation between 1996 and 2013.

Nationwide Nursing Study Shows Simulation Education Works; Faculty Training Needed

A new award-winning study, The NCSBN National Simulation Study: a longitudinal, randomized, controlled study replacing clinical hours with simulation in prelicensure nursing education, offers strong evidence supporting the use of high-quality health care simulation as a substitute for up to 50% of traditional clinical time. The findings also reveal that a key factor in successful nursing education simulation programs is a dedicated team of educators who are well trained in the best practices of theory-based simulation and debriefing methods.

Condescending Doctors and How to Deal With Them

A user on Reddit recently shared an experience he had with a less-than-friendly doctor he bumped into one day after class. While walking to the parking lot, he noticed that the doctor had left a large cup of coffee on top of his car just as he was preparing to drive off. Recognizing it as the polite thing to do, the Redditor called out to the doctor to get his attention to prevent the inevitable spillage from occurring. Hey mister, you—, he shouted, but was promptly interrupted by the doctor. NO! It’s Doctor! the doctor corrected in the most condescending tone the Redditor said he had ever heard. Rethinking his gesture, he replied, Oh, sorry Doctor; nevermind. The doctor then proceeded to speed off, spilling the coffee all over the windshield.

Nurse Dubbed the “Angel of Death” Said He Was Helping Patients by Killing Them

The hospitals staff soon began to notice a disappearance of narcotics. They compared the clinics duty record against the dates that the drugs had been removed and concluded that Letter had been stealing them. When doctors first suspected that something sinister was going on, the bodies of 42 patients were exhumed from their graves, all of whom had died during Letters shifts. A total of 80 deaths took place during the nurses shifts, but 38 were unable to be examined because they had been cremated. The investigation revealed that Letter was fatally injecting patients with a cocktail of tranquilizers and muscle relaxants. He was arrested in July 2004 and admitted that he killed 12 patients by lethal injection, but that he could not remember any more. Most of his victims were at least in their 70s, so their deaths were at first overlooked. Letter claimed that he was administering lethal injections to his patients because he felt sorry for them. He wanted to liberate their souls, said Letters lawyer, Wilhelm van Eckert. For him, his patients were trapped in their sick bodies. However, 2 women who were in their 40s were given the lethal injections, and at least 6 patients were in no danger of dying. A few had even died soon after being admitted to the hospital but before being fully examined.

New York Law Offers Nurses More Recognition, Responsibility

If past experience is anything to go by, nurse practitioners in New York State are about to get a lot more recognition for their contributions to primary care. In Massachusetts, laws already on the books allowing NPs to provide primary care offer nurses more recognition of their contributions to patient care and better relationships with physicians and administrators, compared with colleagues in New York, according to a study from Columbia University School of Nursing, published in Health Care Management Review.

Daylight Is the Best Medicine, for Nurses

In a forthcoming Cornell study published in the journal Health Environments Research and Design, Rana Zadeh, assistant professor of design and environmental analysis, discovered nurses who had access to natural light enjoyed significantly lower blood pressure, communicated more often with their colleagues, laughed more and served their patients in better moods than nurses who settled for large doses of artificial light.

The Evolving Nurse Practitioner

Studies are predicting that there will be a significant shortage of primary care physicians in the US by the year 2020. Some estimates say there will be a reduction of 91,500 total physicians, with 45,000 plus in the field of primary care and the remaining in specialties. The nation will be facing a serious issue with a population that is aging and growing. Another important factor is that our doctors are aging too. It’s estimated that one-third of practicing physicians will be retiring in the next decade. Add to that the changes implemented by way of the Affordable Care Act, and the numerous states that have removed barriers regarding what nurse practitioners can and can’t do without physician assistance, and you have a landscape that is changing rapidly and dramatically for the profession.

How Nurses Are Portrayed in Film and Television

As we remember from elementary school, Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing, an advocate for setting standards for cleanliness and sterilization in hospitals, and a symbol of excellence for the profession. During World War II, recruitment posters depicted nurses as heroes supporting our fighting men. Nurses were thought of as caring and compassionate, and nursing was viewed as an admirable occupation to which America women should aspire.

NIGHTENGALE’S NIGHTMARES: Kristen The Killer Nurse

During childhood, friends and neighbors knew Kristen to be a pathological liar. She would tell people that she was related to the notorious ax murderer Lizzie Borden. In high school, boyfriends described Kristen as scheming, often faking suicide attempts. She also abused them both verbally and physically. And when upset, she was known to tamper with their cars or attack them with her nails.

Abortions Are Safe When Performed By Nurses Practitioners, Physician Assistants and Certified Nurse

The new study was designed to evaluate the safety of early aspiration abortions when performed by nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified nurse midwives trained in the procedure. The study was conducted under a legal waiver from the Health Workforce Pilot Projects Program, a division of the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. California law requires a legal clarification about who can perform aspiration abortions.

Long Shifts Lead to Nurse Burnout and Dissatisfied Patients

In the first study to examine the relationship between nurse shift length and patients’ assessment of care, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing report that nurses working shifts of ten hours or longer were up to two and a half times more likely than nurses working shorter shifts to experience burnout and job dissatisfaction. Furthermore, seven out of ten patient outcomes were significantly and adversely affected by the longest shifts.

Nurse Burnout: Overworked and Underappreciated

When Kitty Forman, the quirky mother of Eric Forman and wife of Red Forman in That ’70s Show, wasn’t busy mediating conflicts between her husband and son, she was a nurse. When Kitty is seen in her uniform, she is often portrayed as overworked and underappreciated. In the episode Career Day, Eric accompanies Kitty to the hospital and is amazed with all she has to do on a daily basis. One of Kitty’s coworkers tells him that his mother “does the work of 5 nurses.” In many episodes, Kitty is forced to neglect her roles as a mother and wife to work long shifts at the hospital. At one point in the series, she quits her job as a nurse because she finds herself struggling with balancing her home life and work. Is this how real-life nurses typically feel about their profession? Is “nurse burnout” a problem in America?

Nurse Practitioners

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