Sponsored by: Atlas Medstaff The Gypsy Nurse Crew took an amazing Route 66 road trip in September on our way to #TravCon14. We DETOURED off Route 66 just long enough to hit Las Vegas for Conference and 5 days/nights of fun! A HUGE “Thank You” goes out to our Sponsor: Atlas Medstaff for helping to make this event happen! […]
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Opponents wage costly campaign, eroding public support.
The MNA Press Conference concerning ICU staffing scheduled for Thursday, October 16, has been postponed due to a hearing on Ebola preparedness being held at the…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Oct. 12 that a nurse employed by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas has tested positive for Ebola. She is in stable condition and is currently in isolation. The nurse was a member of the heath care team that provided care to Thomas Eric Duncan while he was in isolation in the hospital. Duncan, who traveled to Texas from Liberia, died from Ebola on Oct. 8. The nurse wore full protective gear while caring for Duncan. CDC officials report that a breach in protocol may have occurred at some point. They are looking closely at high-risk procedures that were performed on Duncan.
“We offer our support to the nurse, her family, colleagues and community at this difficult time,” said ANA President Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN.
“We urge all hospitals and health care workers to engage in comprehensive education and preparedness activities in order to ensure the safety of the public and health care professionals. We have the utmost confidence that health care providers are eager to take part in learning protocols that will protect health care workers and keep patients safe.
“However, it is essential that the CDC quickly investigate and fully share the findings surrounding the care of Thomas Eric Duncan to help health care providers understand any further precautions needed to prevent transmission of the disease. It is only through rapid review and learning from this situation that we will prevent further incidents from happening.
“We will continue to work with the CDC and other health care agencies to accelerate the education of health care professionals about appropriate infection control and other protocols.”
ANA has shared CDC resources with its members, including instructions about how to put on and safely remove personal protective equipment. ANA is encouraging its members to participate in a call being hosted by the CDC on Oct. 14.
The ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the interests of the nation’s 3.1 million registered nurses through its constituent and state nurses associations and its organizational affiliates. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
Where: North Adams City Hall
When: Tuesday, Oct. 14. Residents will gather outside North Adams City Hall at
7 p.m. and the Cou…
The following was contributed by Kaitlin, a Travel Nurse volunteer in Cambodia. She recently completed a volunteer medical trip to Cambodia and shares some highlights of her experience below. If you have a volunteer trip that you would like to share, please Send us an Mail! About Kaitlin “I’m from St. Petersburg, Florida and have been […]
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Gov. Kasich’s workaround means more than 350,000 gained Medicaid coverage in the Buckeye State in 2014. But the legislature needs to approve the program next year for it to continue, hospital chief warns.
As many companies provide employees with their coverage details this fall, spousal surcharges and health savings accounts on the rise.
With reports that a nurse who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas has been infected, one thing urgently needs to be made clear: Our hospitals are not prepared to confront the deadly virus.
It is long past time to stop relying on a business-as-usual approach to a virus that has killed thousands in West Africa and has such a frighteningly high mortality rate. There is no margin for error. That means there can be no standard short of optimal in the protective equipment, such as hazmat suits, given to nurses and other personnel who are the first to engage patients with Ebola-like symptoms. All nurses must have access to the same state-of-the-art equipment used by Emory University Hospital personnel when they transported Ebola patients from Africa, but too many hospitals are trying to get by on the cheap.
In addition, hospitals and other front-line providers should immediately conduct hands-on training and drills so that personnel can practice, in teams, such vital safety procedures as the proper way to put on and remove protective equipment. Hospitals must also maintain properly equipped isolation rooms to ensure the safety of patients, visitors and staff and harden their procedures for disposal of medical waste and linens.
We all count on nurses to be there for us when we’re at our sickest and most vulnerable, and it’s everyone’s problem if nurses are not protected. But according to an overwhelming majority of nurses surveyed by National Nurses United at facilities across the United States, many hospitals remain unprepared.
And Ebola is exposing a broader problem: the sober reality of our fragmented, uncoordinated private health-care system. We have enormous health-care resources in the United States. What we lack is a national, integrated system needed to respond effectively to a severe national threat such as Ebola.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues guidelines but has no authority to enforce them. Hospitals have wide latitude to pick and choose what protocols they will follow; too often in a corporate medical system, those decisions are based on budget priorities, not what is best for the health and safety of patients and caregivers. Congress and state lawmakers put few mandates on what hospitals must do in the face of pandemics or other emergencies, and local health officials do not have the authority to direct procedures and protocols at hospitals.
Where other countries — notably Canada, which took action after its vulnerabilities were exposed by the 2003 SARS epidemic — have empowered their public health agencies to coordinate local, state and federal detection and response efforts for pandemics, the United States cut funding for its already weak system. Federal funding for public health preparedness and response activities was $1 billion less in fiscal 2013 than 2002.
As one CDC official recently admitted to The Post: “We let our guard down a little bit. Now that we’ve seen this happen we know that we need to do more to make people feel prepared.”
We should have seen this coming. As recently as August, an inspector general’s report evaluating the Department of Homeland Security’s pandemic preparedness concluded that “the Department has no assurance it has sufficient personal protective equipment and antiviral medical countermeasures for a pandemic response.”
We know what works: a federal agency with the authority to ensure local, state and national coordination in response to outbreaks. In such an empowered public health system, local health officials are assured of having the resources to identify the source of an outbreak, isolate and treat the sick, and follow up with those who have had close contact with the sick. Only greater integration and the authority of a public health system with national, uniform standards can protect Americans.
It’s time to listen to our nurses. Let’s stop Ebola now and be better prepared for the next pandemic.