A stubborn case of supraventricular tachycardiaFebruary 22, 2016JAKE KARCHNER, age 65, is admitted for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Because of his history of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), the physician has ordered telemetry monitoring. When you…
Acuity-adjusted staffing: A proven strategy to optimize patient careApril 7, 2016Nurse staffing is a complex issue. Matching the right nurse to the right patient at the right time requires an understanding of the individual patient’s need for care, nurse characteristics, workflows, and…
Acute care needed: The call for valid acuity systemsMarch 10, 2016ALTHOUGH HEALTH CARE has been changing rapidly, staffing models have stayed essentially the same for decades. Those models rely solely on financial and patient-volume metrics to drive operational decisions related to nurse…
Adding an I to SBAR: A new twist on communicating patient emergenciesMarch 10, 2016In the 2000 report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, the Institute of Medicine challenged the healthcare system to focus on improving patient safety, citing…
Brain science gives holistic care a new aura of legitimacyMarch 3, 2016IF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED if you can consciously change not just your mind but the very structure of your brain, Alfred North Whitehead is proof positive that you can. Whitehead co-wrote…
Breathing life back into a medical ethics committeeMarch 22, 2016Organizations pursuing Magnet® recognition must ensure the evidence supports the structures in place for frontline nurses to address ethical issues. What’s more, the organization’s nurses need to have a strong understanding of…
Caring for patients with lumbar drainsMarch 15, 2016A LUMBAR DRAIN is a small, flexible tube placed in the arachnoid space to drain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Indications for lumbar drains include: to drain CSF leakage secondary to a…
Charting a path forward: Results and recommendations from ANA’s SPHM environmental scanMarch 3, 2016 OCCUPATIONAL INJURY associated with manual patient handling continues to plague healthcare workers, particularly nurses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the combined injury rate among registered nurses, licensed practical or…
FDA approves new treatment for patients with hemophilia BMarch 10, 2016On March 4, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Idelvion, Coagulation Factor IX (Recombinant), Albumin Fusion Protein, for use in children and adults with Hemophilia B. Idelvion…
FDA expands use of XalkoriMarch 17, 2016On March 11, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Xalkori (crizotinib) to treat people with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have an ROS-1 gene…
Gaining confidence in public speakingApril 7, 2016EVA, a professional practice coordinator, and her team of clinical educators are thrilled to learn that their abstract on an iLead in Nursing initiative (Innovation in LEadership and ADministration in Nursing and…
How nurse’s work environment influences key performance indicatorsFebruary 1, 2016In today’s increasingly competitive healthcare market, effective nursing practice is a critical component of high-value care and an essential driver of health system success. To achieve and sustain a competitive advantage, hospital…
How to succeed at floatingApril 6, 2016If you’ve ever floated, you know the experience can be challenging at times. Wherever you work, you may sometimes feel you don’t have enough hours in the day to complete all your…
How you can avoid laboratory errorsMarch 22, 2016YOU MIGHT be wondering: Since when do nurses make laboratory errors? Actually, we make them fairly often—typically by using improper technique when collecting and handling samples and specimens. Preanalytic errors (those occurring before the sample…
Let’s take the lead in educating the public about nursingMarch 10, 2016Editor’s note: The authors are the executive director and senior advisor, respectively, of The Truth About Nursing, a nonprofit organization that seeks to increase public understanding of nurses’ role in health care…
Let’s work together to solve long hours and nurse fatigueMarch 3, 2016NURSE FATIGUE may seem inevitable in many healthcare environments, with a portion of registered nurses (RNs) consistently working past their normal shifts—jeopardizing their own health and potentially crossing the line between safe…
Nurses can help improve outcomes in severe sepsisMarch 15, 2016The body’s systemic response to an infection, sepsis can progress to severe sepsis and, in some cases, to septic shock. More than 1 million Americans suffer from severe sepsis annually. This number may grow in the…
Patient-centered simulations can strengthen collegial relationshipsApril 6, 2016A few years ago, when Cone Health (based in Greensboro, North Carolina) decided to strive for top-decile health-system status by 2015, work began on changing the culture to match leadership’s values. One of…
Power for positive changeMarch 2, 2016ONE OF THE GREATEST THREATS to nursing is not being involved in decisions about policies affecting the profession and patients. Advocacy is a cornerstone of nursing; yet a 2011 poll of…
Professional competencies can ease your transition to a new specialtyMarch 10, 2016THE NURSING PROFESSION offers many specialty roles, including both direct patient-care roles (such as emergency, neonatal, and school nurse) and indirect roles (such as nurse manager, case management, and quality improvement). Transitioning…
Program reduces bullying in preschool childrenMarch 10, 2016Early Childhood Friendship Project, an eight-week program, reduced bullying behaviors in preschool children, according to a study in School Psychology Review. Read more
Slips, trips, and falls: Not just for patientsMarch 3, 2016REGISTERED NURSES (RNs) are diligent in assessing a patient’s risk for falls and implementing proper fall prevention protocol and policies. But did you know that slips, trips, and falls (STF) are…
Understanding confidence intervals helps you make better clinical decisionsMarch 22, 2016PERHAPS YOU DIDN’T LEARN about the confidence interval (CI) in your formal education or you don’t hear the term in daily conversation. Confidence interval just doesn’t roll of the tongue of a staff nurse quite like blood pressure or…
Understanding confidence intervals helps you make better clinical decisionsBy: Zhaomin He, PhD, and Ellen Fineout-Overholt, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN
