March 2016 Vol. 11 No. 3 Archives

March 2016 Vol. 11 No. 3

A stubborn case of supraventricular tachycardia

February 22, 2016

JAKE KARCHNER, age 65, is admitted for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Because of his history of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT),…

Acuity-adjusted staffing: A proven strategy to optimize patient care

April 7, 2016

Nurse staffing is a complex issue. Matching the right nurse to the right patient at the right time requires an understanding of…

Acute care needed: The call for valid acuity systems

March 10, 2016

ALTHOUGH HEALTH CARE has been changing rapidly, staffing models have stayed essentially the same for decades. Those models rely solely on financial…

Adding an I to SBAR: A new twist on communicating patient emergencies

March 10, 2016

In the 2000 report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, the Institute of Medicine challenged the healthcare…

Brain science gives holistic care a new aura of legitimacy

March 3, 2016

IF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED if you can consciously change not just your mind but the very structure of your brain, Alfred North…

Breathing life back into a medical ethics committee

March 22, 2016

Organizations pursuing Magnet® recognition must ensure the evidence supports the structures in place for frontline nurses to address ethical issues. What’s more, the…

Caring for patients with lumbar drains

March 15, 2016

A LUMBAR DRAIN is a small, flexible tube placed in the arachnoid space to drain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Indications for lumbar drains…

CDC issues Zika-preparedness guide

March 10, 2016

On March 9, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released “Zika virus risk-based preparedness and response guidance for…

prevent nurses' patient-handling injuries

Charting a path forward: Results and recommendations from ANA’s SPHM environmental scan

March 3, 2016

OCCUPATIONAL INJURY associated with manual patient handling continues to plague healthcare workers, particularly nurses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the…

FDA approves new treatment for patients with hemophilia B

March 10, 2016

On March 4, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Idelvion, Coagulation Factor IX (Recombinant), Albumin Fusion Protein, for use…

FDA expands use of Xalkori

March 17, 2016

On March 11, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Xalkori (crizotinib) to treat people with metastatic non-small cell lung…

Gaining confidence in public speaking

April 7, 2016

EVA, a professional practice coordinator, and her team of clinical educators are thrilled to learn that their abstract on an iLead in…

How nurse’s work environment influences key performance indicators

February 1, 2016

In today’s increasingly competitive healthcare market, effective nursing practice is a critical component of high-value care and an essential driver of health system…

How to succeed at floating

April 6, 2016

If you’ve ever floated, you know the experience can be challenging at times. Wherever you work, you may sometimes feel you don’t…

How you can avoid laboratory errors

March 22, 2016

YOU 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…

Let’s take the lead in educating the public about nursing

March 10, 2016

Editor’s note: The authors are the executive director and senior advisor, respectively, of The Truth About Nursing, a nonprofit organization that seeks to…

Let’s work together to solve long hours and nurse fatigue

March 3, 2016

NURSE FATIGUE may seem inevitable in many healthcare environments, with a portion of registered nurses (RNs) consistently working past their normal shifts—jeopardizing their…

Many afib patients not receiving recommended oral anticoagulant therapy

March 17, 2016

Many afib patients at highest risk of stroke are not receiving recommended oral anticoagulant therapy, according to a study in…

March 2016 Vol. 11 No. 3

March 17, 2016

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New guidelines on opioid in chronic pain

March 17, 2016

On March 15, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released “CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain,…

Nurses can help improve outcomes in severe sepsis

March 15, 2016

The 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…

Patient-centered simulations can strengthen collegial relationships

April 6, 2016

A 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…

Power for positive change

March 2, 2016

ONE OF THE GREATEST THREATS to nursing is not being involved in decisions about policies affecting the profession and patients. Advocacy is a…

Professional competencies can ease your transition to a new specialty

March 10, 2016

THE NURSING PROFESSION offers many specialty roles, including both direct patient-care roles (such as emergency, neonatal, and school nurse) and indirect roles (such…

Program reduces bullying in preschool children

March 10, 2016

Early Childhood Friendship Project, an eight-week program, reduced bullying behaviors in preschool children, according to a study in School Psychology…

Slips, trips, and falls: Not just for patients

March 3, 2016

REGISTERED NURSES (RNs) are diligent in assessing a patient’s risk for falls and implementing proper fall prevention protocol and policies. But did…

Understanding confidence intervals helps you make better clinical decisions

March 22, 2016

PERHAPS 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…