Karpency is Nurse by Day, World Challenger by Night

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(CraveOnline) Those doubting the legitimacy of American Tommy Karpency as a challenger to unbeaten WBO light heavyweight titleholder Nathan Cleverly of Wales are not a whispering contingent. They trumpet their disapproval in the headlines of British broadsheets, such as this headline from Saturday’s edition of The Guardian: “Tommy Karpency is not test for the WBO champion Nathan Cleverly.”

The criticism lumped on promoters and matchmakers for fingering Karpency (21-2-1, 14 knockouts), an unheralded southpaw from Adah, Penn., to face Cleverly (23-0, 11 KOs), THE RING’s no. 4-rated light heavyweight, on Saturday at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales, is justified. Karpency hasn’t beaten any contenders and lacks the amateur credentials that dot the resumes of even the most inauspicious of challengers. He also hasn’t fought in over a year. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: , , ,

Pa. nursing homes brace for another round of state cuts

February 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Philly.com) Pennsylvania nursing-home operators, already hit hard by last year’s cuts in federal and state funding, face another revenue loss in Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The budget proposal, released Tuesday, calls for a 4 percent cut in the Medicaid reimbursement rate for nursing homes. The total revenue loss for nursing homes is projected by the Pennsylvania Health Care Association to be $46.5 million.

That amounts to a nearly $8-per-day reduction in the average daily reimbursement of $194 for Medicaid patients, the Harrisburg trade group for nursing-home operators said Wednesday. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Workplace Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

America’s Three Million Nurses are Changing Healthcare in Dramatic Ways

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Brandenton Herald) With more than three million nurse professionals in the United States alone, nursing is the largest segment of the healthcare industry and touches every facet of care from the doctor’s office to home care to hospitals. And as the nation continues its historic effort to overhaul healthcare, nurses have been implementing their own brand of healthcare overhaul as well.

“Over the past decade, nurses have been quietly working to redefine and expand their roles to the point where today they are impacting healthcare in ways most consumers aren’t even aware,” says Dr. Courtney Lyder, dean and professor of the UCLA School of Nursing. “Nurses have been championing quality-of-care improvements, spearheading research innovation, advocating for patient rights and generally challenging the status quo. Simply put, their impact has been enormous and will continue to be so over the coming decades.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Practice Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Big Breakthrough for the Tiniest Hearts

February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Newswise) A novel feeding device developed at theUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Nursing may decrease the risk of failure to thrive (FTT), which currently affects half of all newborns with congenital heart defects even after their surgical lesions are corrected.

Professor and nurse practitioner Barbara Medoff-Cooper, PhD, CRNP, of Penn Nursing invented a device that analyzes an infant’s ability to organize feeding by sucking, swallowing, and breathing effectively. This device, developed in collaboration with Penn bioengineers, allows healthcare professionals to assess infants at risk for dysfunctional feeding and poor weight gain as often seen in both premature infants and infants with complex congenital heart disease. The data also can be correlated with growth or developmental problems that may occur during the first year of life. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Education Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Nurses report quality of 
care is better with EHRs

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(ONA) Results of a large study show that nurses working in hospitals with basic electronic health records (EHRs) consistently reported less frequent problems with poor patient safety and other quality-related outcomes than did their counterparts in hospitals without EHRs.

Ann Kutney-Lee, PhD, RN, and Deena Kelly, MS, RN, both of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia, analyzed nurse and hospital survey data from 16,352 nurses working in 316 hospitals in four states. The investigators reported in the Journal of Nursing Administration(2011;41[11]:466-472) that they found nurses in hospitals with fully implemented EHRs were significantly less likely to report unfavorable patient-safety issues, frequent medication errors, and low quality of care, suggesting that the level of detail available in the EHR may allow for more comprehensive unit-transfer reports and discharge summaries to outside providers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Practice Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Dancing Their Way to Healthy Hearts

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Newswise) Heart disease is the leading cause of death among people with diabetes. In a unique upbeat program, professor and nurse practitioner Terri Lipman, PhD, CRNP, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, encourages children to ward off diabetes and hip-hop their way to good health.

In the “Dance for Health” program, Penn Nursing partners with Philadelphia’s Sayre High School and the Bernett Johnson Sayre Health Center in West Philadelphia to assess and improve physical activity among school-aged children, with the goal of lowering the risk for obesity, a key factor in Type 2 diabetes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Nurse shortage forces community hospital to close again

February 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Cornwall.com) A ward at a community hospital in Cornwall has been closed for the third time since it was transferred from the NHS to a private company.

The 10 beds at Poltair Hospital, in Madron, near Penzance, were shut on Tuesday and will remain closed for almost six weeks while long-running staffing shortages are addressed.

It is the third time the ward at Poltair has been closed because of shortages of fully qualified nursing staff since it, and 13 other hospitals in the county, were controversially taken out of the NHS in October and placed into the hands of a community interest company. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Workplace Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Demand for Nurses Growing

February 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(WTOK.com) If nothing changes, all but a handful of states are projected to have a major nursing shortage within the next ten years.

Locally, steps are being taken to address the shortage before it gets worse.

According to the head of the nursing program at Meridian Community College, national statistics project almost one million vacancies in registered nursing by the year 2020.

The reason for this is multi-faceted. It ranges from a large aging population to more medical demands and more nurses nearing retirement. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Workplace Tagged With: , , , ,

Blair County nursing homes listed among Pennsylvania’s finest

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Altoona Mirror) Four Blair County nursing homes were ranked among the 98 best in Pennsylvania.

U.S.News & World Report ranked Hollidaysburg’s Garvey Manor and the Presbyterian Village at Hollidaysburg, and Martinsburg’s Homewood at Martinsburg and The Village at Morrisons Cove as some of the best nursing homes in the state, according to findings from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The homes were judged on state health inspections, the average number of hours of care recieved each day per resident from the nursing staff, and care received based on the percentage of vaccinations given and the percentage of residents with such ailments as bed sores and urinary tract infections. Fire safety deficiencies are also calculated. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Practice Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Union files complaint with Pennsylvania Health Department over Philly nursing cuts

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Philly.com) In an attempt to halt the practice of having principals, secretaries, gym teachers and other non-medical personnel administer medication to city school children, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has filed a formal complaint with the state health department, officials announced today.

The complaint charges that the Philadelphia School District is “endangering the lives of the school children it is required to protect.”

Faced with a budget shortfall of over $700 million, the district laid off 47 school nurses effective Dec. 31.  Most schools are now without full-time nursing care, though the district says that it has stitched together a system where all “medically fragile” students have nursing services. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Workplace Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts