registered nurses

Getting regular calls from a nurse on how to handle your diabetes or heart condition might sound like a hassle. But for many patients, it's turning out to be a helpful and reassuring adjunct to their existing care routine. Employers like UPS are hiring health professionals, particularly registered nurses, to touch base regularly with employees and coach them on how to manage chronic illnesses, address health concerns like weight loss or even answer insurance coverage question. Some plans …

When chronically ill patients are discharged from the emergency department, chances are they'll be back soon without further help. In response, health plans have increasingly been assigning "health coaches" to such patients, tasked with making sure patients are doing what they can to stay well. The health coaches, typically registered nurses, stay in regular touch with the patients, sometimes with home visits and sometimes over the phone, helping them schedule appointments, decipher …

A recent survey by consultants Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) has confirmed what you already knew--keeping critical-skill workers on board is a tremendous challenge. Of the 110 providers who responded to the survey, 69 percent said they're having moderate or great difficulty holding on to critical staffers such as registered nurses. Keeping nurses on board was the providers' biggest concern, with 83 percent naming it …

Columbia Memorial Hospital employees have postponed today's planned strike and will continue negotiations with the Hudson, NY hospital administrators after Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) sent a letter asking both sides to "redouble your efforts to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract for the benefit of the hospital, the workforce and the community."

Since December, union members--which include registered nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians, technologists, housekeeping and …

A Kansas woman has filed a class action lawsuit against hospital giant HCA accusing the chain of causing her husband's death by adopting employment policies that have lead to a nationwide shortage of qualified nurses. Mildred Spires says her husband died at HCA's Wesley Medical Center in 2004 as a result of inadequate care. Her suit seeks to force the hospital chain to pay damages of $12.5 billion to patients who have been treated at its facilities over the past decade. Spires is …

An article in the most recent issue of Health Affairs shows that a better qualified nursing staff results in better quality care. The study found that as many as 6,700 patient deaths, 70,400 complications and 4 million days of hospital care could be avoided if hospitals hired more registered nurses and increased the hours of nursing care per patient. This study will be used by nurses unions in their continual struggle to get legislation passed with minimum staffing …

A new poll out today asks frontline registered nurses for their opinions on patient safety and their own roles in the healthcare system. A majority (72 percent) said they think patient medication safety has increased in their own hospitals over the past five years and most (80 percent) said they think better technology is at least partially responsible. Most also agree that "an environment that supports the examination of errors" and "better communication between doctors and …