May / June 2007
NEWS ITEMS FROM SOURCES WORLDWIDE
Pulse
Survey Reveals Nurses' Concerns about Patient Safety and Their Career Choice
A recent nationwide survey of 507 nurses found that respondents were concerned about patient safety and medical errors, but believe that new technologies such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and clinical information on mobile devices (PDAs and smartphones) may have a positive impact on the quality of healthcare. Nurses also provided candid insight on their career choice and level of respect received from patients and other healthcare professionals.
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), a non-profit organization, and Epocrates, Inc., conducted the survey to better understand nurses' perceptions of the healthcare industry and the challenges they face.
Stronger Focus Needed on Patient Care
Nurses who participated in the survey believed human error and handwriting contribute the most to medical errors. Bedside barcode scanning of drugs and computerized order entry for prescribing drugs topped the nurses' list of ways to improve patient safety. More than half of nurses indicated that handheld clinical references help them avoid two or more medical errors and adverse drug events per week. Plus, nearly 80% of nurses expect to be utilizing EMRs within the next 3 years, which could potentially improve efficiencies and patient care.
Challenges Ahead for the U.S. Healthcare System
Responding nurses believed the two most significant challenges facing healthcare are insufficient staffing and resources and lack of time with patients. Contributing to time restraints, 65% of the nurses surveyed report spending more time on administrative duties today than they did 3 years ago. More than 50% of the survey respondents indicated they expect the healthcare system to worsen within the next 5 years.
Nurses Have Few Regrets and Seek Respect
More than 85% of nurses surveyed stand by their career choice; however, poor compensation, high stress and internal politics cause regrets for some. Most respondents feel that patients respect them the most, while medical students are perceived to demonstrate the least amount of respect. Similar to medical students, the nurses surveyed chose their careers based on their desires to help people and interest in medicine and science.
Source: Epocrates, Inc., and ISMP
HHS Secretary Leavitt Announces
Steps Toward a Future of
"Personalized Health Care"
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt recently outlined a course for achieving gene-based medical care combined with health information technology, which he called "Personalized Health Care." He said the initiative has the potential to transform the quality, safety, and value of healthcare for patients in the future.
"Personalized healthcare will combine the basic scientific breakthroughs of the human genome with computer-age ability to exchange and manage data," Leavitt said. "Increasingly it will give us the ability to deliver the right treatment to the right patient at the right time — every time."
In a speech before the annual meetings of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, at the National Press Club, the secretary outlined steps already under way to develop the needed information, as well as new steps he is undertaking to build the foundation for personalized healthcare and ensure that gene-based medical data and health information technology are used appropriately.
"Every one of us is biologically unique. We've always known that, but we haven't had the knowledge or the tools to deliver healthcare at that kind of individual level. That's what's changing," Leavitt said.
Gene-based medicine can help individuals identify their particular susceptibilities to disease while they are well and take effective preventive steps. In the future, it will help detect the onset of disease much earlier, enabling treatment to prevent disease progression, and can help bring about medical products that are tailored more precisely to the needs of each individual.
Health information technology, including powerful new tools for managing vast amounts of information, will be needed both to continue building basic scientific knowledge and to make the new knowledge useable and accessible for patient care. Leavitt emphasized how much work remains to build a system that can deliver personalized healthcare. He has identified this issue as one of his priorities for the next 2 years.
"The Human Genome Project was a dramatic success, but it has correctly been called a race to the starting line," he said. "The work that remains is sweeping, from the most fundamental science to the details of health care practice."
Leavitt announced new steps that HHS is taking to lay the foundation for a personalized healthcare future: HHS is engaged in a broad review of the implications for privacy protection as health information technology is increasingly adopted, including needs for genetic information, and the anticipated effect on the confidentiality, privacy, and security of individually identifiable health information.
HHS will develop consistent policies for its agencies regarding access to and security of federally supported research. The goal will be to ensure open information access for researchers, to support progress, while still rewarding discovery and innovation. More information about the Personalized Health Care initiative is available at www.hhs.gov/myhealthcare.
Source: United States Department of Health & Human Services
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