Leadership: Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility
Years ago, at a National League of Nursing meeting, Loretta Nowakowski, former director for Health Education for the Public at Georgetown University School of Nursing in Washington, D.C., proposed that disease could be best understood by looking at hurricanes. She noted that, like a serious illness, hurricanes occurred only when many factors were present within relatively narrow parameters and that an appropriate intervention could alter the severity or course of a disease or hurricane. This discovery was encouraging to Nowakowski—it meant that an intervention, made at any point, could alter the final outcome.
Study: Poor Communication Leads to Malpractice, Death
Poor communication in healthcare has tangible, measurable effects. A new study released by CRICO Strategies found that communications failures were a factor in 30% of malpractice cases between 2009 to 2013, including 1,744 deaths. The reports estimate that both the deaths and $1.7 billion in malpractice costs could have been avoided with better communication between patients and physicians.
Overcoming Barriers on the Way to Evidence-Based Practice
Although nurses and physicians support evidence-based care in principle, barriers to adoption include resistance from colleagues, nurse leaders, and physicians and more than one-half of physicians do not use available guidelines
Team-Based Learning and Student-Run Clinic Support Interdisciplinary Education
By Nazanin Kuseh Kalani Yazd The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus approaches interprofessional education in a manner that mimics the reality of working on an interprofessional team. To prepare students to work in a field that requires coordination across many different disciplines, the University of Colorado takes advantage of the diversity at its health … Continued
Labor and Management Working Together to Improve Patient Satisfaction
By Preeti Jadhav, MD As I approached the end of my first postgraduate year (PGY1), one of the chief residents asked me to participate on the “LMP PCC project.” He explained that LMP PCC referred to a multidisciplinary labor-management, patient-centered care project where representatives from different disciplines would work together to enhance patient experience. At … Continued
Athenahealth Launches Text Messaging for Providers and Care Teams
A new, secure text messaging service called athenaText® is fully integrated with athenahealth’s cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform and accessible through the standalone athenaText and Epocrates mobile apps. AthenaText is available at no cost to more than one million healthcare professionals on the athenahealth network, including every athenaClincials® EHR and Epocrates user. Additionally, healthcare … Continued
Report: Changes to Graduate Medical Education Needed for Future of Physician Workforce
Since the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965, the public has provided tens of billions of dollars to fund graduate medical education (GME), the period of residency and fellowship that is provided to physicians after they receive a medical degree.
Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration
Texas Children’s Hospital to Provide Simulation Training to Houston Fire Department
Houston, Texas—Simulation Center at Texas Children’s Hospital has begun providing Pediatric Simulation Training for Emergency Pre-hospital Providers (Pedi-STEPPs) to members of the Houston Fire Department (HFD) EMS. A grant from the Cullen Trust for Healthcare, as well as a community benefit donation from Texas Children’s Hospital will allow this innovative training to be offered free of charge to the City for 500 firefighters over the next two years.
AHRQ Announces Free TeamSTEPPS Training Opportunities
AHRQ announces free training opportunities for TeamSTEPPS (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety), a set of evidence-based, practical tools that helps hospitals and other health care providers strengthen teamwork among caregivers with the goal of improving patient safety. AHRQ and the Department of Defense designed the TeamSTEPPS program specifically for health care providers for use in a variety of care settings.