Infection Prevention and Control is a Team Sport
Knowing the staggering impact increased HAIs can have on health systems only further emphasizes how critical it is for Risk Management teams to leverage the expertise and knowledge of Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) and Antimicrobial Stewardship teams to understand and mitigate HAIs in their care populations.
Why Creating a Trauma-Informed Environment is Crucial to Helping Traumatized Nurses Heal
For nurse and hospital leaders to help their nurses handle and heal from trauma, they must create a trauma-informed culture. A trauma-informed program, system, or person has a knowledge and understanding of trauma and its far-reaching effects, which, in some nurses is caused by seeing patients die; tending to patients who can’t get relief from symptoms; patient and family aggression; feeling overextended because of inadequate nurse-to-patient ratios; frustration; and helplessness, according to a 2017 study.
Plant the Seeds of Change with Just-in-Time Coaching
By Lori Moore, MPH, BSN, RN, CPPS Hand hygiene has been recognized as one of the most important measures to reduce germs in healthcare facilities, and educating healthcare workers to the basic fundamentals has become a cornerstone of hand hygiene programs.1-2 While providing education and conveying the importance and need for hand hygiene is … Continued
‘Are You Going to Keep Me Safe?’ Hospital Workers Sound Alarm on Rising Violence
COVID unit nurses also have shouldered extra responsibilities during the pandemic. Duties such as feeding patients, drawing blood and cleaning rooms would typically be conducted by other hospital staffers, but nurses have pitched in on those jobs to minimize the number of workers visiting the negative-pressure rooms where COVID patients are treated.
New IDSA President: ‘The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Not Going Anywhere Fast’
Daniel McQuillen, MD, took on the leading role at the IDSA last week. In addition to serving as president of the IDSA, he is a senior physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Lahey Health and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, and an assistant professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.
How Hunterdon Medical Center Helps Its Nurses Cultivate Resiliency
Hospitals and health systems should foster nurses’ resilience by integrating support and education—not only to help them successfully cope with their high-stress job, but to provide high-quality care, the study says.
Don’t Gift Surveyors the ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ of Hazardous Holiday Decorations
Joint Commission surveyors can cite decorations under five—that’s right, five—different Life Safety standards, including two standards related to hospital areas designated ambulatory healthcare occupancies, outpatient clinics, or areas within a leased building where the hospital offers accredited services.
Improving Medication Adherence Through Patient Centricity
ZS has shown, Albert Whangbo says, that many factors contribute to patients dropping off their therapy—it’s not just down to patients themselves, but also to providers, pharmacies, payers, and the patient’s environment.
How to Approach Better Medication Management
According to a recent study by the Get the Medications Right Institute (GTMRx), nearly a quarter of the patients surveyed said their medical team did not regularly review their medications, despite a third of the respondents saying they were currently taking four or more medications.
Healthcare’s Role in Community Outreach During COVID-19
Organizations like VIP StarNetwork try to create programs offering tailored messaging not just for compliance, but also to get the right information into the hands of healthcare workers across the board. They’re also looking at avenues to address the growing shortage in healthcare.