Here is your NEWS-Line for Nurses eNewsletter. For the latest news, jobs, education and blogs, bookmark our news page and job board or to take us everywhere with you, save this link to your phone. Also, enjoy the latest issue of NEWS-Line for Nurses magazine, always free.
NEWS:
The American Nurses Foundation Says Action is Still Needed to Address Serious Nursing Workforce Challenges
The American Nurses Foundation (the Foundation) released the results of its fourth mental health and wellness survey as part of the Pulse on the Nation’s Nurses Survey Series. Conducted in May 2023 with more than 7,400 nurses, the findings from this latest comprehensive survey show the nursing profession is still in desperate need of sustained support or the workforce will continue to decline in both well-being and in numbers.
Nurse Turnover
Nurse turnover is still above pre-pandemic levels – five months after the Biden Administration officially ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency in May, which led to it’s announcement of $100 million to grow the nursing workforce in August. The intent to leave remains high among nurse respondents with 20% indicating they changed positions in the past 6 months, and 39% indicating they were likely to leave their current position in the next 6 mont
Read Full Article
Why Epilepsy in Children Is Easily Missed
Q&A With Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s Deborah Holder, MD
Parents often miss the signs that their child has epilepsy, according to Deborah Holder, MD, a neurologist at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s and a pediatric epilepsy expert.
"Every day in clinic I see children who have had for years what many people call ‘funny spells,’" Holder said. "Sometimes I start talking to a parent and find out the parent has had ‘funny spells’ for years, but had no idea they were epileptic seizures."
That’s because many people with epilepsy experience subtle symptoms, such as not being able to talk for a few seconds, Holder said. When the momentary symptoms disappear, people tend to forget to look for the source.
"Sometimes children experiencing seizures will see flashing lights or have temporary blurred vision, which leads them being misdiagnosed with migraine," Holder said.
About 1 in 26 Americ
Read Full Article
Pain Scores, Age Can Help Identify Patients More Likely to Use Few or No Opioids After Surgery
Patients who are younger or who haven’t taken opioid pain medication before are more likely to not need any after many common surgeries, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine. Additionally, the study, published in Annals of Surgery Open, showed that simply understanding a patient’s history with opioids and how they are feeling upon leaving the hospital could help clinicians tailor the amount of prescription pain medicines they may need as they transition home.
“At face value, it seems quite simple that asking patients about their pain and use of pain medicine would help inform what we do, but it is often easy to lose sight of the value of these patient-informed moments,” said first author Anish Agarwal, MD, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and the deputy director of the Penn Medicine Center for Insights to Outcomes. “These are simple data points, but
Read Full Article
A Reminder To Take Your Blood Pressure Meds
High blood pressure, or hypertension, has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. But taking medications to keep blood pressure in check can help to protect the brain and keep dementia at bay, according to a new analysis of data from a collection of large-scale aging studies.
The new study found that older men and women whose hypertension is under control have no greater risk of dementia than someone without high blood pressure. Older adults who regularly took their blood pressure meds had a 26 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than their peers with untreated hypertension.
For the analysis, researchers pooled data from 17 different studies involving more than 34,000 older men and women from around the world. They ranged in age from 60 to over 100, with a mean age of 72. None had dementia at t
