California Nurses Association Cheers Eden District Board for Courageous Action to Overturn Sutter Deal

Malinda Markowitz, RN, co-President of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee issued the following statement in the wake of this week’s vote by the Eden Township District Health Board to sue Sutter Health over conflicts of interest and cancel the Memorandum of Understanding that is the basis of Sutter’s attempts to close down San [...]

RNs Reach Settlement at St. Joseph, Eureka Hospital Cite Gains for Patients, Security for RNs

Registered nurses at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka have achieved a tentative settlement with hospital officials on a new collective bargaining agreement that nurses say bring significant improvements in patient care protections and economic gains for the RNs.
Some 375 St. Joseph Eureka RNs are represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC). The [...]

St. Johns Hospital on Trial for Attacking RN Rights

The federal agency that oversees labor law has ordered St. Johns Health Center, located in Santa Monica and a part of the Catholic chain, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, to stand trial on charges that it violated the rights of its registered nurses. The National Labor Relations Board is prosecuting the hospital for unlawful harassment [...]

Data to Help Make Informed Decisions About Nursing Homes in MA

The decision to place an elderly loved one in an unfamiliar setting, such as a nursing home or other skilled care facility, is never easy. Unless you have had direct experience with nursing homes, it is difficult to know what to expect. It is also challenging to weed through the varying reports associated with nursing [...]

Amid Calls for More Highly Educated Nurses, New AACN Data Show Impressive Growth in Doctoral Nursing Programs

According to new survey data released yesterday by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), enrollment in doctoral nursing programs increased by more than 20% this year, signaling strong interest among students in careers as nursing scientists, faculty, primary care providers, and specialists. Final results from AACN’s 2009 annual survey confirm that enrollments in [...]

Reforming Care Delivery: How Will It Affect Your Nursing Career?

While no one knows whether Congress and the president will achieve comprehensive health care reform, nursing experts are convinced that, regardless of what happens in Washington, nurses will find greater career opportunities in the future.
From larger patient populations and greater demand to advances in telemedicine and more community-based, non-hospital careers, a number of factors are [...]

The Effects of Health Care Reform, or No Reform, on America’s Nurses

Along with insurance issues and patient protections, the documents spelling out the plans for health care reform contain several provisions to increase the supply of nurses and support nursing education and training. What will happen to these provisions–and the future nursing workforce–if reform isn’t passed in the near future?
Nursing leaders are clinging to hope, [...]

NIH and FDA Announce Collaborative Initiative to Fast-track Innovations to the Public

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health has unveiled an initiative designed to accelerate the process from scientific breakthrough to the availability of new, innovative medical therapies for patients.
The initiative involves two interrelated scientific disciplines: translational science, the shaping of basic scientific discoveries into treatments; and regulatory science, the development [...]

ANA Rallies Members Around Importance of Advance Healthcare Directives In Support Of National Healthcare Decisions Day

The American Nurses Association (ANA), the largest nursing organization in the U.S., urges all members to lead by example in a national campaign April 16, 2010 to build awareness of the importance of completing “advance directives” for personal health care. ANA joins dozens of national, state, and community organizations in its strong support of the [...]

Travel Nursing Career Questions

This week we have got a few good questions from our web site visitors. Here are few that I thought would be helpful to nurses thinking about starting a travel nursing career.
Questions from a nurse that visited our site and my answer for each question:
I’m looking to start a career in travel nursing, I have [...]