Wishing each of you a very happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving!
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Are You Ready for the Holidays?
Ready or not, we are officially headed into the holiday season this week as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday when retailers traditionally begin the holiday sales. With the poor economy this year, retailers started early and Black Friday may not be the wild day it has come to be known for. Regardless, the holidays are upon us! And this one is going to rough for a lot of people! For nurses, the holidays can be even more stressful than for the average person. Sick people don’t get well for the holidays. The shifts have to staffed and vacation time is often restricted during…
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Economic Effects on the Nursing Profession
The downturn in the economy has done a couple of things for the nursing profession. More nurses who have not worked as nurses for awhile have returned to active status in order to bolster their family income and to cover lost income for instance if a spouse has lost a job. This has lessened some of the nursing shortage. On the other hand, as in any industry, cut backs are likely. Where nurses are going to be most affected by this is in areas where nurse-to-patient ratios are not set and/or enforced. Mandatory overtime will also continue to be an issue, and where it has not been, expect that it…
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Share Your Ideas with Nurses in Congress
Health care and the nursing shortage are going to be BIG on the Hot Topics list for the next administration and Congress to discuss this next term…. One of the primary points that I feel very passionate about is that nurses must advocate for themselves, their fellow nurses and their patients. We must have a strong and collective voice. That doesn’t mean that we must all have the same voice. Providing quality patient care means that we often have to be imaginative, inventive and flexible. Home health nurses know that often we have to improvise when we don’t have the exact tool that we need to get a job done.…
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Hospice Pioneer Florence Wald Has Died
The American Nurses Association announced the death of Florence Wald, RN, MSN, FAAN. Wald passed away Saturday, Nov. 8, at her home in Connecticut. She was 91. Florence Wald was a home health nurse, a professor and a dean, and a pioneer in the field of hospice nursing in the U.S. She studied hospice care in London and returned to the U.S. and developed a model for the holistic and humanistic care of the dying that continues to this day to influence hospice care in this country. She taught nurses that they had to understand the concepts and dynamics of death and dying in order to provide quality care to…