• The Advantages of Choosing Private Health in the UK

    We are fortunate here in the UK to have access to a fantastic national health system (NHS). That said, there are often times when taking the private healthcare option is best. What Are the Differences Between Private Health and the NHS? The NHS is a public run service that is open to the majority of the UK’s population which ultimately means it comes under a lot of pressure. Not only does the NHS have to service vast volumes of people, it also has to operate under stringent financial guidelines which can often mean the facilities within NHS hospitals are not as up to date as those of a private hospital.…

  • The Doctor Shortage and Nurses’ Role in Filling the Gaps

    By Kathryn Norcutt Doctor shortage could be intensified by the Affordable Care Act Despite how one may feel about the Affordable Care Act, it is going to change the face of American medicine forever. For better or for worse, once it is up and running in 2014 an estimated 30 million newly insured people will have access to the health care system outside of the emergency room. This is great news for anyone who works in or has been forced to visit one of the thousands of overcrowded emergency rooms across the US, however, the looming doctor shortage will loom even larger once those patients have access to specialists in…

  • Nursing Shortage Rearing Its Head Again

    The nursing shortage was never resolved. It was sort of put on hold when the economy tanked. Nurses of the Baby Boom generation were poised to retire, but the majority of them were forced to continue working for financial survival. Others had to return to work in order to make it through some of the toughest economic times ever. The impact has been that new grad nurses have had an impossible time finding work; something that has been unheard of for several decades. Now that the economy is in a recovery mode, Baby Boomers are retiring and the shortage of nurses is becoming a nightmare. The severity of the situation…

  • NAQC : Guiding Principles for Patient Engagement

    The Nursing Alliance for Quality Care (NAQC) recently released Guiding Principles for Patient Engagement. This list of nine core principles is designed to assist nurses and other health care providers in delivering high-quality, patient-centered care through full engagement in all aspects of their care. Many of these principles are things that we as nurses do every day, but NAQC reminds us that these things are all central to improving and maintaining high quality patient centered care. The principles include: ·         There must be a dynamic partnership among patients, their families and the providers of their health care, which at the same time respects the boundaries of privacy, competent decision-making and…