Communication between staff members in hospitals is a topic that has been studied and practiced in great detail. One particular concern has always been the handoff: when a one staff member leaves a shift and another comes in. How do you ensure that all critical information gets passed along-and is understood-to ensure patient safety? An interesting article from HealthLeaders Media, written by Sarah Kearns, explains how one hospital addressed the problem. In...  Read More »

Nurses who are looking for a new job, professional development, or a way to keep career information and important documents organized might be interested in Critical Portfolio. It’s an electronic professional portfolio that captures all professional development data and supporting documents over the course of your career. The portfolio keeps all the information you would keep in your resume–summary of education, licensure, and employment history–but,...  Read More »

Temporary nursing agencies that supply the nation’s short-staffed hospitals with nurses often fail to verify credentials, keep important licensure records, and interview applicants before hire, according to an interesting piece in the Los Angeles Times. According to the article, “An investigation by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times found dozens of instances in which staffing agencies skimped on background checks or ignored...  Read More »

A new movement is quietly creeping into healthcare, and its silencing effect is being felt at one New York hospital. Press Ganey reports, which measure patient satisfaction, have long included noise level on it surveys, and some hospitals, like St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, NY, are working to ensure noise doesn’t disrupt a patient’s stay. The hospital is working to reduce noise levels in an effort to increase patient safety and create better...  Read More »

Nurses certainly do have a special job—and this is just one story that proves it. Years ago, Claire Thompson, a tiny baby in Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit in Albany, GA, was cared for by neonatal nurse Mattie Willis. (View the video by WALB News, the local NBC news affiliate.) Today, they work side by side. Willis is now a 30-year veteran on the neonatal unit, and says she remembers Thompson as a baby, as she remembers...  Read More »