Decreasing stress and burnout among nurses is an ongoing issue that has proven to be tremendously difficult to solve. Although many tactics and strategies have been employed by hospital organizations to combat this problem, nurses are continuing to report burnout at an alarming rate nationwide.1If burnout continues to rise at this current rate health care [...]
Avoiding retained surgical items should be a united concern among all members of the operating team. Retained surgical items are a completely preventable event that can result in serious implications for all involved parties including the patient, hospital, and medical care providers. Although the incidence of retained surgical items is relatively low, estimated to [...]
The Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI) institute publishes an annual list of the top patient safety concerns that necessitate the most attention by hospitals for the specified year. These potential safety issues come from across the continuum of patient care to include hospitals, private practice offices, emergency care, aging services, and home health.1By informing healthcare [...]
Health care workers consistently have one of the highest rates of musculoskeletal injuries on the job, and nurses are no exception.1,2Nurses regularly have to complete physically demanding tasks in order to fulfill their job responsibilities and care for their patients. Movements related to patient handling such as bending and lifting contribute heavily towards overexertion injuries [...]
Being a nurse is a labor-intensive, physically demanding profession. Because of this, nursing is actually one of the career fields where workers are most likely to become injured on the job. The Department of Labor Bureau found that nurses endure over 35,000 musculoskeletal injuries a year that prevent them from being able to work.1News publications [...]
The patient length of stay following elective inpatient orthopedic surgeries is approximately 4.2 days on average now.1 This means that following surgery the patient or their caregiver are in charge of the majority of their own wound care. Failure to provide patients with adequate information regarding how to properly care for their healing incisions and [...]
Confusion regarding isolation guidelines in the healthcare setting is frequently brought up as an issue among workers. A solid foundation of knowledge regarding the proper precautions to take is imperative to maintaining patient wellbeing. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has published a set of recommendations structured to help prevent the transmission of infectious agents [...]
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that approximately 385,000 sharps-related injuries occur each year among health care workers in hospitals. The actual value of these injuries is likely even higher, since it has been estimated that nearly half of sharps injuries are never reported.2Proper use and disposal of sharps is critical [...]
Supplemental oxygen therapy can be crucial in a patient’s care, but nurses must have a solid foundation of understanding of how it works, when to use it, and how to perform ongoing assessment of the patient’s response to treatment in order for oxygen to be administered appropriately and safely. When Is Oxygen Therapy Indicated? [...]
Bone fractures can be a particularly painful and debilitating injury for individuals to have to endure. For people over the age of 50 with a fracture, there is a relatively high chance that the fracture is related to osteoporosis. A fracture may also be the first indication that osteoporosis is present since the process of [...]