Agency Acts to Ease Delays of Medications at Nursing Homes - NYTimes.com

Image via WikipediaBy NATASHA SINGER

The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a new guideline intended to help ease the delay some nursing home residents face in receiving certain painkillers and anti-anxiety medications.

Physicians may now authorize nurses employed by long-term care facilities to phone in their oral prescriptions for these controlled substances to pharmacies, the agency said in a policy statement published on Wednesday in the Federal Register, the daily publication of changes to government rules.

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Half of county's doctors are near retirement age » Ventura County Star

By Tom Kisken

Out of a group of more than 750 doctors in Ventura County, half will turn 55 or older before the end of the year, according to a local medical association. One of three will turn 60 or older.


The doctors aren’t growing crow’s feet alone. About half of the registered nurses in Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange counties were 50 and older in 2008, according to the California Board of Registered Nursing. About 18 percent of the nurses were in their 60s, more than those who were 34 and younger.

The graying numbers don’t surprise Dr. Gary Proffett, the 62-year-old medical director of an Oxnard-based physicians network who has decided he can’t retire because of the economy. But he is alarmed at the number of healthcare professionals who could pack away their stethoscopes before hospitals and clinics are flooded by aging baby boomers with longer life expectancies and the uninsured people who will be covered by federal healthcare reform in 2014.

“Who’s going to see them?” he said. “Who’s going to see millions of people? I don’t know.”

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Retirements by baby-boomer doctors, nurses could strain overhaul

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By Darryl Fears Monday, Washington Post Staff Writer

Since the passage of the health-care law in March, much has been said about the coming swarm of millions of retiring baby boomers and the strain they will put on the nation's health-care system.

That's only half the problem. Overlooked in the conversation is a particular group of boomers: doctors and nurses who are itching to call it quits. Health-care economists and other experts say retirements in that group over the next 10 to 15 years will greatly weaken the health-care workforce and leave many Americans who are newly insured under the new legislation without much hope of finding a doctor or nurse.

Nearly 40 percent of doctors are 55 or older, according to the Center for Workforce Studies of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Included in that group are doctors whose specialties will be the pillars of providing care in 2014, when the overhaul kicks in; family medicine and general practitioners (37 percent); general surgeons (42 percent); pediatrics (33 percent), and internal medicine and pediatrics (35 percent).

About a third of the much larger nursing workforce is 50 or older, and about 55 percent expressed an intention to retire in the next 10 years, according to a Nursing Management Aging Workforce Survey by the Bernard Hodes Group. New registered nurses are flowing from colleges, but not enough to replace the number planning to leave the profession.

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Geriatric Nursing Education

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The Geriatric Nursing Education Wiki

The purpose of this Wiki is to share resources and tools to improve gerontological and geriatric nursing education. The Wiki was created as a result of the Knowledge Exchange Institute for Geriatric Nursing Education, held at Brock University May 6-8, 2009. The Knowledge Exchange Institute was sponsored by the National Initiative for Care of the Elderly (NICE) and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and organized by Lynn McCleary (Brock University), Kathy McGilton (Toronto Rehab and University of Toronto), Abram Oudshoorn (University of Western Ontario), Veronique Boscart (University of Toronto), and Lynn McDonald (NICE and University of Toronto). The Knowledge Exchange Institute was part of NICE's work to enhance gerontological nursing education.

The Wiki is a way for participants in the Knowledge Exchange Institute to continue to share knowledge, resources, and tools and for others to join in the process of knowledge exchange with us.

The Wiki will start off with uploaded files and links to resources that were shared with the Knowledge Exchange Institute participants. Feel free to add new information.

Main Page - Geriatric Nursing Education

Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing :: Position Papers and Briefs

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Issue Paper: Nurses Involvement in Nursing Home Culture Change: Overcoming Barriers, Advancing Opportunities
* Issue Paper
* Issue Paper Executive Summary
* Issue Paper Contributor List

o Background Papers:
+ Principles and Content of Culture Change - B. Kantor, Sc.D.
+ Research in Culture Change in Nursing Homes C. Mueller - PhD, RN, FAAN
+ Nursing Education and Culture Change J. Rader - RN, MN, PMHNP, M. Lavelle - RN, MSN

* Nursing Research Publications on Older Adults
* Care at the End of Life: Restoring a Balance
* Guidelines for End-Of- Life Care In Nursing Homes: Principles and Recommendations
* Voices of Decision Making in Nursing Homes: Respecting Residents' Preferences for End-of-Life Care
* Hospitalization of Nursing Home Residents: A Review of Clinical, Organizational and Policy Determinants
* Initiatives to Promote the Nursing Workforce in Geriatrics: A Collaborative Report, February 2002

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VA: Improved Staffing Methods and Alternate and Flexible Work Schedules Could Enhance the Recruitment and Retention of Nurses

Why GAO Did This Study Registered nurses (RNs) are the largest group of health care providers employed by VA’s health care system. RNs are relied on to deliver inpatient care, but VA medical centers (VAMC) face RN recruitment and retention challenges. VAMCs use a patient classification system (PCS) to determine RN staffing on inpatient units by classifying inpatients according to severity of illness to determine the amount of RN care needed. GAO reviewed VAMC inpatient units for (1) the usefulness of information generated by VA’s PCS; (2) key factors that affect RN retention; and (3) factors that contribute to delays in hiring RNs. GAO performed a Web-based survey of all VAMC nurse executives; interviewed VA headquarters officials and VAMC nursing officials, and conducted RN focus groups at eight VAMCs visited by GAO. The findings of GAO’s survey are generalizable to all nurse executives; however, findings from the focus groups at the eight VAMCs are not generalizable. VA nursing officials reported that VA’s ability to retain its RNs is adversely affected by two main factors. First, inpatient RNs reported that they spend too much time performing non-nursing duties such as housekeeping and clerical tasks. Second, even though VAMCs were authorized in 2004 to offer RNs two alternate work schedules that are generally desired by nurses—such as working three 12-hour shifts within a week that would be considered full-time for pay and benefits purposes—few nurse executives reported offering these schedules; therefore, few RNs work these schedules. What GAO Recommends GAO recommends that VA develop an action plan to implement a new nurse staffing system that ensures an accurate account of patient care needs and tasks performed by RNs and that VA assess the barriers to wider availability of alternate and flexible work schedules and explore ways to overcome these barriers. VA concurred with GAO’s findings and recommendations and plans to address GAO’s three recommendations.

Nurses Step Up Efforts to Protect Against Attacks

By DAVID TULLER Published: July 8, 2008, New York Times Advocates for nurses are lobbying for increased penalties for violent patients and urging that all incidents be reported. Nurses and other personal care workers bear the brunt of such attacks, with 25 injuries annually resulting in days off from work for every 10,000 full-time workers — 12 times the rate of the overall private sector, according to the bureau. The most dangerous settings are psychiatric units and nursing homes, where patients are often confused, disoriented or suffering from mental ailments, as well as emergency rooms, where long waits for care can anger patients, and the people with them.