Hospital Employee Health
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Sterile Supply Staff Exposed to Contaminated Droplets and Sprays
Cleaning and reprocessing reusable sterile equipment create droplets and sprays of water that soak healthcare workers and travel as far as seven feet into the decontamination room, researchers reported recently.
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Know HCV Status to Take Effective New Medicines
The prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection is significantly higher in healthcare workers than in the general population. Healthcare workers could access effective medications with few side effects by testing for the virus and pursuing treatment. However, high costs and insurance barriers hinder these efforts.
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Violence Continues as Some Question Need for OSHA Regulation
The reams of research, news reports, and first-hand accounts continue to accumulate, revealing rampant danger in healthcare that grew worse during the pandemic. Yet there remains resistance to an OSHA standard, with few denying there is a problem while others argue a regulation would be duplicative of recommendations that are not working.
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MRSA Carriers Linked to Outbreaks Can Be Decolonized Successfully
The authors of a new consensus document recommend screening healthcare personnel for infection or colonization if they are epidemiologically linked to a cluster of such infections.
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Make Headway Against Workplace Violence with Data Tracking, Interdisciplinary Initiatives
Two health systems have started several initiatives that attack the problem from different angles. Data show these systems are making a sizable dent in incidents of violence in their EDs and other vulnerable points. These leaders are sharing their roadmaps and best practices so others can benefit.
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ICU Staff Report Severe Moral Distress, But Resources Are Underused
Unresolved ethical concerns not only cause individual moral distress, but can also change the staff relationships and clinical cohesiveness.
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Reduce Risk of Long COVID Nightmare: Get Vaccinated
Healthcare workers and millions of other Americans are suffering from the ghost of COVID-19, a seemingly endless or remittent continuation of a disturbing panoply of symptoms that could have been lifted from Dante’s Inferno: cognitive decline, chronic pain, shortness of breath, intense fatigue, and neurological attacks on the body’s organs. This is long COVID, about which there is little consensus on diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. However, evidence is accumulating suggesting vaccination can prevent or reduce the impact of long COVID.
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The Face of the ED Boarding Crisis Is a Child’s
The boy was 9 years old, wearing makeshift operating room garb that included cut-off paper scrubs. His parents did not want him. The Department of Social Services said there was nowhere to place him. His last four “homes” had been EDs, including one that kept him for months. Given such tragic incidents, ACEP and the Emergency Nurses Association are aggressively lobbying Congress to address the situation. They gathered on Capitol Hill to underscore the crisis and push for passage of the Improving Mental Health Access from the Emergency Department Act.
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Is There Racial Tension Among Your Staff?
A sweeping survey on racism by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation yielded some damning findings about nurse-to-nurse racism. A staggering 72% of Black nurses reported experiencing racial discrimination from their own nurse colleagues. The patient level was higher at 88%, but racial incidents involving so many colleagues is disturbing, considering nurses are perennially voted the “most trusted” profession.
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Peter Hotez Stands Against Antivaxxers
Distinguished scientist and vaccine advocate Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, is battling the antivaccine movement and ubiquitous misinformation campaigns that have science on the run at the cost of thousands of lives annually.