Hospital Employee Health
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Healthcare Workers Not Likely Infected, Colonized with C. auris
Recent reports highlighting the continuing increase and geographic spread of Candida auris — a multidrug-resistant fungus that is moving between healthcare facilities — have raised the question of whether healthcare workers could be infected or colonized with the emerging pathogen. It is highly unlikely, but the risk is not zero.
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CDC: Be Wary of Travelers From African Outbreaks
Marburg virus has caused outbreaks in two African nations, and healthcare workers should be aware of travel history for incoming patients with classic hemorrhagic fever symptoms.
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The Vanishing Nurse: Staff, Patients in Peril
Around 1 million nurses may leave the field in the next few years, leaving the perennial “most trusted” profession absent at the bedside. The exodus was triggered by a pandemic, entrenched by a haphazard response, and then revealed in demographics that indicate the old are retiring and the young are leaving early.
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EPA Moving to Reduce Cancer Risk to HCWs Exposed to EtO Sterilant
Ethylene oxide (EtO) is used on approximately 50% of all sterilized medical devices annually, including an estimated 95% of all surgical kits. EtO can sterilize heat- or moisture-sensitive medical equipment without causing any damage. Proposed regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency are designed to sharply reduce worker exposures to EtO sterilant and prevent occupational cancer.
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Tough Love: Returning Injured Workers to Full Duty
There are pressures in today’s healthcare environment to ensure injured or sick workers return to duty, but this must be balanced against their needed recovery time. It takes a delicate combination of compassion and skepticism — and no small amount of detective work — to make the right call.
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Report: Nearly 100,000 Nurses Quit During Pandemic
Stress, burnout, and retirements drove exodus.
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EPA Wants to Clamp Down on Common Sterilization Gas
Agency seeks to better regulate ethylene oxide to protect workers from harm.
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Congress Proposes Adding Thousands of Medicare-Funded Residency Positions
The bill would add 2,000 positions annually for seven years, which could alleviate healthcare staffing woes.
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Pasadena Health Officer Mandates Booster for HCWs
The chief public health officer in Pasadena, CA, has issued an order for all healthcare workers in the city to receive the bivalent booster containing both the original strain of COVID-19 and two subvariants of omicron.
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TB Rates Are Rising Again
In 2020, the TB rate dropped to 2.2, possibly because COVID-19 demanded public health resources that might have been used to detect it, and travel and immigration declined. After a small rebound in 2021, TB levels climbed to 2.5 cases per 1,000 people in 2022. There were more than 8,000 cases, and the CDC said TB was returning to pre-pandemic levels.