Editor's Note The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), on April 10, announced the release of updated standards for its 3-year Advanced Orthopaedic Certification program, which will take effect July 1, 2023. The updated Certification Handbook for Advanced Orthopaedics, v42, introduces new terminology and standards architecture plus a revised…

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Takeaways Perianesthesia and sterile processing leaders are feeling the pain of staffing shortages. Strategies to recruit and retain staff include raising pay, establishing clinical ladders, training programs, and a positive work environment. A 2022 study found that Certified Post Anesthesia nurses are more satisfied with their jobs than noncertified nurses.…

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Editor's Note This study from Finland examines the associations between nurse understaffing and limited work experience on the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Patient and staff data from 40 care units and 261,067 admissions in one hospital district in Finland were analyzed. The researchers found that 1- or 2-day exposure…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 13, updated prescribing information for all opioid pain medications, including requiring all packaging to have updated labeling and safety information. This includes stating that: for both immediate-release (IR) and extended release/long acting (ER/LA) opioid pain medications, the risk of overdose…

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Editor's Note This study from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing finds that about 100,000 RNs left the workplace because of stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, and another 610,388 intend to leave by 2027. A subset of the 2022 National Nursing Workforce Study was included in the analysis.…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, finds substantial adverse maternal outcomes among pregnant patients with COVID-19 at delivery, during the early pandemic period. A total of 2,578,095 patients were analyzed. During the 9-month study period (April to December 2020), 45,425 pregnant patients…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration, on April 7, identified the recall by Philips Respironics of certain reworked DreamStation continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bileveled positive airway pressure (BiPAP) machines as Class I, the most serious. These machines also were recalled in June 2021. The recall was initiated…

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Editor's Note Researchers at UHealth—the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine—show that, in two cases, COVID-19 breached the placenta and caused brain injury in the newborn. Both infants tested negative for the virus at birth, but had significantly elevated COVID-19 antibodies in…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on April 5, posted a clarification on the time frame for querying the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). Among the revisions: Medical Staff (MS) Standard MS.06.01.07, Element of Performance (EP) 9 and Standard MS.07.01.01, EP 3, on the time frame to evaluate a licensed practitioner’s…

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Editor's Note On April 3, Penn Highlands Healthcare, DuBois, announced its new “Return to Work” Nursing Residency program for nurses who have taken an extended leave from their nursing careers, but want to return to work. Residency students participate in 5 weeks of courses that begin with didactics and progress…

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