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 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 National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) on April 3 announced the launch of its updated licensure examination, the Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) Examination, the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) April 6 reports. The exam was reportedly modified in order to better measure clinical judgment…

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Editor's Note Researchers led by Florida A&M University and Florida State University in Tallahassee propose multi-learner virtual reality (VR) environments assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) as effective alternatives to facility-based training for nontechnical skills. As failure to communicate is cited as the reason for 22% of preventable complications in the…

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Editor's Note This study from the University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, finds that nonoperative management of acute appendicitis was associated with reduced complications in older but not younger patients. Included in the analysis was data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s National Inpatient Sample on 474,845 patients with…

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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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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on April 4, released its Sentinel Event Data 2022 Annual Review, which covered serious adverse events from January 1 through December 31, 2022. There were 1,441 sentinel events reported in 2022, a 19% increase over 2021, and a 78% increase over 2020, with COVID-19 continuing…

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Editor's Note A new meQuilibrium Self Check survey finds that good managers are pivotal to retaining employees in the face of rising rates of workplace incivility, the March 29 HealthLeaders Media reports. Of 5,483 employees surveyed, the most common forms of incivility identified were: Being ignored (26.1%) Having one’s judgment…

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Editor's Note This investigation by the Kentucky Department for Public Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of eight cases of rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) infections in a Kentucky hospital after total joint replacement procedures found that the presence of a particular OR nurse was significantly associated with the…

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