It has been predicted that the baby boomer generation will be the most effected by the changes health care system with regard to nursing care. The current health care system is in a state of flux. With insurance companies constantly raising rates and premiums, and the hospital stays becoming less frequent, the end result is that health care must extend to the home. The impact of this new era of home care will have various effects on the population that is served. Although it is true that home care has been in existence for almost as many years as the profession of nursing itself, the amount of clients that home care now serves is quite a bit larger than the past as well as more medically demanding. What this situation implies for the nursing profession is a larger responsibility in ensuring that clients who are discharged within one to two days receive the necessary teaching and follow up nursing care to ensure progressive healing and a maximum return to wellness.
In order to help ensure the goal for the client after discharge, the hospital nurse must be acutely aware of what the clients teaching needs will be from the time of admission.
For instance, those clients that have chronic respiratory disorders will need to be taught how to assess themselves for the danger signs and symptoms of circulatory overload. The patient needs to be taught that a weight gain more than one to two pounds per day may indicate circulatory overload and lead to respiratory distress. While this teaching plan may seem simplistic, the fact remains that many of these respiratory compromised clients are released from the hospital prior to their blood work and medical condition stabilizing. Read the rest of this article »
During the week of February 17, 2002, headlines screamed the news - more than 92% of US nursing homes fail to have an adequate number of staff to provide quality care for elderly residents. Newspapers and radio programs based their stories on the new study the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) recently provided to the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging.
Interesting findings led us to reexamine our current data set of nursing home deficiencies. What we found may surprise you; there was no relationship between the level of staffing and the number of deficiencies reported for nursing homes. However, there was a relationship between level of staffing and percent of residents with pressure sores and physical restraints.
This article is provided to you so you’ll have a greater understanding of what these findings mean.
The HCFA Study
Purpose - HCFA’s study was performed at the request of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging to determine what minimum level of nursing home staffing was required in order to provide quality care. Read the rest of this article »
For the fifth year in a row, applications have increased for schools offering a nursing degree according to American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Unfortunately this continuing increase still canāt keep up with the demand as over 32,000 students were turned away.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Registered Nursing as the top occupation in terms of job growth through the year 2012. According to the latest projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2012.
Students are either looking for other careers or looking for other schools. One resource that many students are finding helpful is the website www.best-nursing-degree.info . In many cases students are finding out about nursing programs within their area, but offered by schools other than their closest public university. Read the rest of this article »
Want to see places, yet be on the job? Many careers offer that pleasure, but none like travel nursing jobs. Itās exciting to experience different cultures, and it is equally rewarding to know many kinds of people in travel nursing jobs. Think about it. Travel nursing jobs will not only offer you excellent money in addition to free housing and insurance, they will also let you see the entire country, experience different cultures, taste different cuisines, and above all meet new people. But there is another advantage. By opting for travel nursing jobs, you are adding to your unique experience of multiple nursing abilities.
A travel nursing job is a temporary requirement of the mobile health care provider who is able to attend contracted assignments for a health care facility. Normally, these assignments are for a term of 13 weeks, but may vary subject to terms of agreement. The travel nursing job differs from agency nursing whereby, in the case of the latter, the service provider is a local nurse whom hospitals contract mostly for single-shift assignments. Read the rest of this article »
If you have been considering entering into the healthcare industry as a professional nurse, here are some points to considerā¦.
Nursing careers encompass a wide range of activities related to the field of delivering healthcare. As pure healthcare professionals employed in hospitals and similar other healthcare units, people in nursing careers cater to treatment, safety and recovery of acutely or chronically ill or injured people, health maintenance of the healthy, and treatment of life-threatening emergencies in a wide range of health care settings.
Additionally, nursing careers also span many non-clinical functions, such as medical and nursing research, forensic research, nursing education, medical insurance, serving medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies and so on. Read the rest of this article »
Many nurses today are frustrated with their work situation. Are you one of them? If so, it is time you take control and make that first step. Quit thinking about a change …DO IT …quit saying I am going too… DO IT…Quit day dreaming, procrastinating, making excuses, waiting for āthe right timeā ….DO IT. Now is the time to expand your nursing career and enjoy the many benefits that is offered as an Independent Nurse Contractor.
Nurses wake up and take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity. Are you tired of having no input in your career, little money in the bank, lack of respect for your profession and little compensation for the long hours and years of dedication? Independent Nurse Contractor is a great way to renew your interest and rejuvenate your nursing career. As An Independent Nurse Contractor you will Gain back your independence and enjoy freedom: more choices; as to how often, when and where you practice, substantially increase your wages, increase overall job satisfaction and best of all just plain recognition of your worth as a professional. Now is the time to Achieve your goals and recognize your dreams Do not settle for mediocre pay and benefits when you can have the best . Read the rest of this article »
There is a general feeling that nursing as a profession needs more of hands-on experience than pure academic knowledge. There is a reason or two there. We are known to laud the role of nurses who have excellent practical abilities and management supervision skills.
But apart from the too-obvious hospital care jobs, nurses have definitive roles to play in many other healthcare functions, and even in stellar roles in healthcare industry. It needs no telling that higher education in nursing is imperative for nurses to work in senior positions, many of which are suitable for none else than nurses themselves.
In practice however, there is lukewarm response among nursing students to pursue higher degrees, perhaps for reasons of convenience and cost. For example, though numbers of nurses having a BSN degree has increased during the last four decades, yet only about 44% of 2.7 million nurses currently hold a bachelorās degree or higher. Read the rest of this article »
Usually, part-time nursing students are those who are interested in a nursing career but have other responsibilities that interfere with their abilities to attend regular classes. Of late, there has been a good rise in the number of part-time nursing students for a variety of reasons. Looking at the overall scenario, it appears that the looming specter of nursing shortage is the common driving force behind large number of students opting for part-time courses.
As per February 2004 projections by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, registered nurses (RNs) will top the list of 10 occupations that have the potential of the largest job growth in the years 2002-2012. It bears recalling that RNs have listed among the top 10 growth occupations in the past, but for the first time in recent history, RNs occupy the top rank.
BLS’ 10-year projections are widely used in career guidance and come in handy for concerned institutes in planning education and training programs and also in studying long-range employment trends. Thus, the BLS’ report that more than 2.9 million RNs will be employed in the year 2012, up 623,000 from the nearly 2.3 million RNs employed in 2002 has meant that many aspirants have now decided to study and pursue a career in nursing. Read the rest of this article »
Do not let financial setbacks hinder you to pursue your dream to study nursing. There are many nursing school loans available whether you are a graduating high school student who would like to start a nursing career or someone who is advancing your nursing education. There are nursing loans available even for those pursuing a Masters or Doctoral degree.
Every nursing school offers some type of financial service to their students. Many schools form partnerships with private financial institutions and participate in government-funded student loans to be able to grant nursing school loans. Ask the college or university where you intend to enroll about their nursing school loans programs and application requirements.
Many hospitals also offer nursing school loans and scholarships with the agreement that after graduation the student will serve in the institution for a specific period. Financial assistance is also available to individuals already employed in the hospital such as Licensed Practical Nurses who wish to further their education and become registered nurses. Read the rest of this article »
The US News & World Report and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Report on Research Funding conduct nursing school rankings to measure the status of quality of different nursing schools nationwide. Various factors affect how nursing school rankings are determined but it all serves the purpose of providing more information to anyone in search of a nursing school.
As you evaluate different leaning institutions for your nursing education, nursing school rankings should supplement your own research. First, determine which specific nursing program you wish to enter and then based on that look at nursing schools in your chosen location that offer that specific program. You can use nursing school rankings to find out the areas of strength of a particular school and if it matches your interest and needs.
In general, organizations determine nursing school rankings by gathering data through surveys that are prepared by professors and other scholars. Survey respondents can be present or past students or administrators and other high-ranking staff members of the nursing school. The survey contains both objective and subjective questions, and a complex method is used to process the answers. The statistics of the school are also one of the factors used to determine nursing school rankings. Read the rest of this article »