Latest news with #nurses
Medscape
3 hours ago
- General
- Medscape
ED Work Environment Discord Affects Patient Outcomes
In a recent study, emergency nurses and physicians in approximately half of the study hospitals disagreed on the quality of the work environment. An environment rated "unfavorable" by both groups was significantly associated with worse clinician and patient outcomes. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional analysis included emergency department (ED) clinicians (1190 nurses and 414 physicians) from 47 Magnet hospitals who completed the 2021 US Clinician Wellbeing Study. Researchers classified hospitals into profiles according to the level of agreement between nurses and physicians regarding the hospital work environment. Researchers assessed clinician job outcomes (burnout, job dissatisfaction, and intent to leave), patient safety, and quality-of-care metrics. TAKEAWAY: Hospital profiles revealed three distinct patterns: "Agree, Unfavorable Environment" (10 hospitals); "Agree, Favorable Environment" (15 hospitals); and "Disagree, Less Favorable Environment Among Nurses" (22 hospitals). Compared with hospitals where clinicians agreed on a favorable environment, hospitals where clinicians agreed on an unfavorable environment had significantly higher rates of burnout (β, 25.8), job dissatisfaction (β, 32.5), intent to leave (β, 31.7), and unfavorable patient safety grades (β, 29.1), after adjustment for hospital characteristics ( P < .001 for all). < .001 for all). Hospitals where nurses rated the environment less favorably than physicians demonstrated increased burnout (β, 15.4; P < .001) and poorer patient safety grades (β, 11.9; P < .01), after adjustment for hospital characteristics. < .001) and poorer patient safety grades (β, 11.9; < .01), after adjustment for hospital characteristics. Compared with physicians in hospitals with an "Agree, Favorable" profile, those in hospitals rated as having an "Unfavorable" work environment showed significantly higher rates for all outcomes except burnout and patient-care quality. Similarly, nurses in hospitals with a "Disagree, Less Favorable Among Nurses" profile experienced higher rates across all job-related and patient-care outcomes. IN PRACTICE: "This cross-sectional study found that ED nurses and physicians in close to half of study hospitals disagreed on the quality of their work environment. Clinician job and patient outcomes were worse when both clinicians rated their work environment unfavorably and when nurses only reported their work environments as unfavorable," the authors wrote. "The implication of these findings is that, if two essential partners in emergency care within the same institution do not agree on the deficiencies in ED work environments, significant interdisciplinary research is needed to bridge these gaps and disparate experiences," they added. SOURCE: The study was led by Jane Muir, Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. It was published online on May 16, 2025, in BMC Health Services Research . LIMITATIONS: The study included only Magnet hospitals, which are known for favorable work environments and good physician-nurse collaboration, suggesting the findings may have underestimated the variation in clinician work environment agreement across all hospitals. The cross-sectional design prevented causal inference, and the sample had more nurses than physicians. DISCLOSURES: The research was funded by the Clinician Well-being Study Consortium and the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, it was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Clinician Scholars Program, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation/Emergency Nurses Association Foundation. The authors reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nursing strike at Madison's UnityPoint Health-Meriter ends in tentative agreement
A four-day strike at Madison's UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital where hundreds of nurses have been asking for safer working conditions is ending in a tentative agreement between the hospital and SEIU Wisconsin, which represents 934 Meriter nurses, according to a May 31 announcement from the labor union. While the tentative agreement does not outline broad safety measures for staff across the board, it does consist of protections for some staff, an 8% raise over the next two years for all and new framework for staff to voice concerns, bargaining team member Amber Anderson said at the May 31 news conference outside the hospital. In particular, the bargaining team won commitments specific to staff and patients working in Child Adolescent Psychiatry and the Emergency Room, as well as commitment to a tip sheet for violent incidents, Anderson said. The bargaining team was not able to win actionable commitments from management that would more tangibly prevent workplace violence across the board, she said, particularly on staffing ratios. However, Anderson did say they obtained language that will be easier for nurses to collectively voice concerns on staffing and safety and work with management to find solutions. Union members will vote to ratify the agreement during the evening on May 31 and then return to work at the hospital by 7 a.m. June 1, which is when the strike had been scheduled to end. The strike — the first for Meriter nurses — began on May 27 grounded in frustrations over hospital management's lack of response to multiple requests for a safer work environment. Contract negotiations started in January. Since then, nurses had been asking for their contract to guarantee greater security measures at the hospital, including adding a metal detector and smaller staff-to-patient ratios in the hospital's medical-surgical units. They also sought increased pay for working nights and other less desirable shifts. Pat Raes, a Meriter nurse and president of SEIU Wisconsin, previously told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that there had been instances where patients and visitors brought guns into the facility without the knowledge of staff. Violence against health care workers has been on the rise, Raes said, and nurses sought action before a serious incident occurs, not after. Anderson said on May 31, "This victory is not just for the bargaining team. It belongs to all of us. To every single one of you who showed up, spoke out and stood strong, we thank you." Behind her stood over a dozen other hospital staff and supporters decked out in the union's signature color: purple. In her speech, Anderson thanked SEIU staff, UW nurses, workers at the Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin and community members and other local unions who donated time and resources. In a Facebook post on the agreement, the hospital issued the following statement: "We respect the union's process and look forward to the outcome of their decision. We believe this is a strong, fair contract that demonstrates the value and respect we have for the nurses on our team." 'We are grateful for the dedication and hard work of everyone involved in the negotiations. This tentative agreement represents meaningful progress toward a contract that recognizes the important contributions of our nurses," Market Chief Nursing Officer Sherry Casali said. The hospital in downtown Madison is part of UnityPoint Health, an Iowa-based health system with locations across southern Wisconsin. In 2017, the hospital entered into a joint operating agreement with UW Health, allowing patients to get care from both providers. UW Health is also no stranger to labor negotiations. The health system's nurses union was dissolved in 2014 as a result of Act 10, and nurses began the fight to restore it in 2019, including threatening a three-day strike in 2022 that ultimately did not occur. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is currently deciding whether UW Health is required to negotiate a collective bargaining contract with the union. The court heard oral arguments in the case in February. Madeline Heim contributed to this report. Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@ Follow her on X at @levensc13. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Nursing strike at UnityPoint Health-Meriter ends in tentative agreement
Forbes
3 days ago
- General
- Forbes
Immigrants Benefit Their Host Country While Seeking Better Lives
Refugee mature woman protesting in the street getty Pakistan, Peru, Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Albania, Ecuador, Bulgaria, Jamaica, Ukraine, India, Philippines, El Salvador. Korea, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Poland. Keep the names of those 18 countries in mind as I tell you this back story. Two weeks ago, I fell and broke my hip. If you've never broken a hip, let me give you a piece of advice. Don't. Anyway, after a luxury limo trip (translation: ambulance) to the ER that night and hip replacement surgery the next day, I was transported to a rehabilitation facility for what would turn out to be two weeks of intensive, rigorous therapy. This rehabilitation institute has a well-deserved reputation for being the best of the best, elite in their service and outcomes. It's where you want to be if you have to be where you don't want to be. I'll be going home in two days and I'm confident all will be well. Which leads us to why I write today. And here it is. It was those 18 countries from which people who cared for me came to the United States. They were doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, aides, imaging techs, phlebotomists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, food service workers, and transport personnel. They treated me, fed me, held me, dressed me, cleaned me, and encouraged me. And they were immigrants, all doing their jobs so well and with such love, honor, and gratitude that it was plain to see why and how this institute is so very good at what they do. Perhaps they were not quite the destitute people to which Emma Lazarus referred in her immortal poem The New Colossus. Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries sheWith silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!' But I'll bet some were. And while they all came here for a better life – the most commonly-recited mantra of the immigrant and, at the same time, the one most resented by anti-immigrants – in the process, they made my life better, too, especially in these last two dynamic weeks. That's what you call a fine example of symbiosis: interaction between two parties that works to the advantage of both. I assume you know this verse of Lazarus' poem is on a tablet held by the Statue of Liberty, for all to see. It is the most generous invitation ever extended on this earth, and my father accepted it in 1929, my mother's parents about 35 years earlier, Albert Einstein in 1933. And so did the people of this story. Yet anti-immigrant sentiment and action continues to proliferate around the world, and one just crossed my desk, sent by an associate who monitors these things. Said the author, 'America should take that poem off the Statue of Liberty but keep Lady Liberty.' That sentiment is not new. While the poem was heralded by John F. Kennedy in his book book A Nation of Immigrants (1958), it got quite the opposite reaction in 2019, during the first Trump administration. Ken Cuccinelli, Trump's acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, revised a line from the poem in support of the administration's 'public charge rule' which would have rejected would-be immigrants who lacked the wherewithal to support themselves. Cuccinelli suggested rewriting the caveat as, "Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge." He later suggested that the "huddled masses" should be European, and he downplayed the poem as "not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty." The Trump administration rule was later blocked by a federal appeals court. Perhaps a two-week stay in a hospital or rehab facility – with plenty of time to watch and think – would answer this big question: Tell me again; what, exactly, is wrong with immigration?
CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Province launches 10 year health-care staffing plan using 2022 data
Newfoundland and Labrador is predicting what it will take to meet the province's healthcare needs in 21 health-care professions over the next decade. On Thursday, the Department of Health released phase one of its health human resources plan, which focuses on the retention and recruitment of health-care professionals, including nurses, therapists, laboratory workers and pharmacists. Health Minister Krista Lynn Howell said the plan aims to address gaps in the workforce by modelling the supply and demand of workers in the provincial health-care system while prioritizing their work-life balance. "We also had a focus from this report on exploring ways to automate non-clinical aspects of some professions to support an improved work-life balance for health professionals," Howell told reporters. "It allows a greater focus on patient care and will positively transform service delivery approaches." But the province's registered nurses' union is concerned the plan will miss its mark. President Yvette Coffey told CBC News the plan is based on outdated data, which fails to accurately represent the demand for nurses in 2025. "It's based on the core staffing, which what I mean by that is the number of registered nurses or nurse practitioners to a specific number of patients in their care," said Coffey, adding that data on nurse-to-patient ratios are even more outdated. "I mean like 30-40 year old data, it's based on patients who were in the hospital for surgery that today is done as an outpatient procedure. It's based on a healthier population than we have here right now," she said. The nurses union would like to see a focus on violence prevention. Otherwise, Coffey said the recruitment of nurses won't work. "This report paints a dire forecast for the future of nursing in this province with the vacancies, and I would agree," she said. "Right now we have a surge of patients and we are looking at our staff and saying, there is no more staff and you have to take on these extra patients." Howell said the new plan is a snapshot from 2022, but its outlooks are subject to change. "The model is adaptable and dynamic, and as we have new measures to put in, we will get new outputs to come out," Howell said. Phase two of the plan is expected to be released this spring and will make projections for 36 physician specialities.
CBS News
4 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital nurses to call for "historic union election"
Nurses at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital will be calling for a union election this afternoon. The union for nurses and healthcare workers in the state says the substantial majority of the more than 1,000 nurses at Magee say they support forming a union in what's being called the largest organizing effort by nurses in recent history in Pennsylvania. Those forming the union would include registered nurses and advanced practice professionals including midwives, nurse practitioners, and others, who say the insurance executives' priorities are getting in the way of the needs of medical providers. The organizing efforts come as Pennsylvania faces the worst nursing crisis in the country and the union says there are nearly 20,000 empty healthcare worker positions, which was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The union says Magee nurses are lacking the staff and resources to deliver the care they want to provide to their patients and that nurses are leaving their jobs after years of unsustainable working conditions along with a lack of benefits and investments in their industry and say that UPMC, the largest healthcare provider and private employer in the state "has a moral responsibility and the resources to lead in finally solving this crisis." Magee has the largest Level IV neonatal intensive care unit in Pennsylvania and delivers half of all babies born in Allegheny County. The nurses officially filed their request for the election with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this week and are expected to formally call for a union election Thursday afternoon.
