By Francine Westergaard, MSN, RN, JCI/JCR Consultant with Joint Commission International, Joint Commission Resources, Oak Brook, IL. Francine graduated from a diploma school many years ago, eventually returning to school to obtain a BSN and MSN. She is currently enrolled in an MBA program. The majority of her nursing ...

The article starts out promising good PR for nurse practitioners: ''Peggy O'Donnell, a Lynbrook nurse practitioner, knows a thing or two about picking a good primary care physician.'' This is O'Donnell's opportunity to explain that an NP often can be your primary care provider — and even better, that there are studies that show that NP care is ...

I have only anecdotal evidence, but it seems that there are a lot of new NP practices opening out there. In the past few weeks, I've received four Practice Snapshot surveys from NPs who've been in business just since the end of 2007 — two of whom I convinced to help me launch a private practice blog on this site, so stay tuned. I've also already ...

I've been thinking about all the press AIDS received back in its early days. There was a lot of media attention back then and a lot of awareness. Now, 27 years later, we see news reports and celebrities traveling to Africa to shed light on an epidemic that has infected millions. But these front-page stories and images we used to see here have all ...

It might be trite but true, the demand for nurses in the U.S. is growing. And recruiters continue to reach across continents for their new hires. This might help U.S. facilities. But what is it doing to the countries from which they hail? A news article in the Philippines' Sun Star Baguilo reports nurses on average stay about 2-3 ...

Several years ago my friend Tanya accepted a job at a Swiss boarding school. Before starting, she was required to take a detailed first-aid course. Never doing anything halfway, Tanya signed up for EMT training in the United States. Early on, the class members demonstrated their CPR skills. The assignment was for each student to enter the room, ...

Angie's List has plans to let consumers rate their health care providers. The 12-year-old Indianapolis-based company maintains lists of consumer ratings for all kinds of local businesses and services. According to a company press release, the 600,000 list members have been asking for years to add health care providers, hospitals and insurers to ...

ADVANCE editors know a lot, but apparently we don't know everything. (What else is new?) We got an e-mail message last week from an NP protesting an ad in our March print edition. (You might have trouble viewing the ad if you're not a subscriber to ADVANCE.) The ad from the State of New York Department of Public Health urges health care ...

It is hard to imagine living in a country where the unemployment rate is 60%, the illiteracy rate is 55%, and a large portion of the population lacks electricity and clean running water. It is even more difficult to imagine providing adequate health care in a place where there is an infant mortality rate of 74 per 1,000 live births, a death rate ...

  Yesterday morning my spouse's high school friend, John, had prostate cancer. By afternoon he didn't — at least we hope the prostatectomy did the trick. John found out he might have something to worry about when he got his PSA level checked last fall at a booth at the Texas state fair. He didn't think he needed the test (he's only 38), ...