Editor's note: This blog was written by Elizabeth Rosto Sitko, managing editor of ADVANCE for Long-Term Care Management. Last week, Newsweek published its final print issue. As a magazine enthusiast (I subscribe to many, I've studied them, and I work for one), I was saddened to hear the news. I remember a time when finding one ...

Cross your fingers, New Jersey advanced practice nurses (APNs), because if Senator Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) succeeds in passing his recently introduced S-2354 — the “Consumer Access to Health Care Act,” — you will be able to prescribe medications without joint protocol with a consulting physician. Introduced Nov. 29 into the New Jersey State ...

Last week, Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize marijuana for non-medical use. Many nurses, especially those in oncology, have had years of experience of with patients using the substance for pain relief. More than 6,000 studies have linked cannabis with combating nausea, stimulating appetites and managing chronic ...

Our roles as nurses has always been multi dimensional. We do not simply administer medications, perform wound care, etc. We provide emotional support, we advocate, we clean both the patient and the patient's room at times, we encourage, we assist with ambulation--we fulfill many roles for the patient.    So now, in this ever changing ...

 Colleen Claffey RN-BC,MSN,CEN,CPEN, is nurse educator in the emergency department/critical care at Jackson North Medical Center in North Miami Beach, FL. Never had I imagined that hospital workers, including nurses, would be mandated to take leave without pay in an attempt to save dollars. Furlough days have invaded healthcare, and ...

This Memorial Day, as we remember our country's fallen heroes, I ask that you do not forget the brave Nurses who may have cared for and comforted them in their final hours; In the revolutionary War, Abigail Hartman Rice and Christina Hench were there... In the Civil War, Clara Barton and Louisa May Alcott were there...  In the ...

Quality is the name of the game in healthcare, and nurses are consistently seen as playing a major role in improving hospital quality. As the demand and requirement from payers (both governmental and private) for high quality healthcare delivery grows, so will the pushback on nurses to find more and creative ways to up their game while cutting ...

I recently edited a compelling article on physician-assisted suicide (PAS) written by Lisa Siminski, BSN, RN, CHPN, staff nurse, St. Luke's Hospice House, Bethlehem, PA.   In her report on PAS, Siminski points out straight away that the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses ''clearly specifies that nurses ...

I have been scolded for oversimplifying the bedside nurse's role during a JCAHO visit. I don't agree. The poor bedside nurse is so overwhelmed with just trying to give decent basic patient care these days, that JCAHO should not even remotely be his or her responsibility. In fact, I will give you the most helpful of all hints regarding a JCAHO ...

When nurses go on strike, it can be a thankless undertaking. They may be fighting for an ideal of better patient care, while at the same time walking away from the patients for whom they are caring. It's a ''damned if you do, damned if you don't'' situation. At Philadelphia's Temple University Hospital (TUH), that scenario is playing out as some ...