It’s about time. A guilty plea by Dr. Rolando Arafiles in a West Texas courtroom last week closed a painful chapter in the long career of Texas nurses Anne Mitchell, RN, and Vicki Galle, BSN, RN. As part of a plea bargain, Arafiles admitted guilt to retaliation and misuse of official information, both felonies, for his part in targeting the nurses ...

Great ideas come in many forms. And sometimes great ideas are forms. Take for example, the idea for a ''Stages of Surgery'' form brought to our attention by its creator, Kevin Visitacion, BSN, RN, an OR nurse in Chicago. The aim of the form is to keep patients and their families, as well as OR nurses and other healthcare staff, including ...

''Smokers Need Not Apply.'' That sign was theoretically hoisted by the human resources department at St. Luke's Hospital & Health Network in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley one year ago. The network consists of five hospitals and some 7,000 employees serving 46,000 patients annually. St. Luke's is the second largest employer in that region, so ...

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 ...

In October, Tennessee came down hard on nurses and other healthcare professionals who were in default on their student loans - and in violation of a decade-old statute that requires licensed professionals in the state to repay education loans, or face the consequences. According to a Jan. 18 article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, 42 ...

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 ...

Have you ever known a Nurse Jackie in your own life? You know the kind -- full of swagger and bravado, oozing with street smarts and clever comebacks, never one to turn away from conflict. Showtime, which aired the latest episode last night, recently asked that question to its viewers. Online respondents revealed: ''Jackie reminds me ...

In the latest episode of Nurse Jackie (played by Edie Falco in this Showtime series), Jackie is quintessential Jackie. In past shows, we saw Jackie acting as a medical Robin Hood, never hesitating to rob from the rich (those who bestow health insurance) to help the poor (those who don't have it or aren't served well by their health insurance). ...

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 ...

Nursing’s ranking as the most trusted profession in America the past 8 years in Gallup’s annual Honesty & Ethics poll is testament to the reverence with which the public holds the caring profession. It’s a sentiment nurses return each day when they go to work. In fact, for some that sense of commitment to caring about and for ...