I grew up in Kansas City, on both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the state line and smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley. One of my earliest memories is of my dad, my three older brothers and me scrambling to get out of our station wagon and getting down into a ditch along the side of a highway to try and protect us from a twister ...

As most everyone knows by now, nurses have for several years been ranked the ''Most Trusted Profession'' in an annual Gallup survey of Americans. But now a new study reveals nurses are also very good at assessing the quality of care delivered in the hospital units in which they work.  In short, it turns out nurses are not only trustworthy ...

Those of you who’ve had long careers in acute care were probably the only members of the reading public who weren’t surprised by the Chicago Tribune’s report that 85 percent of hospital complaints were ignored by the state of Illinois last year. Grievances ranged from dirty needles, medication errors, sexual assault, and patient neglect. ...

On my morning drive into work today I heard a radio report that, rather nonchalantly, described the increasing incidence of community-associated MRSA - explaining that the condition is more treatable than the hospital-acquired variety, which was said to also be more dangerous specifically because it largely affects older patients. While this all ...

Did you know March is National Women’s History Month?  Designated by joint resolutions of the House and Senate and proclamations by five American presidents, it is an opportunity to honor and celebrate women's achievements throughout history. Nursing is certainly filled with its share of historical female figures, beginning perhaps most ...

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 ...

My husband says we can't remember everything about a book or a movie or a vacation, so our minds fixate on the most vivid impression and that's what we remember. I just finished reading Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina by Denise Danna, DNS, RN, and Sandra E. Cordray, MA, MJ. I set the book down with strong impressions of ...

I'm anxious to see what nurses think of the May/June ADVANCE Online Book Club selection Josie's Story: A Mother's Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe by Sorrel King. While the book is about the strength of human resolve - detailing how one family survived the death of their 18-month-old daughter due to a medical error - it is also about ...

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 ...