''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 ...

That old contradictory adage, ''Do as I say, not as I do,'' doesn't cut it when it comes to helping people stop smoking. In 2009 President Barack Obama signed into law anti-smoking legislation aimed at keeping young Americans from the grip of nicotine. Yet the young president was himself lighting up. Tsk, tsk. However, it turns out ...

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 ...

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 ...