Nursing News

The Health Information Technology Policy Committee today adopted a revised definition of “meaningful use” of electronic health records, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will use to draft a proposed rule defining which hospitals and physicians are eligible for health IT funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Newly licensed nurses often encounter frustration with their new positions, citing unexpected situations, demanding assignments, a relentless pressure for speed and lack of respect, according to a new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded study.

Politicians will be put under the pump today as aged care nurses push for better funding in Budget 2010. Visiting Ministers, Senators and MPs will be asked to undergo blood pressure tests as they enter the ALP National Conference starting today at Darling Harbour. The event forms part of the

The American Nurses Association (ANA) joins with the entire nursing community in mourning the passing of American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) interim Executive Director John Garde, CRNA, MS, FAAN. John Garde passed away last week from complications related to pancreatic cancer. John Garde will be remembered for his extensive contributions to the field of nurse anesthesia over a career that spanned 50 years.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN) released Forensic Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, a comprehensive reference guide that identifies and defines the expectations for the role and practice of the forensic nurse. Forensic nursing focuses not only on providing patient care, but its practitioners also collect evidence, counsel patients and communicate with professionals in legal systems.

The American Medical Association offers its support of the U.S. House bill on health reform and reiterates its commitment to effective, comprehensive health-care reform in a new video message from AMA President J. James Rohack, M.D.

The 1,450 registered nurses of Good Samaritan Hospital and San Jose Regional Medical Center voted overwhelming last night to ratify their new contract with the facility-and in so doing set new standards for patient safety at HCA, the nation's largest hospital chain, announces the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today.

 A new AHRQ-funded study found that of roughly 973,000 orders that physicians at a large, Midwestern hospital gave nurses over a 12-month period, roughly 20 percent were verbal orders.

A national fellowship program focused on expanding the role of nurses to lead change in the U.S. health care system has been awarded to Elias Provencio-Vasquez, Ph.D., N.P., F.A.A.N., F.A.A.N.P., associate professor at the University of Miami (UM) School of Nursing and Health Studies. He is one of twenty nurses selected nationwide as a 2009 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation® (RWJF) Executive Nurse Fellow.

The nation's struggles with physician and nurse shortages are evident as health care reform takes shape. NPR reports on medical camps that try to recruit doctors to rural areas: "It was a Third World scene with an American setting. Hundreds of tired and desperate people crowded around an aid worker with a bullhorn, straining to hear the instructions and worried they might be left out. ...