Skills for the Future

In this Atlanta Journal & Constitution (AJC.com) article Laura Raines begins by delving into the history of the nurse practitioner. Physician shortages in the 1960s created the need for these advanced practice nurses.

Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, FAAN, writes this John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) blog on the importance of the nation’s health care workforce being adequately prepared to care for the aging U.S. population.

According to Nurse.com, an aging operating room workforce, coupled with an increasing demand for surgery from an aging population, could become problematic without continued recruitment of  qualified operating room (OR) nurses. To address this looming problem, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), as well as hospitals across the country are implementing programs to retain older nurses while at the same time recruiting and training younger nurses into the OR specialty.

According to recently released study in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, simulation-based learning significantly reduces the number of medication errors. This first-of-its-kind study, was conducted in adult coronary critical care (CCU) and medical intensive care (MICU) units in the Pittsburgh area. Because patients in these types of units receive multiple medications, they are at greater risks for error than those in non-intensive units..

Source: Nurse.com

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has released initial findings of the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses . The Sample Survey, a leading source of statistics on the nursing profession, is published every four years by HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions. For the Center, these new data confirm that the U.S. is making progress relevant to our mission to ensure all Americans have a highly-skilled nurse when and where they need one. The nursing profession is growing and more and more nurses are obtaining higher degrees.