In the News

In the News highlights current media articles related to nursing practice topics. The page also includes new research study findings in health services in the media.

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Nearly 25% of Canadian nurses wouldn't recommend their hospital

Date:

Apr 8 2013

Nearly a quarter of nurses wouldn't recommend the hospital where they work to their family or friends, a survey by CBC News has found.

A NURSE'S WORLD Where stress is status quo
The startling figure comes from an online survey that CBC's flagship investigative show, the fifth estate, distributed to registered nurses across the country as part of Rate My Hospital, a sweeping series about health care.

Twenty-four per cent of respondents to the survey distributed through nursing associations and unions said they definitely would not or probably would not recommend their hospital to loved ones.

Pilot project could save millions

Date:

Mar 28 2013

When Barbara Spilchuk went in for surgery to remove a cancerous polyp from her colon, she wondered whether she'd be able to share any more Christmases with her family.

It was just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2011. Spilchuk, 61, and her husband were looking forward to spending the holidays in Edmonton visiting their three children and two grandkids.

So when a routine colonoscopy uncovered a tumour, "the biggest thing for me was, 'Are you going to come out of this to see your family again?'" she recalled. "That's the worst of it."

Research Challenge Sparks CIHR-Funded Study of Cardiac Care Innovation

Date:

Mar 25 2013

Why are frail, elderly patients willing to travel long distances and submit to a battery of tests in order to access a new heart valve replacement procedure?

This question, posed by St. Paul’s Hospital front-line nurse Leslie Achtem, has evolved from a point of curiosity into a CIHR-funded research project due in large part to research capacity supported by MSFHR’s Nursing Research Facilitator (NRF) program.

Seeking to understand the factors that motivate patients to undergo transcatheter aortic valve implantation, an innovative cardiovascular intervention, a clinical team from the St. Paul’s Hospital Transcatheter Heart Valve Program submitted a proposal based on Achtem’s question to the 2011 Providence Health Care Research Challenge.

Coordinated by Aggie Black, one of seven MSFHR-funded nursing research facilitators, the research challenge provides an opportunity for nurses to take part in research by applying for small grants to answer questions related to their clinical practice. This mechanism directly supports the NRF program’s mandate of building research capacity among nurses and other front-line staff.

What's Nursing's Role in Improving Health Care Quality? Building an Evidence Base and Future Research Recommendations

Date:

Mar 18 2013

Newswise — Philadelphia, Pa. (March 18, 2013) - Nurses are the largest group of health care professionals and have the most interaction with patients. Yet previously, there has been limited research regarding nursing’s contributions to improving the quality of care. A special April supplement to Medical Care provides an update from the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) — an ongoing program, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), to "generate, disseminate, and translate research to understand how nurses contribute to and can improve patient care quality." Medical Care is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

The INQRI program was launched in 2005 to help address the lack of evidence linking nursing to the quality of patient care. The INQRI program is led by Mary D. Naylor, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Mark Pauly, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, in collaboration with RWJF senior program officer Lori Melichar, PhD.

Can B.C.’s family doctor shortage be solved?

Date:

Mar 15 2013

Traditionally, being a family doctor didn’t have the cachet of being a specialist, such as a cardiologist or a neurosurgeon. Family doctors tend to earn less than specialists. And they need to know a little bit about every ailment.

Dr. Shelley Ross, who once had a family practice in Burnaby, says it used to be that family doctors would often hear from people, “What kind of specialist are you? Are you just a GP?”

Times have changed.

B.C. a bright spot for innovative thinking and transformational, pragmatic new approaches to health care

Date:

Mar 19 2013

British Columbia has the highest life expectancy, the best cancer outcomes, and the lowest obesity rate among all Canadian provinces.

How do we fare so well? What has this province done that results in our citizens living longer and healthier lives than residents of any other province?

There is no doubt that part of the reason is that B.C. is home to a vibrant research community that ranks among the world's leaders in developing new treatments and responding to emerging health threats. Made-in-B.C. solutions are transforming the response to global health issues, including HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and H1N1 influenza.

The research community is also an important catalyst for innovation and economic development that creates high-quality "knowledge economy" jobs and attracts billions of dollars in investment to B.C.

B.C. medical officials are trying to prevent the spread of a new superbug, CRE, that's spawned a strong warning in the U.S.

Date:

Mar 12 2013

B.C. medical officials are trying to prevent the spread of a new superbug, CRE, that's spawned a strong warning in the U.S.

The bacteria, known as Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, are endemic in hospitals elsewhere but are now being spread to North American hospitals by infected patients.

"CRE are nightmare bacteria," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. "Our strongest antibiotics don't work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections."

In issuing the warning, Frieden said more than 200 U.S. hospitals and long-term, acute-care facilities had cases of CRE in the first half of 2012 alone: "Doctors, hospital leaders and public health must work together now to implement CDC's 'detect-and-protect' strategy and stop these infections from spreading."

The university has everything to gain from Twitter

Date:

Feb 8 2013

It’s possible that more people now have contact with universities, either directly or indirectly, than at any time in the past thousand years. This is a relatively recent development; since the 1950s, enrollment has ballooned at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Universities also receive increasing amounts of attention in the media, often in discussions of their role in the economy. In spite of this, what people actually know about the university as a public institution – and the kind of work its members engage in – can be very limited, since much of that work goes on “behind closed doors.”

Men with little control over work life at risk of high blood pressure, study finds

Date:

Feb 27 2013

Men who have very little control over their work life are at an elevated risk of developing high blood pressure. But women, in a similar job situation, don’t face the same health risk, according to a new Canadian study.

Men may be “hard-wired” to react in a particular way when they find themselves at the bottom of the job pyramid, speculated Dr. Cameron Mustard, who was part of the research team.

Time is right for RN prescribing, Canadian Nurses Association says

Date:

Dec 11 2012

Ensuring that Canadians receive the health-care services they need — when they need them — is a growing challenge in this country. Aging demographics, rising treatment costs and inadequate access to regular care are among the factors adding pressure to Canada’s health-care system.

Many experts agree that it’s critical to find new ways to deliver care and to make sure that all health professionals are contributing to their full capacity. In the view of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), it is time for registered nurses (RNs) across Canada to have prescribing drugs included in their scope of practice.