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Adrienne Jones, RN, an ED nurse at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR, says that ED nurses used to see about five to 10 mental-health patients a day, but are now seeing twice as many.
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A 63-year-old construction worker came to the ED at Jacobi Medical Center in Bronx, NY, with difficulty swallowing, and reported losing 40 pounds in the previous six months.
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Paramedics arrive with a man you recognize instantly from his many previous visits to your ED, always intoxicated. You learn that his vital signs are stable, and he was found on the ground by bystanders, says Tia Valentine, RN, CEN, clinical nurse educator for the ED at University of California-San Diego Medical Center.
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With intraosseous (IO) vascular access, patients are subjected to a minimum number of sticks, so there is less chance of creating a portal for infection, says Sean Hall, an ED nurse at Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, ME. "The time which can be saved by using these devices can be lifesaving in a critical patient," he says.
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Caffeine. You know how you feel when you are one cup of coffee over the line? Everything is jumbled and irritating, and you just want to lash out at someone! What an uncomfortable feeling that is, for you and for those around you (as I have been told...). We see it with the surgeons, staff, anesthesia, front desk staff seemingly everyone is wired just a bit too tight.
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More health care workers responded to this season's push for influenza vaccination by rolling up their sleeves and getting the vaccine. By mid-November, 56% reported having gotten the vaccine and 7% said they definitely planned to get the vaccine, according to a web-based survey conducted for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 68% of hospital employees had received the vaccine, and another 5% said they definitely intended to be vaccinated, for a total of 73%.
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Many ambulatory surgery programs are accustomed to using a specific size of vials for hydromorphone, but they have been forced by what is being described as the worst drug shortage ever to convert to vials twice the normal size due to a shortage of their customary vials.
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Some health care facilities are finding that video cameras inside and outside the facility are allowing them to reduce crime and maintain security staffing even as the facility grows.
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Six new reports issued by the AAAHC Institute for Quality Improvement (AAAHC Institute), a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), offer insights to enhance the quality and efficiency of some of the most common outpatient procedures.
