NOTES ON NURSING
AHRQ Seeks Comments From Patients to Help Develop Patient Safety Reporting System There is a growing body of evidence that many adverse medical events go unreported in current systems. One important reason for this reporting gap is that most reporting systems do not presently accept or elicit reports from patients and their families. AHRQ recognizes that the unique perspective of health care consumers could reveal important information that is not reported by health care providers. NOTE: Comment deadline is July 8, 2013
On the Wings of a Nightingale Today I ran into a Mexican restaurant to grab a quick lunch, and as I ate my meal I came across a table of nurses wearing hospital scrubs. As they chatted amongst themselves I thought about the many nurses my family has interacted with over the last five years, and I found myself filled with such appreciation for what these amazing women and men do for us.
HEALTH CARE
Is Self-Rationing of Medications a Good or a Bad Thing? In America, the conventional wisdom is that we don’t ration health care. But we do, and there’s no better example than patients rationing themselves when it comes to the medicines they take.
Research Forgotten by Budget Cuts The N.I.H. funding is cut 5 percent, or $1.55 billion this year, across the board. That means 700 fewer research grants are approved and 750 fewer patients will be admitted to its clinical center. The longer the automatic cuts go on, the worse it will get; medical breakthroughs are rarely instant. They take years and build on previous studies and experiments.
LABOR UPDATES
Union Membership Decline Boosts Corporate Profit at Workers’ Expense “It’s a zero sum game: whatever is not going to workers, goes to corporations,” Kristal said. “Union decline not only increased wage gaps among workers, but also enabled capitalists to grab a larger slice of the national income pie at the expense of all workers, including the highly skilled.”