REPORT: MORE HEALTHCARE WORKERS NEED
FLU SHOTS

Unvaccinated healthcare workers can be a key cause of influenza outbreaks in healthcare settings, but 64 percent of healthcare workers nationwide do not get annual flu shots, according to a new report. The American Medical Association and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, along with other healthcare groups, have created "Improving Influenza Vaccination Rates in Health Care Workers: Strategies to Increase Protection for Workers and Patients," a booklet providing strategies healthcare institutions can use to protect employees against the flu. The booklet also describes the impact of flu on healthcare workers and patients, as well as how to improve healthcare workers' knowledge of and attitudes toward vaccinations. The report is available online at www.nfid.org.

HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE FUNDING SEES
SLIGHT INCREASE

The House Appropriations Committee has allotted
$146.8 million for nurse workforce development programs in fiscal year 2005. The funds are significantly less than the $205 million that a coalition of healthcare organizations asked for over the summer. In June, the coalition sent a letter to members of the House and Senate appropriations committees asking for an increase of $63 million to fund nurse education, loan repayment and scholarship programs. The coalition cited a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report that registered nursing will record the greatest job growth of all U.S. professions from 2002 to 2012, and healthcare facilities will have more than 1.1 million RN positions to fill during the 10-year period. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nursing schools turned away about 16,000 qualified applicants in 2003 because of insufficient capacity. The House is scheduled to vote on the matter in September and then the Senate will take action.

WORKPLACE INJURIES LINKED TO EVOLVING HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Changes to the U.S. healthcare system are to blame for the increase in neck, shoulder and back problems among registered nurses, according to a survey of nurses recently published in the American Journal of Public Health. Researchers say the managed care movement resulted not only in shorter hospital stays and higher patient acuity but a reduction in the nursing workforce to save money. Those organizational changes are "having a profound impact on patient care and nursing practice," the researchers say. "Nurses are experiencing difficult work conditions that have an impact on their health over and above the psychological and physical job demands." The prevalence of neck, shoulder and back pain among the nurses was 20 percent, 17 percent and 29 percent, respectively. "The odds ratios for neck, shoulder and back musculoskeletal disorders showed a consistent and increasing trend with the level of reported healthcare system change," the researchers note. "If changes in workload and work complexity are not addressed, there may be further negative implications for the healthcare delivery system and, ultimately, patient care," the authors conclude.

MEDICAL ERRORS CLAIM 195,000 LIVES EACH YEAR,
STUDY FINDS

An average of 195,000 Americans died due to
in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a recent study by HealthGrades, a healthcare quality organization. The HealthGrades study finds nearly double the number of deaths from medical errors reported by the 1999 Institute of Medicine report "To Err is Human," which found that medical errors caused up to 98,000 deaths annually. HealthGrades researchers looked at three years of Medicare data in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. This Medicare population represented about 45 percent of all hospital admissions- excluding obstetric patients- in the United States from 2000 to 2002. Researchers looked at 16 of the 20 patient-safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, from bedsores to postoperative sepsis. HealthGrade officials note that focusing on key areas- failure to rescue (failure to diagnose or treat in time), bed sores, postoperative sepsis and postoperative pulmonary embolism- could reduce incidents by 20 percent and save thousands of lives.

A study in the American Journal of Nursing found that healthcare providers' professional roles and preconceived notions can heavily influence their understanding of what constitutes a medical error. The study examined the organizational processes used to recognize medical errors and assign responsibility for them to resolve patient-safety issues in 29 small rural hospitals over three years. The authors propose that "a systems approach to patient safety" be adopted, one in which responsibility for safety is shared by all members of the healthcare team. Visit http://www.ajnonline.com/.