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Showing posts from January, 2013

More Aging Means Increased Medicare Costs

When people live longer, societies have to figure out how to ensure they do not end up in poverty and that they can remain active citizens.  Elders in poverty mean higher health system costs because poor people have more health problems.  Nonetheless, health issues with aging are inevitable regardless of income level. The Washington Post highlights the graph from the US Department of Health and Human Services below. What the graph shows is not a surprise: More people growing older means increased Medicare costs.  See the graph below (courtesy of Flowing Data ) illustrating the average age of members of congress. When you wonder why policy choices are made about Medicare, look at those in Congress who are close to receiving it.

A Teaching Story

The New York Times published a wonderful piece about a nurse who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and offered herself as a teaching case study.  You can read the story in the Times here . Photo review here . From the article: "Spending time with the dying is not fundamental to nurse training, partly because there are not enough clinical settings to provide the experience. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium , a project of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, has provided training in palliative care to some 15,000 nurses and nursing instructors around the nation since 2000, focusing not just on pain management but also on how to help terminally ill patients and their families prepare for death.  In addition, some students do rotations with hospice nurses, said Pam Malloy, the project’s director. But Ms. Malloy said that nursing schools still do not focus on end-of-life care nearly as much as they should. “We live in a death-denying society, a

US Nurses: National Nursing Survey Heading Your Way

Remember your research or evidence-based practice class?  Here is a great example of how nurses can help create evidence to shape workforce policy. The American Nurses Association is moving in a new direction and conducting it first national nursing survey in cooperation with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and the Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers. The survey will be conducted via a mailing through the U.S. Postal Service and via the web. It should reach potential respondents between Jan. 7 and Jan. 14 .  All RNs in the U.S. with active RN licenses are eligible candidates for survey participation. A random sample of this population will be chosen to participate. (Quiz: Why is random sampling important for this type of survey?  Write your responses in the comments!) Nurses who receive the survey are strongly encouraged to provide information such as basic demographic and professional data (e.g., age, year licensed, etc.) even if they ar

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