A video posted on a social media platform shows a female staff member slumping at a medical cart, apparently asleep. Of course, the video went viral with more than 50,000 views and shared more than 2,000 times. Yikes. Who would post such a thing? Shocking, it was a co-worker at the nursing home. Why would a staff member do something …
In an article published in MedPage Today, Bernadette Melnyk, Ph.D., RN, vice president for Health Promotion, University Chief Wellness Officer, and Professor and Dean of the College of Nursing at the Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, was quoted as saying “We cannot pour from an empty cup”. What an impactful statement! What Ms. Melnyk was referring to are our …
In an interesting article published in the American Journal of Critical Care, a national survey-based study, conducted by the Ohio State University College of Nursing in Columbus identified that nurses who perceived high levels of wellness support from their organizations were more than twice as likely to have better health than nurses who reported not having supportive worksites. This study …
The National Safety Council offers resources for you and your team of caregivers as we evolve from pandemic to the “new normal”. These resources include training regarding substance abuse, how to ask for help at work, a prevention checklist for employees, webinars on managing mental health, etc. Their website explains that “the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the mental health and …
Many studies have been done on people who work shifts and the adverse health effects of shift work can cause including respiratory disease, diabetes, cancer, and non-COVID-19 infectious diseases. Although the mechanisms underlying these associations remain uncertain, one hypothesis is that irregular working hours could lead to circadian misalignment. In a study published in the journal Thorax, researchers set out …
The percentage of adults who had symptoms of anxiety or a depressive disorder during the past 7 days and those with unmet mental health needs during the past 4 weeks increased significantly from August 2020 to February 2021, with the largest increases among those aged 18-29 years and those with less than high school education. During January 20, 2021-February 1 …
Patients and families desire compassionate care from healthcare providers. In today’s healthcare environment, challenges exist for all providers, including nurses, with balancing the delivery of consistent, compassionate care and maintaining a professional quality of life (QOL) that incorporates overall wellness and a healthy work environment. Professional QOL incorporates positive and negative aspects. An important positive aspect is compassion satisfaction (CS) …
Researchers from the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands have trialed cooling vests, originally designed for elite athletes, in nursing staff working long shifts in COVID19 wards wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE). The study found that among 386 healthcare workers involved in COVID-19 care, a high prevalence of: Thermal discomfort (77%), Excessive sweating (64%), Thirst/dehydration (81%), Headache (57%) …
JAMDA published a recent study that assessed whether using coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) community activity levels can accurately inform strategies for routine testing of facility staff for active severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Of the staff tested, 28% were certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who accounted for 36.9% of all staff testing positive. Similarly, licensed practice nurses (LPNs) …
A team of researchers from UCLA and Yale University decided to examine the people who continued to enter nursing homes during the beginning of the coronavirus in March 2020, the employees! Keith Chen, a behavioral economist and UCLA professor said the key question is this: “The people who, we can infer, work in this nursing home, what other nursing homes …
