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Every week we scour the Internet for controversy, quotes and stories related to nursing and the things you care about. Tune in to read our roundup every week!
1. After the media blitz regarding the dad who requested that no African-American nurses look after his daughter, Forbes asks if patients should be able to choose their nurses by race
“Given that our duty is to serve our patients, how should we respond to a request like this?” asks practicing physician and columnist Peter Lipson. “Not too far from me, a patient requested that no black nurses care for his newborn. This must have put the hospital staff in an uncomfortable position. I would hope that in a similar situation I would act in a way to preserve the dignity of my patient and the staff. Or I could get it completely wrong, as the hospital did and reassign non-white nurses.”
“The patient should have been told, without judgement, that their request cannot be met,” Lipson wrote. “It is then up to the patient to decide what to do. In the case of a minor, the hospital must also think of the young patient. If the father intends to walk out before the baby is ready because of the race of the nurse, the answer isn’t to pull out the nurse but to call the proper child protective authorities.”
Source: Forbes
2. More and more hospitals are using social media to fill nursing needs
“In tune to traditional methods, we are reaching out by means of social media,” said Leigh Ann Wiedlich, community relations coordinator for the Greater Hazleton Health Alliance. “It’s the typical run of business. Social media is a way to attract young professionals.”
“Some places in the United States said the nursing shortage was over but that did not occur. The nursing shortage is far from over,” said Dr. Mary Ann Merrigan, associate dean at the School of Nursing at Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre. “The United States projected a shortage of registered nurses that will intensify as the baby boomers age.”
Source: York Daily Record
3. Michigan starts a debate between 2- and 4-year nursing schools as the state tries to revive an old bill
The state needs “to make sure we’re allowing competition to drive down the costs of delivering something that’s so important as an adequate supply of nursing,” state Rep. Mike Shirkey said. And, where need is concerned, he added, “Data has pretty well proven that the programs (the state’s public universities) have are not set up to meet the demand.”
“At some point here in the future, there’s going to be a pretty significant shortage of nurses, and if you couple that with the condition that all new nurses have to have a baccalaureate degree, now you’ve really tightened the pipeline,” said Mike Hansen, president of the Michigan Community College Association.
Source: Lansing State Journal
