Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Staff Issues Prompt 1 In 2 Nurses To Think Of Quitting Profession: Survey
Half of nurses have considered leaving the nursing profession, according to recent polls by staffing agency ConnectRN. Staffing shortages were the top reason nurses cited for planning to leave their jobs, followed by needing better work-life balance, the survey out Tuesday said. Nurses also said they planned to leave their roles because their mental health is at risk and they feel a lack of appreciation. (Mensik, 11/8)
The nurse who called emergency services in response to staffing issues at Silverdale, Wash.-based St. Michael Medical Center spoke out about her decision and the events leading up to the call in a Nov. 8 opinion piece for Nurse.org. (Bean, 11/8)
Researchers at College Station-based Texas A&M University are monitoring nurses' eye movements with special glasses. They hope the results will point to causes of stress and burnout, according to a Nov. 8 article on the university's news site. Farzan Sasangohar, PhD, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, and his research team had nurses at Houston Methodist Hospital wear the glasses during their 12-hour shifts. They collected data on "gaze behavior" — number of eye fixations, gaze entropy and pupil diameter — as well as heart rate and skin temperature. These metrics help researchers understand the wearer's mental load at different points in their shift, according to the article. (Kayser, 11/8)
Corewell Health West, formerly Spectrum Health, is partnering with a West Michigan community college to create the state's first registered nurse apprenticeship program. Corewell's Ludington Hospital is partnering with West Shore Community College in Scottville, about 9 miles east of Ludington, for the program. (Walsh, 11/8)
In other health industry news —
A resolution has been found in the trial where a Santa Rosa family accused UCSF medical staff of tearing a hole in their son’s heart — leaving him permanently brain-damaged. (Vainshtein, 11/8)
A New Jersey union is pressing the state to hold its largest health insurer accountable for rising costs after some public employees’ premiums for next year jumped more than 20%. (Tozzi, 11/8)
Innovative health tech startups with big ideas will not get very far if they cannot convince the turtles in the traditional health care system to give them a shot. To that end, Silicon Valley venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz has partnered with rural health system Bassett Healthcare Network to serve as a sort of preferred testing ground for its portfolio companies. (Aguilar, 11/9)
An extortionist has released Australian patients' medical data on the dark web —
Client data from Medibank, Australia’s largest health insurer, was released by an extortionist on Wednesday, including details of HIV diagnoses and drug abuse treatments, after the company refused to pay a ransom for the personal records of almost 10 million current and former customers. The material released on the dark web appeared to be a sample of the data that Medibank has determined was stolen last month, the company said. Medibank expects the thief will continue releasing data. (McGuirk, 11/9)
