On April 12th of this year, Christann Shyvin Gainey, L.P.N., was caring for a patient named H.R. McMaster, Sr. who was recovering from a stroke in a Pennsylvania facility. During her shift and unwitnessed, Mr. McMaster fell and nurse Gainey was seen on surveillance video failing to perform neuro checks thereafter as required by the facility’s policy. Mr. McMaster was found dead sitting in the lobby of the facility. He suffered blunt trauma to the head from an unwitnessed fall and developed a … [Read more...]
Health Care Provider Gabapentin Abuse
I have recently seen a number of health care professionals using Gabapentin, which is used to treat epilepsy, postherpetic neuralgia (shingles), but also widely prescribed off-label to treat fibromyalgia, neuropathy, migraines and other chronic pain conditions. In 2016, 64,000,000 prescriptions were written in the U.S. for Gabapentin, the 10th most prescribed medication. This is a 49% increase in just 5 years. In researching this issue, it appears that Gabapentin can increase or heighten the … [Read more...]
Nursing Boards: Why Are They So Harsh?
I am frequently asked why nursing boards are so harsh. The Boards are composed of nurses and shouldn’t the Board understand the situations in which nurses get involved? California has had issues with their Board. California has a separate Board of Nursing for Registered Nurses and one for License Vocational Nurses. The RN Board is called the Board of Registered Nursing (“B.R.N.”). In some parts of the country, licensed vocational nurses are called licensed practical … [Read more...]
Initiatives to Stop Violence Against Health Care Providers
Guest Blog by Mathew Keller, RN, JD. Reprinted with Permission from The American Association of Nurse Attorneys (TAANA) The forcible and violent July 26th, 2017 arrest of Utah nurse Alex Wubbels was a proverbial shot heard around the nursing world, provoking national media attention and a visceral reaction of support for nurses culminating in national campaigns to #EndNurseAbuse (ANA), #STAMP (stop assaults against medical providers, Show Me Your Stethoscope), and initiatives to escalate … [Read more...]
Safe Staffing Initiatives For Nurses
As nurses, we are the front line of patient safety. These days, hospitals are run as corporations and tend to put profits ahead of patients. We need to change this. People come first! Because hospitals are now run like businesses, productivity experts and personnel who are not nurses, ask us to do so much more with less. Administration is squeezing nurses to put their patients’ lives at risk and their licenses on the line. I am all for mandatory nurse patient ratios. While I think it … [Read more...]
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