Viewpoints: Steps To A Safer ER For Nurses; How Do We Plan For The Next Pandemic?

The Baltimore Sun: When Patients Turn Violent, Front-Line Workers Become Targets 
He had my ponytail tightly curled around his hands and my neck yanked back as he yelled and spit profanities inches from my face. What started as an argument over a urine sample turned into the scariest shift of my career. A medical technician hit the silent panic button at the end of the hall, but before the security guards arrived, the emergency department (ED) charge nurse ran from the nurses’ station to diffuse the situation and put the 6-foot, 280-pound patient in a headlock. I was able to slip from his grip and, eventually, security ran in and restrained the drunken, opioid-seeking patient. (Seychelles Zack, 5/17)

Stat: The World Needs To Start Preparing Now For The Next Pandemic 
As countries grapple with the worst global pandemic in a century, it’s hard to think about preparing for the next one. But if we don’t, it could be worse than Covid-19. Over the last 30 years, infectious disease outbreaks have emerged with alarming regularity. The World Health Organization lists an influenza pandemic and other high-threat viral diseases such as Ebola and dengue among the top 10 biggest threats to public health. The rate of animal-to-human transmission of viruses has been increasing, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that 75% of new infectious diseases in humans come from animals. (Andy Plump, 5/18)

Dallas Morning News: Making Technology Accessible For People With Disabilities Will End Up Making Life Easier For Everyone
Have you ever noticed the ramps at a street corner? These are called curb cuts. The initial purpose was to allow wheelchairs to cross the street. The curb cut ended up helping a lot more people: parents pushing strollers, travelers pulling luggage, skateboarders flying, bikers riding and workers carrying heavy loads. Making websites, digital products and content accessible to those with disabilities has a curb cut effect. (Meryl Evans, 5/18)

Stat: All States Should Harness Nurses' Full Potential 
The U.S. health care system should learn many lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic. A key one is that it’s time to unleash the power of the country’s nursing workforce. Nurses have been essential in combating Covid-19, from their work caring for patients hospitalized with severe Covid-19 to treating people in their homes and administering vaccines. But even without a pandemic, it’s clear that when nurses are free to fully deploy their expertise and training, they not only improve health care quality and access but can also help dismantle systemic inequities tied to geography, racism, and poverty that affect people’s health. (Regina Cunningham and David R. Williams, 5/18)

Modern Healthcare: Joe Biden's Cancer Pledge Brings Opportunities To Get It Right
President Joe Biden’s pledge to “end cancer as we know it” starting with a $6.5 billion investment in cancer and other medical research is welcome news to anyone affected by this disease—and that’s all of us. With cancer impacting 1 in 3 Americans in their lifetime, cancer is one of the most pressing health challenges of our time. Cancer did not stop during the COVID-19 crisis and, even as we begin to get the pandemic under control, cancer remains an urgent cause for the medical community and, more importantly, for our patients and their families. Although cancer deaths are decreasing, the disease still claims the lives of about 600,000 people each year. We need bold measures and bold leadership. (Dr. Edward S. Kim, 5/18)

CNN: Roe V. Wade: Dobbs Could Be The Case That Takes Down The Abortion Law
Just a week ago, it seemed hard to imagine that the Supreme Court, with its conservative supermajority, was ready for a direct attack on Roe v. Wade. After all, the justices had been considering a Mississippi abortion case since September without saying a word. And yet Monday, the court agreed to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a challenge to a 2018 law banning abortion at 15 weeks. And more shocking still, the court chose not to take the less controversial off-ramp offered by Mississippi. (Mary Ziegler, 5/18)

Los Angeles Times: The Supreme Court Should Not Destroy Roe Vs. Wade 
For the nearly five decades since the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion, that right has been under attack by state legislators. But the high court has stood by its landmark decision in Roe vs. Wade over and over again in the rulings that followed. Now the justices have taken a case that could result in that bedrock precedent — a pillar of a woman’s ability to control her body and her life — being overturned. On Monday, the high court agreed to weigh in on a Mississippi state law that bans abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy. A federal district court and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals both found the law unconstitutional because Roe guarantees a right to an abortion up to the point when a fetus would be viable outside the woman’s body, which is around 24 weeks of gestation. (5/17)