Viewpoints: Tennessee Should Remove APRN Restrictions; Vaccine Mandates Are Lawful

The Tennessean: Remove Outdated Tennessee Laws Restricting Advanced Practice RNs
We are two nurses who have long promoted access to needed health care services and the removal of unnecessary and outdated regulations that prevent nurse practitioners and other advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) from providing those services efficiently. We now see a shift that may portend a much-needed change in our quest for regulatory change. At recent meeting of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, Senate Bill 176, which is focused on APRN practice, was discussed. (Ruth Kleinpell and Carole R. Myers, 3/22)

The CT Mirror: Vaccine Mandates In Higher Ed: Legal And Justified
While the omicron surge is hopefully the last phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may unfortunately not be the last pandemic we face. These and other lessons from efforts to control the pandemic will be valuable for any future episode. As a faculty member in public higher education I have been involved in vaccine mandate committees at the university and systemwide level. These mandates, as approved at institutions of higher education throughout the state, have served to protect the health of students, faculty and staff, and to encourage vaccinations by those who might otherwise hesitate. (David Blitz, 3/21)

Modern Healthcare: We’ve Made Progress To Advance DEI In Healthcare—But There’s More Work To Do
Opportunities persist for healthcare organizations and the executives who lead them to address diversity, equity and inclusion head-on. Despite the efforts of many, a great deal of inequity still exists in healthcare delivery, due to variation in care quality, lack of access or because of discrimination based on personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, geographic location or socioeconomic status. These disparities have, unfortunately, been magnified during the pandemic. Many in the industry thought we were doing a lot—but we now know we need to be doing a heck of a lot more. (Anthony Armada, 3/22)

Modern Healthcare: Follow The Science: Healthcare Should Be Personalized, Not Political
There has been much public discourse about the use of race and other personal risk factors in treating COVID-19—with a specific focus on risk calculators. While these may be headline-grabbing claims, our duty as healthcare providers is to always follow the best available evidence and science, without regard for political fallout. The challenge is to remain objective, not letting predispositions or politics cloud our judgment. The people and communities we serve deserve no less. (Laura Kaiser, 3/22)

Miami Herald: America’s Elderly Under Siege From COVID, Other Challenges 
Claude Pepper’s legacy in Miami and throughout Florida, with roads, bridges, senior centers, parks, forums and organizations named after him is remarkable. He was on the cover of Time Magazine on May 2, 1938. He was in the U.S. Senate at the time. But the most significant part of Pepper’s legacy, especially as he grew older, was returning to Congress years after he lost his Senate seat and chairing the House Select Committee on Aging . Pepper pushed the ban on mandatory retirement (with Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders as a witness), protected nursing homes, expanded home healthcare and bolstered Social Security, with solvency through 2034. That put him on the cover of Time Magazine again on April 25, 1983, as America’s “Spokesman For the Elderly.” (Robert Weiner and Ben Lasky, 3/21)

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Los Angeles Times: He Killed Himself. She Helped Him. It Should Have Been Easier 
In her new book, “In Love,” Amy Bloom writes about her husband, Brian Ameche, a gregarious, life-embracing former-college-football-player-turned-architect, and how they fell in love later in life in a small town in Connecticut. And she writes about his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the early days of his decline, and eventually his death at age 66. But what distinguishes this book from other such memoirs is that Ameche made a decision within 48 hours of his diagnosis: He did not want to live on indefinitely as the horrendous brain-wasting disease took control and destroyed him. He preferred to die sooner. He wanted to end his life, he said, “while I am still myself, rather than become less and less of a person.” (Nicholas Goldberg, 3/21)

The CT Mirror: Assisted Suicide: A Dangerous Practice Based On False Claims
As a physician assistant working for the last 46 years, I have spent my life caring for and treating the illnesses of many patients, which included easing their pain, especially when their diseases, or the resulting outcomes, could not be cured. Like all health care practitioners, I swore an oath to serve as a healer. As a result, if I ever told a patient that, instead of seeking treatment, they should end their life, I would deserve to lose my medical license. Yet that is exactly what Connecticut legislators are proposing. (Jack Pike, 3/22)