Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Administration Reveals $100 Million Plan To Boost Nurse Workforce
Fierce Healthcare: HHS To Invest $100M To Train Nurses, Bolster Clinician Workforce
The Biden administration announced a $100 million investment to train more nurses and grow the workforce as the healthcare industry faces a critical nurse shortage. Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Thursday the investments will help address the increasing demand for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and nurse faculty. (Landi, 8/10)
Modern Healthcare: HHS To Boost Nursing Workforce, Training With $100M Investment
The funds will be split among dozens of recipients nationwide across five different program areas. “We're doing this because we got marching orders directly from President Biden who said, ‘This is unacceptable,’” HHS secretary Xavier Becerra said at a media briefing Thursday. The agency is especially focused on addressing burnout, bottlenecks in nursing education and the lack of mental health providers, Becerra said. More than $34 million will go to 56 universities and health systems that will participate in a recently announced advanced nursing education workforce program. (Devereaux, 8/10)
More news about health care personnel —
Chicago Tribune: 11-Day Strike At Loretto Hospital Ends
About 200 Loretto Hospital workers will return to work after their union reached a tentative contract agreement with hospital leadership Thursday, following an 11-day strike. The union SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Loretto announced Thursday evening that they reached the tentative agreement, which provides wage increases and a Juneteenth paid holiday. (Schencker and Arougheti, 8/10)
Modern Healthcare: Violence In Healthcare Surges But Security Fixes Remain Complex
Worsening violence in healthcare settings presents providers with a vexing dilemma: How to maintain safety and security for staff and patients without creating unwelcoming, closed environments in what are meant to be places of healing. Abuses committed against personnel in hospitals and other facilities aren’t a new problem, but statistics show a worrying upward trend. And America’s gun violence epidemic isn’t sparing the nation’s healthcare providers, as several recent high-profile incidents demonstrated. (Hartnett, 8/10)
Becker's Hospital Review: 18% Of Healthcare Employees Use ChatGPT Regularly At Work
Less than one year after ChatGPT's debut took the digital aspect of many industries by storm, 18 percent of healthcare employees say they use the tool frequently, according to a July LinkedIn poll conducted by Becker's. Of the 1,617 respondents, 23 percent reported they use the tool but do so infrequently, and 58 percent reported not using it at all. Becker's does not have detailed insight into the respondents' roles or organizations in LinkedIn polls outside of the information that is publicly available. (Hollowell, 8/10)
The Washington Post: As Hospitals Use AI Chatbots And Algorithms, Doctors And Nurses Say They Can’t Be Replaced
Every day Bojana Milekic, a critical care doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital, scrolls through a computer screen of patient names, looking at the red numbers beside them — a score generated by artificial intelligence — to assess who might die. On a morning in May, the tool flagged a 74-year-old lung patient with a score of .81 — far past the .65 score when doctors start to worry. He didn’t seem to be in pain, but he gripped his daughter’s hand as Milekic began to work. She circled his bed, soon spotting the issue: A kinked chest tube was retaining fluid from his lungs, causing his blood oxygen levels to plummet. (Verma, 8/10)
MPR News: U Of M Med Student Reflects On 2 Months Behind The Front Lines In Ukraine
Twenty-four-year-old Sergey Karachenets had no military experience but wanted to give back to the country where he was born: Ukraine. The University of Minnesota medical student and EMT has spent the last two months behind the front lines as a combat medic. Karachenets arrives back in the state Thursday to prepare for his fall classes. (Wurzer and Stockton, 8/10)
