Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
There's No Letup For Nurses, Doctors
Crain's New York Business: New York State Nurses Association Report Finds Over 26,000 Nurse Understaffing Complaints Filed In 2019 And 2020
Nurses filed 26,219 complaints to hospital and nursing home managers about understaffing in 2019 and 2020, according to numbers released Wednesday by the New York State Nurses Association. With multiple signatories on each complaint, there were 97,715 nurse signatures total, the data showed. NYSNA receives a copy when such "protests of assignment" are filed, and the numbers are tracked and reported annually, a spokesman said. "Both before and during the pandemic, understaffing at our public hospitals has been severe and puts patients in jeopardy," said Judith Cutchin, NYSNA board member and president of the union's NYC Health + Hospitals/Mayorals executive council. "This condition in our hospitals continues today, and our nurses must care for far too many patients." (Sim, 2/26)
CNN: Travel Nurses Deal With Stress, Loneliness And Mistrust While Serving As A Covid-19 Rapid Deployment System
After another workday marked by unimaginable death, Veronica O'Kane would return to a hotel room -- empty except for the dumbbell she brought from home. The travel nurse from Ontario, Canada, took a contract in Maryland to provide support to a hospital struggling under the demands of the coronavirus pandemic. Isolated, to keep herself and her patients safe, O'Kane spent the time she wasn't tending to critical care coronavirus patients working out alone in her hotel room or calling her loved ones to cry. (Holcombe, 3/1)
Tampa Bay Times: He Pushed Himself From Farm Work To Nursing. At 27, He Died From The Coronavirus.
His first semester of college was just weeks away. After a year of preparations, Miguel Martinez Jr. worried about making it through the University of South Florida. Since his senior year at Brandon High School, he’d worked with Ruby Luis through the College Assistance Migrant Program, eagerly learning about college, what he’d need to do to get in, even visiting a place he’d never imagined. He graduated from high school with honors and traveled that summer with his family to Michigan for the blueberry harvest. (Hare, 3/1)
KHN: ‘Into The Covid ICU’: A New Doctor Bears Witness To The Isolation, Inequities Of Pandemic
This week marks a grim milestone: Half a million Americans have died of covid-19. KHN reporter Jenny Gold, in collaboration with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, spent eight months following one first-year medical resident working on the front lines of the pandemic. Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez graduated from the Stanford University medical school in June, right before the virus began its second major surge. She’s one of more than 30,000 new doctors who started residencies in 2020. Just weeks after graduating, Marin-Nevarez began training as an ER doctor at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, one of the areas in California hardest hit by the pandemic. (Gold, 3/1)
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The New York Times: Plastic Surgeon Attends Video Traffic Court From Operating Room
The Medical Board of California said it was investigating a plastic surgeon who attended a video traffic court hearing from an operating room while dressed in scrubs and with a patient on the surgical table. The surgeon, Dr. Scott Green, reported by videoconference for a trial in Sacramento Superior Court on Thursday. (Fazio, 2/28)
ABC News: Connecticut Ambulance Employee Arrested In String Of Molotov Cocktail Attacks: Police
A Connecticut ambulance company employee was arrested and charged in a string of Molotov cocktail attacks across the state that targeted two emergency medical services agencies, a volunteer fire department and a private residence on the same day, authorities said. Richard White, 37, of Torrington, Connecticut, was arrested around 10 p.m. on Saturday by Pennsylvania State Police troopers who stopped his car on Interstate 80 near Milton, Pennsylvania, officials said. (Hutchinson, 2/28)
