Category: Nurses

Nurses: Guilty Verdict for Dosing Mistake Could Cost Lives

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The moment nurse RaDonda Vaught realized she had given a patient the wrong medication, she rushed to the doctors working to revive 75-year-old Charlene Murphey and told them what she had done. Within hours, she made a full report of her mistake to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Murphey died the next day, on…


5,000 NSW Nurses March to Parliament Despite Orders Against Strike

Around 5,000 nurses in the state of New South Wales (NSW) rallied at the state parliament despite last minute orders from the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to immediately cease industrial action. About 150 public hospitals are affected after the nurses’ union assured members they would not be met with fines for disregarding IRC orders. Skeleton…


2 Long Island Nurses Allegedly Made $1.5 Million by Selling Fake Vaccine Cards: Officials

Two New York-based healthcare workers were arrested for allegedly forging and selling thousands of COVID-19 vaccine cards, officials said. The Suffolk County Police Department on Long Island said on Jan. 28 that it arrested Julie DeVuono, 49, and Marissa Urraro, 44, for allegedly selling fake vaccine cards and entering that information into the New York State Immunization…


Charges: Nurses Made $1.5 Million Off Fake Vaccination Cards

AMITYVILLE, N.Y.—Two nurses on Long Island are accused of forging COVID-19 vaccination cards and pocketing more than $1.5 million from the scheme, prosecutors and police said. Julie DeVuono, the owner of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, and her employee, Marissa Urraro, are both charged with felony forgery, and DeVuono also is charged with offering…


Hospitals Should Hire, Not Fire, Nurses With Natural Immunity

Commentary Among many surprising developments during this pandemic, the most stunning has been the questioning of naturally acquired immunity after a person has had the Covid disease. We have understood natural immunity since at least the Athenian Plague in 430 BC. Here is Thucydides: “Yet it was with those who had recovered from the disease that the…


Western Australia To Begin Early-Stage Vaccine Passports

Western Australia will be requiring proof of vaccination for certain venues once the state reaches its opening-up target of 90 percent of 12-and-overs fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated individuals would no longer be allowed to attend nightclubs and casinos, along with events with more than 1,000 patrons such as concerts and festivals. This is on top of…


Worn-Out Nurses Hit the Road for Better Pay

In parts of the country where COVID-19 continues to fill hospitals, a rotating cast of traveling nurses helps keep intensive care units fully staffed. Hospitals have to pay handsomely to get that temporary help, and those higher wages are tempting some staff nurses to hit the road, too. Nearly two years into the pandemic, there’s…


Quebec Offers Bonuses up to $18,000 to Keep Nurses in Struggling Health System

Quebec is offering up to $18,000 in bonuses for full-time nurses to prevent more of them from quitting the province’s struggling healthcare system. Premier François Legault told reporters today he is launching a “mini revolution” in the health network following months of pandemic-induced stresses that have contributed to a shortage of 4,300 nurses in the…


Nurses Warn of Staff Shortages Due to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

A nationwide shortage of nurses and health care workers may soon worsen as thousands of medical staff face losing their jobs by refusing to obey new COVID-19 vaccine mandates. “It will be really terrible. We’re already understaffed,” said one veteran registered nurse who works at a health care facility north of Seattle. She said she…


Traveling Nurses Fill Gaps as Hospitals Feel Staffing Pinch

Never before have nurses been more needed than in the age of COVID-19. Hospitals are feeling the pinch of being short staffed but staffing companies are coming to their rescue. One such company is Medical Solutions based in in Omaha, Nebraska, but which has offices all over the United States. It supplies hospitals with nurses…