FIU Nursing Kick-Starts APRN Twitter Campaign

Florida International University’s (FIU) Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences has launched Nursing Academia ACTIVATE, a social media effort to raise awareness and champion the APRN Campaign for Consensus initiated by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). The campaign aims to directly engage nursing deans, directors, faculty and other health care leaders to weigh in on the NCSBN initiative to assist states in aligning their APRN regulation. “As health care educators and leaders, we must make our voices heard to affect change and use every tool at our disposal to do so, and that includes Twitter,” said Ora Strickland, PhD, DSc (Hon), RN, FAAN, Dean of the College. She noted that in Florida, the need is especially great to affect change in state laws. A dedicated landing page on the College website details the effort and how to get involved, including a “Twitter Tip of the Week” video series. For more information about Nursing Academia ACTIVATE and to participate, please click here.

CDC issues advisory on pediatric neurological illness

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Children’s Hospital Colorado are investigating a cluster of nine pediatric patients hospitalized with an acute neurologic illness of undetermined etiology, and CDC has issued a health advisory warning others to watch out for similar symptoms. Specifically, the agency is urging hospitals to report to their state and local health departments patients age 21 and under with acute onset of focal limb weakness occurring on or after Aug. 1 and an MRI showing a spinal cord lesion largely restricted to gray matter. For more details, please see the advisory.

CDC issues updated preparedness framework for flu pandemics                    

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an updated framework for pandemic flu preparedness and response, which incorporates information from new planning and response tools and aligns with the World Health Organization’s new pandemic phases. “Compared with the previous U.S. government stages, this updated framework provides greater detail and clarity regarding the potential timing of key decisions and actions aimed at slowing the spread and mitigating the impact of an emerging pandemic,” the agency said. The framework is intended to support and organize planning and response efforts at the federal, state and local levels. “The use of common concepts is critical for tracking the course of the pandemic, for communication, and for implementing timely, coordinated response efforts,” the authors note.

FDA unveils new dashboard for inspection, compliance and recall data

The Food and Drug Administration has unveiled a new dashboard designed to provide insight into the agency’s compliance, inspection and recall activities. The new tool provides information in graphical form while also allowing interested parties to access the underlying data. FDA previously provided such information in a spreadsheet format. To access the dashboard, please visit the FDA web site.

Study: C. Diff rate nearly doubled between 2001-2010

The rate of C. difficile infection in U.S. hospitals nearly doubled from 2001 to 2010, according to a study in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control. Researchers from The University of Texas College of Pharmacy analyzed data from the U.S. National Hospital Discharge Surveys and found that rates of CDI rose from 4.5 to 8.2 discharges per 1,000 total adult hospital discharges over that time period. However, the rate leveled off at the end of the decade after peaking at 8.6 discharges per 1,000 total adult hospital discharges in 2008. “Several factors may have contributed to the rise in CDI incidence in recent years,” said Kelly Reveles, the study’s lead author. “Antibiotic exposure remains the most important risk factor for CDI.” In July, the American Hospital Association and six national partners released a toolkit to help hospitals and health systems enhance their antimicrobial stewardship programs. According to a 2013 AHA Physician Leadership Forum white paper, appropriate use of antibiotics is one of five areas where hospitals, in partnership with their clinical staff and patients, should look to reduce non-beneficial care through appropriate use of medical resources.

Consortium announces March Educational Conference to take place at Sea

The Nursing Consortium of South Florida is pleased to announce that its Winter 2015 Educational Conference will take place at sea aboard the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas;Thursday March 5, 2015 through Monday March 9, 2015.  A limited number of sponsor/exhibitor opportunities exist.  Conference attendees will have the opportunity to choose between two twelve-hour tracks developed to enhance the leadership skills of nurses a Nurse Clinical Leadership Track and a Nurse Educator Leadership Track.  "Increasing leadership at the point of care is critical to improving outcomes and patient satisfaction, Nurse Clinical Leadership Track is designed to empower nurses with the skills needed to provide greater leadership and help their colleagues do so as well," remarked Ora Strickland, Dean and professor of the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences at Florida International University.  "The Nurse Educator Leadership Track is designed to give new faculty members and experienced nurses new to the role of clinical adjunct the critical foundational knowledge of the current best practices in instruction, learning facilitation, and evaluation of student learning outcomes. It is also a great confidence builder for educators working in either practice or academic settings that want to get better," stated Amy Pettigrew, Dean of the Benjamin Leon School of Nursing at Miami Dade College. A program Q&A has been developed to answer questions you may have and knowledgeable staff are available to assist you with reservation details at 800-422-0711. 

Infographic: Hospitals making progress on health equity efforts                        

A new infographic from the Equity of Care initiative, the American Hospital Association's Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence and the Institute for Diversity in Health Management shows some areas in which hospitals are making progress in promoting equitable care. The infographic uses data from the most recent Institute benchmarking survey. It shows that 86% of hospitals surveyed in 2013 educated all clinical staff during orientation about how to address the unique cultural and linguistic factors affecting the care of diverse patients and communities, up from 81% in 2011, and 64% of hospitals require all employees to attend diversity training, up from 60%. Launched in 2011 by the AHA, Association of American Medical Colleges, American College of Healthcare Executives, Catholic Health Association of the United States, and America’s Essential Hospitals, Equity of Care is a national call to action to eliminate health care disparities by increasing diversity in health care governance and leadership; cultural competency training; and collection and use of race, ethnicity and language preference data. For free tools and shared best practices, please visit the Equity of Care web site.

FDA clears glucose monitoring system for use in hospital critical care units

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a blood glucose monitoring system for use in critically ill hospital patients, making it the first such device specifically approved for use in all hospital patients. FDA also granted the Nova StatStrip Glucose Hospital Meter System “waived” test system status under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, which will allow a broad variety of health care professionals to perform the test at the point of care. In addition, the CLIA waiver will allow hospital labs to safely provide blood glucose monitoring to their critically ill patients without having to meet the significant CLIA requirements for high complexity testing. “This device provides an important public health resource for critically ill hospitalized patients, who often have conditions or are taking medications that can cause incorrect blood glucose reading,” said Alberto Gutierrez, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Devices. “It is important for manufacturers of glucose meters used in hospitals to design and test their devices for use in all hospitalized patients.” Blood glucose monitoring systems, also called blood glucose meters, are handheld devices used to measure blood sugar in patients. FDA originally approved the Nova StatStrip Glucose Hospital Meter System for other uses in 2006.

CDC reports first recent decline in overall labor induction rate

The overall labor induction rate for single births declined 0.5 percentage point between 2010 and 2012, to 23.3%, after rising for nearly two decades, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inductions at 34-38 weeks of gestation began to fall before 2010, dropping 4% for weeks 34-36 and 12% for weeks 37-38 between 2006 and 2012, CDC said. Inductions at 38 weeks declined for all maternal age groups under 40 and for all racial and ethnic groups, with overall declines ranging from 5% in Maryland to 48% in Utah.