Top 5 Nursing Stories You Missed This Week

Nurses are traditionally known for their quick thinking and perseverance. This week’s Top 5 Nursing News Stories You Missed highlight the many other qualities of the modern nurse, as portrayed through nurse inventors, advocates, change leaders and clinical leaders. From "MacGyver nurses” to nurse policymakers, nurses today are making their voices heard.

'MacGyver' Nurses Build Their Own Solutions

MIT’s Little Devices Lab, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, launched MakerNurse to identify and honor nurse innovation in the healthcare system. MakerNurse aims to study nurse making in hospitals and identify ways to better support inventive nurses. Read more about MakerNurse at Health Leaders Media.

American Nurses Association Calls Shutdown 'Irresponsible & Harmful'

The American Nurses Association took a stand this week on the government shutdown, urging members of Congress to find a solution. The organization stressed that due to the shutdown, the National Institutes of Health clinical research center will be forced to turn away 200 patients each week. The ANA also urged action in light of the upcoming flu season, noting that “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not monitoring how influenza is spreading across the country and are not able to support state and local partners for infectious disease surveillance.” Read more about the ANA’s remarks on the government shutdown at ADVANCE for Nurses.

A More Perfect Union

When two hospitals or healthcare organizations merge, nurses often report feeling overwhelmed and unsure about their professional future. However, mergers often bring positive changes for nurses and patients, including a stronger patient care offering, increased job security and room for growth. Learn more about how hospital mergers affect nurses at Nurse.com.

Nurse Practitioners More Satisfied With Their Job Choice than Docs

A recent Staff Care survey reports that 96 percent of 222 nurse practitioners (NPs) surveyed at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners annual meeting said if they had the chance to redo their careers, they would become NPs again. In comparison, 40 percent of doctors would pick a different career path. Read more about the NP survey results at Fierce Healthcare.

Want to Reduce Readmissions? Hire More Nurses, Study Says

A new study conducted by Health Affairs has the industry buzzing. Researchers found that hospitals with higher nurse staffing have lower odds of readmissions penalties than hospitals with lower staffing. Hospitals are considered high-staffed if they had an average of eight registered nurse hours per adjusted patient day. A larger nursing staff also provides nurses with more time and resources to make readmission reduction strategies work. Find out more about reducing readmission rates with nurse staffing at Med City News.