New nursing school coming to Southern Hills Hospital

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LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A new nursing school is coming to Las Vegas.

On Thursday, the Galen College of Nursing announced they are planning to open a new campus, which would be based out of Southern Hills Hospital. The college will be an affiliate of HCA Healthcare. HCA's Far West Division has headquarters in Henderson.

"We're eager to welcome Galen College of Nursing to the Las Vegas community. They are an important partner in ushering in the next generation of qualified nurses to help care for our community's increasing healthcare needs," said Shari Chavez, the HCA Healthcare Far West Division Chief Nurse Executive. "These new nursing programs complement our existing educational offerings that include 31 graduate medical education and fellowship programs, as well as our paramedic institute."

The campus will be more than 38,000 square feet and feature a Simulation Center, where students can work in an "immersive, hands-on environment designed to prepare them for real-world healthcare scenarios".

According to school officials, they will offer a two-year Associate Degree in Nursing, ADN, program and a three-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing, BSN, program. Enrollment is open now with the first term scheduled to start in April.

Anyone interested can make admission appointments by calling 877-223-7040 or going to Galen College's website.

RELATED LINK: Finding solutions to address nursing shortage

A 2023 study by Scholaroo, an educational research non-profit, analyzed working conditions. for nurses in each state and ranked Nevada fifth in states with the highest nursing shortages in the U.S. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is also projecting there will be nearly 195,000 registered nurse job openings every year until 2029.

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Advanced practice registered nurses adapt to expanded telehealth use during and after pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing staff leaders scrambled to find online platforms that would allow providers to treat patients via telehealth.

A new paper published in The Nurse Practitioner looks at how 75 advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) across Illinois not only adapted to telehealth but also found ways to expand its use in their nursing practices to this day.

The research was conducted by Deborah Adelman, a professor of graduate nursing at Purdue Global; Catherine Fant, an adjunct graduate nursing faculty member at Walden University; and Julia Koklys, an assistant professor in graduate nursing at Lewis University.

The group explored how APRNs responded to the need to abruptly switch from in-person to telehealth options because of the pandemic, especially as most other studies examined this phenomenon from the perspective of patients, physicians and physician assistants, Adelman said. The researchers found that while many APRNs recognized the benefits of telehealth visits, some concerns remain regarding the equity of internet access, patient computer and technology literacy, and quality of care.

For the study's purposes, APRNs included nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, certified nurse midwives and certified registered nurse anesthetists.

According to Adelman, most of the APRNs were comfortable with the concept of using telehealth despite issues regarding technology and platform performance and were optimistic about its impact on patient care.

"We noticed those in the rural areas were more comfortable with it, and it was a patient satisfier," Adelman said. "APRNs were already comfortable in using technology to send tests to larger urban medical centers for results. The pandemic made it more routine with time because they had to use it."

In addition to overcoming tech issues, nurse practitioners had to adjust to how care was delivered to patients online, as well as to new routines and the additional training needed to fully utilize the technology.

"They are now seeing patients who would have hesitated to come into a medical office," Adelman said. "There's an awakening to the fact there is an inequity to internet access, as well as what is happening off camera or behind the scenes and patient privacy issues."

Illinois, like many other states, is increasing broadband access, which could in turn increase residents' telehealth use.

The research showed that most participants were able to develop or maintain rapport with new or established patients using telehealth and felt that their patients were satisfied by these virtual visits. Adelman said that while some participants surveyed felt that patients received somewhat worse care than new or existing patients seen in person, she believes those issues could be caused by other patient factors such as poor vision or hearing, or technology issues for both patients and providers. Even if they felt their patients experienced these kinds of issues, APRNs overall wanted to continue using telehealth platforms in the future, and new federal legislation has allowed for that to happen post-pandemic.

Adelman said having APRNs excited to use and expand the use of telehealth is a good thing, especially as a way to reach more people and address health disparities. She is concerned how some hospitals and clinics are starting to charge additional fees for telehealth use and basic services that would be free or at a minimal cost to some patients in an office setting.

"This is a permanent part of the future of health care delivery, as it could help with the provider shortage," Adelman said. "However, I am concerned that we may be moving too fast, and we should move more deliberately with use and policies."

Adelman would like to replicate the study, particularly in another state with a more dispersed population, as she believes medical providers and populations in such areas are more comfortable using telehealth at a higher rate due to distance. She would also like to look at how nurse educators are using online platforms for activities like patient education and provider training. Another area needing more research is the length of a virtual appointment.

"This study gave a voice to nurse practitioners. There are all types of areas that we have to think about now, especially as we have so much data and comments to review," Adelman said.

More information: Deborah S. Adelman et al, APRNs' perception of telehealth use, The Nurse Practitioner (2023). DOI: 10.1097/01.NPR.0000000000000104

Citation: Advanced practice registered nurses adapt to expanded telehealth use during and after pandemic (2023, December 13) retrieved 6 January 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12-advanced-registered-nurses-telehealth-pandemic.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Barbie should expand her range of medical and scientific professions, suggests study

Barbie should consider expanding her medical and scientific careers into areas where women and other under-represented groups remain a minority, suggests a study published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

The ever-popular fashion doll has been everything from a construction worker, teacher, and veterinarian to a judge, scientist, and medical doctor, symbolizing careers that children can aspire to one day hold.

But no previous studies have analyzed Barbie medical professional and scientist dolls to determine the kinds of professions they hold and their professional accuracy.

To fill this knowledge gap, researcher Katherine Klamer set out to identify the kinds of medical and scientific fields that Barbie dolls worked in compared with other career dolls and to determine whether they met clinical and laboratory safety standards.

Her findings are based on analysis of 92 Barbie brand career dolls (53 doctors, 10 scientists, two science educators, 15 nurses, 11 dentists, and one paramedic) and a comparison group of 65 non-Barbie brand career dolls (26 doctors, 27 scientists, seven nurses, two dentists, two engineers and one MRI technician) from July to November 2023.

Doll careers were identified by visually analyzing clothing, accessories, and packaging, and their personal safety accessories were assessed according to Indiana University guidelines.

Barbie brand career dolls were overwhelmingly depicted as adult (98%), female (93%), and white (59%) and no doll was depicted as having a visible disability. Of the comparison dolls, 32% were white and one doll had a prosthetic arm.

Barbie brand medical professional dolls largely treated children (66%), with only three dolls (4%) depicted working with adult patients.

Other than three ophthalmologist dolls, all Barbie brand doctor dolls appeared to have either no specialty or were pediatricians with no apparent subspecialty.

Barbie brand dolls often came with items, such as laboratory coats, microscopes, stethoscopes, and glasses. However, no doll fully met professional safety standards for their respective fields. For example, 98% of the Barbie brand doctor dolls came with stethoscopes, but only 4% had face masks and none had disposable gloves.

More than two-thirds of Barbie brand female medical professional and scientist dolls also wore loose hair, and more than half wore high-heeled shoes, even in settings where this would be discouraged or actively prohibited for safety reasons.

Of the 12 scientist Barbie brand dolls, none met all proper personal protective equipment requirements related to hair and clothing.

While comparison dolls offered a wider range of age and ethnic groups than the Barbie doll group did, the dolls similarly struggled to portray a wide range of medical and scientific subfields and most comparison dolls did not wear proper personal protective equipment.

The author acknowledges that no in-depth statistical analysis was used, and while every effort was made to include as many medical professional and laboratory scientist dolls as possible, some dolls may have been overlooked.

Nevertheless, she says themed dolls help to inspire tomorrow's medical professionals and scientists and she urges all toy companies to create better, more accurate, and professionally diverse medical professional and scientist dolls.

"For young girls' sakes as much as her own, Barbie must keep shattering glass ceilings," she concludes.

"As surgeons in decidedly male-dominated fields, we support Klamer's conclusion that Barbies should represent a more diverse field of medical and scientific professions and that safety comes before fashion," say Sareh Parangi and colleagues in a linked editorial.

They note that female medical students are still disproportionately discouraged from pursuing surgical careers even at prestigious institutions, and say perhaps a childhood of playing with neurosurgeon Barbie or trauma surgeon Barbie could inoculate girls against sexist career assumptions and advice.

"We encourage and would welcome the creation of a surgeon Barbie, and would be happy to advise Mattel on the correct accompanying equipment and PPE to make sure the doll is realistic and fun," they add.

"With an expanded line, Barbies can be inspirational to young girls' views of surgeons and scientists, rather than allowing these careers to be aspirational," they conclude. "What better way than to have Barbie be the first as she has done in the past?"

More information: Analysis of Barbie medical and science career dolls: descriptive quantitative study, The BMJ (2023). DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2023-077276

Citation: Barbie should expand her range of medical and scientific professions, suggests study (2023, December 18) retrieved 6 January 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2023-12-barbie-range-medical-scientific.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.