I was tempted to listen to the STAT News event, “The exhaustion epidemic: Examining the COVID-19 burnout crisis in health care,” while lying prone on the couch. Instead, I took notes and considered...
Maintaining your COVID-19 library of materials
By
Jacquelyn Smith Clarke
Feb 07, 2022
As the pandemic progresses, we have become used to the constant upending of what we thought we once knew. From PPE guidance to testing and vaccines, the amount of information and how quickly it changes...
Begin what? I begin.
By
Gary Tetz
Jan 27, 2022
As I sit here at 2 a.m. eating a big bowl of unnecessary cereal, driven from bed by work-related stress and the need to speedily write a column for a distinguished publication named McKnight’s, it doesn’t...
Back to before census
By
Steven Littlehale
Dec 10, 2021
One of my favorite lyrics from the musical “Ragtime” is “We can never go back to before.” The character Mother sings about no longer being a slave to societal expectations; she is confident, moving...
Taking control back
By
Matt Salmon
Oct 19, 2021
I think it’s important that we recognize the impact COVID has had on our staff — and in some cases, recognize the damage it has done. Our staff are experiencing dissatisfaction and disconnection at...
We need staff… NOW
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Sep 28, 2021
Last year, as the pandemic raged in New York City and sirens filled the air, a group of young travel nurses arrived to assist weary long-term care teams. They took over nursing stations that had been depleted...
When the fog lifts
By
Gary Tetz
Sep 16, 2021
I fancy myself a brave and intrepid hiker, and a couple weeks ago chose a particularly daunting trail that was rumored to lead to some of the best possible views of Mount Hood, the 11,249-foot peak that...
Reducing the impact of cascading collective trauma in LTC
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Sep 14, 2021
I spent most of last weekend doing what I could to avoid the 9/11-related headlines in the news. With my Manhattan-below-14th-Street recollections of the event, last year’s immersion in the pandemic...
Requiring the jab or not – Mandatory employee vaccination policies and residential healthcare facilities
By
Heather R. Boshak
Nicole D. Espin
Aug 16, 2021
To vax or not to vax, that is the question. Or more precisely, if you’re an employer, to mandate employee vaccination or not. In a time when discussions of vaccinations are polarized, politicized and...
Compassion fatigue – the struggle is real
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Jul 27, 2021
Not getting a vaccine isn’t just affecting you. It’s why we have this variant, and it’s why we all have to keep dealing with this. And it’s why nurses are burning out and getting compassion...