(Press-News.org) PHILADELPHIA (October 30, 2024) – A new study – published in Nursing Research – has found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted patient safety indicators in U.S. hospitals. The study, from Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR), examined data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators to assess trends in nursing-sensitive quality indicators from 2019 to 2022. The prevention of these very distressing, uncomfortable conditions is considered to be under the nurse’s purview and directly influenced by nursing care.
The investigation found that rates of falls, bloodstream infections from central line catheters, urinary tract infections from urinary catheters, pressure injuries from devices or immobility, and pneumonia associated with ventilator use, all increased significantly during the pandemic. While some of these rates have begun to decline, they have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. When a patient falls, develops a pressure injury, or suffers a hospital-acquired infection, these adverse events delay the patient’s ability to go home, to be comfortable, and to heal.
"The pandemic placed an immense strain on healthcare systems and frontline workers, and the impact on patient safety is evident in these data," said Eileen T. Lake, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Edith Clemmer Steinbright Professor in Gerontology; Professor of Nursing in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences; and Associate Director of CHOPR. "It's crucial that we address the ongoing challenges faced by nurses and invest in this professional workforce."
The study highlights the importance of supporting nurses and ensuring they have the resources and support they need to provide high-quality care. It also underscores the need for continued efforts to improve patient safety indicators even as the pandemic subsides.
Co-authors include: *Angela Pascale, PhD, Research Analyst and *Nora E. Warshawsky, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Nurse Scientist, both from Press Ganey Associates LLC; Jessica G. Smith, PhD, RN, College of Nursing and Health Innovation at The University of Texas at Arlington; Douglas Staiger, PhD, Department of Economics at Dartmouth College; and Jeannette A. Rogowski, PhD, Health Policy, and Administration at The Pennsylvania State University.
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Editor’s Note: *Drs. Pascal and Warshawsky are employed by Press Ganey but did not receive any special incentives for this project. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world’s leading schools of nursing. For the ninth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University. Our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is among the top ranked programs in the nation according to the 2025 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings. Our School also consistently ranks highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools and is ranked as one of the top schools of nursing in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Instagram.
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MINNEAPOLIS – The amount of money people pay out-of-pocket for branded drugs to treat neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease continues to rise, especially for MS drugs, according to a study published in the October 30, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that average out-of-pocket costs for drugs for MS increased by 217% over a nine-year period.
Costs have dropped for medications where generic versions have been introduced.
“In some ...
Large herbivores like bison or elk have continuously lived in the Yellowstone National Park region for about 2,300 years according to a new analysis of chemicals preserved in lake sediments. John Wendt of Oklahoma State University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 30, 2024.
The near-extinction of bison in North America in the 19th and 20th centuries was a major ecological catastrophe and little is known about where and how these animals lived before European colonization. In the new study, researchers attempted to determine the dominant large herbivores that lived in the northern Yellowstone National Park ...
Antarctic penguin colonies can be identified and tracked from tourists' photos, using a computer model to reconstruct the 3D scene
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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0311038
Article Title: Penguin colony georegistration using camera pose estimation and phototourism
Author Countries: U.S.A.
Funding: This work was supported in part by the NASA Biodiversity Program (Award 317 80NSSC21K1027), and NSF Grant IIS-2212046. The funders had no say in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. END ...
For patients with alcohol use disorder, exercise not only reduces alcohol dependence, but also improves mental and physical health, per systematic review
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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0311166
Article Title: Effectiveness of exercise intervention in improving physical and mental status of patients with alcohol use disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Author Countries: China
Funding: This study was funded by a grant from the National ...
Editor's Note: Please do not include the image originally uploaded with this release in any of your coverage as the licensing information has now changed. Please contact onepress@plos.org for any questions. Updated: October 30, 2024
A new study of human skeletal remains from the wreck of the 16th century English warship Mary Rose suggests that whether a person is right- versus left-handed may influence how their clavicle bone chemistry changes as they age. Dr. Sheona Shankland of Lancaster University, U.K., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 30, 2024.
The ...
Someday, people might finally say goodbye to defrosting the freezer or scraping frost off slippery surfaces. Northwestern University engineers have developed a new strategy that prevents frost formation before it begins.
In a new study, the researchers discovered that tweaking the texture of any surface and adding a thin layer of graphene oxide prevents 100% of frost from forming on surfaces for one week or potentially even longer. This is 1,000 times longer than current, state-of-the-art anti-frosting surfaces.
As an added bonus, ...
The development of primate brains is shaped by various inputs. However, these inputs differ between independent breeders, such as great apes, and cooperative breeders, such as the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) and humans. In these species, group members other than the parents contribute substantially to raising the infants from birth onwards.
A group of international researchers led by Paola Cerrito from the University of Zurich’s Department of Evolutionary Anthropology studied how such social interactions map onto brain development in common marmosets. The study provides new insights into the relationship between the timing of brain development ...
LEUVEN October 31st - Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a progressive loss of nerve cells leading to a decline in memory and cognition. A team of researchers at KU Leuven and VIB explored the molecular sequence of events in this cellular demise and identified specific inhibitors that could prevent the loss of nerve cells in different mouse models of the disease. The findings open up new research avenues in the search for therapies that could halt or prevent the accumulation of brain damage occurring in ...
Unlike oceans, lakes are significant emitters of CO₂. But why is this the case, and what mechanisms are at play? For the first time, UNIL scientists have successfully explained the complete carbon cycle in Lake Geneva, creating a model that can be applied to several of the world's largest lakes.
Contrary to previous beliefs, it is the natural erosion of rocks that is responsible for the significant CO2 emissions from Lake Geneva and many of the world's large lakes.
This study provides the missing piece for understanding the carbon cycle in lakes.
The LéXPLORE lake platform in Switzerland played a major role in this discovery of international ...
Unseen and ongoing, thousands of times every second: to keep a complex organism like humans alive, an immense number of new cells must be continuously produced. Up close, each of these cell divisions is nothing short of a miracle. Within just a few hours, not only must the entire genome – billions of “letters” long – be replicated, but most other cellular structures must be doubled so that, in the end, two complete daughter cells can emerge.
Just before division, two complex protein structures, known as centrosomes, emerge, forming two opposing poles in the mother cell. These centrosomes grow long protein filaments, the spindle apparatus, ...
