Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1311160
40 NURSING SPOTLIGHT Ochsner, Loyola New Orleans launch nursing program By Morgan Haefner O chsner Health and Loyola University New Orleans partnered on an undergraduate nursing program to address workforce short- ages in Louisiana and the nation. Four things to know: 1. The organizations announced the four-year degree program Oct. 21. Under the partnership, New Orleans-based Ochsner will provide clinical placements at its facilities for Loyola nursing students. 2. "Having a strong, skilled workforce is one of the single biggest chal- lenges facing Ochsner Health," Warner Thomas, president and CEO of the health system, said during an announcement Oct. 21. 3. Nurse shortages are expected to affect Louisiana's healthcare workforce in the coming years, as 37 percent of registered nurses in the state are 50 years or older, and 17 percent are 60 years or older. Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects 175,900 job open- ings for RNs each year over the next decade. 4. The program has been approved by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing and is pending approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. n 2 US nurses among Time magazine's most influential people of 2020 By Anuja Vaidya T wo nurses were named to Time's Most Influential People of 2020 list, including a New York City nurse who treated her hospital's first COVID-19 patient, contracted the disease herself and recovered to return to work. Amy O'Sullivan is an emergency room nurse at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in New York City. She treated the hospital's first COVID-19 patient, who died in March, becoming the city's first person to die of the disease. Ms. Sullivan also displayed coronavi- rus symptoms, was intubated and spent four days on a ventilator. She returned to work after recovering. Bonnie Castillo, RN, is executive director of National Nurses Unit- ed and the California Nurses Association. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has fought layoffs and pay cuts for nurses and was among the first to highlight the lack of personal protective equip- ment for nurses. Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, MD, di- rector-general of the World Health Organization, were also named to the list. n Nurse-led initiative cuts unnecessary urine cultures at Johns Hopkins Hospital: 4 things to know By Erica Carbajal A n antibiotic stewardship intervention program led by nurses at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore resulted in a reduction of inappropriate urinary cultures for adult patients, according to a pilot study pub- lished in the November issue of The Joint Com- mission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Four things to know: 1. The before-and-after study involved 37 nurses and rotating providers from a group of 27 hospitalists staffed at a 24- bed adult medicine unit at Johns Hopkins. The study included patients with and with- out urinary catheters. 2. The intervention led to a decrease in the mean urine culture rate per 100 patient-days from 2.30 to 1.52, compared to a 2.17 to 3.10 increase for the control group. The rate of inappropriate urine cul- tures also fell from 0.83 to 0.71, according to the study. 3. The intervention included: education on principles of diagnostics stewardship, identification of a nurse champion to serve as a liaison between nursing staff and the antibiotic stewardship program, the implementation of an algorithm to guide discussions with hospitals about situations when urinary cultures may not be needed. 4. The intervention was an effort to engage nursing staff in antibiotic and testing stew- ardship and improve patient outcomes related to the overtreatment of asymptom- atic bacteriuria.n