Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1348345
24 PATIENT & CAREGIVER EXPERIENCE Widow inspires Renown Health hospitals to lift visitor restrictions for COVID-19 patients By Kelly Gooch R eno, Nev.-based Renown Health lied visitor restrictions in late January and is encouraging limited visitors for patients, including those with COVID-19. e policy update took effect the morning of Jan. 27, making Renown hospitals among the first nationwide to li visitor restrictions for COVID-19 patients, according to the health system. e update came aer a high percentage of Renown hospital staff had been inoculated and hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients had decreased. Renown said Reno resident Darlene Randolph, whose husband died Dec. 13 at Renown aer a 17-day battle against the virus, inspired the change. Ms. Randolph had limited communications options while her husband was hospitalized, and she spoke with her husband via video call or phone. "As a registered dietician, she worked in hospitals and knew the protocol. She knew, like hospitals across the globe, Renown had restricted family members from visiting in order to stop the spread of the virus to other patients, staff and their family members. Still, she wished she could have spent more time with him," said Renown. So, on Christmas Eve, she wrote a letter to Renown President and CEO Anthony Slonim, MD, in which she thanked hospital staff for the care they provided her husband and expressed her wish that she could have been by his side in the facility. e health system leader- ship team then reviewed Ms. Randolph's request, made a recommendation, and the policy update was adopted, according to Renown. e health system is allowing one patient supporter per patient to visit at Renown Regional Medical Center and Renown South Meadows Medical Center, both in Reno. Renown also extended visiting hours for all patients and is encouraging patients to designate up to two patient supporters. One patient supporter may visit at a time. n Penn nursing student invents wearable light for clinicians By Mackenzie Bean A nursing student at the University of Pennsylvania in Phil- adelphia created a wearable nightlight to help clinicians avoid disturbing patients at night, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Feb. 3. Anthony Scarpone-Lambert, 21, a first-generation college student, developed the $20 uNight Light with Jennifferre Mancillas, BSN, RN, a nurse at Madera, Calif.-based Valley Children's Hospital. The two met at an entrepreneurial conference in New Jersey in 2019. Before creating the light, Mr. Scarpone-Lambert and Ms. Mancillas interviewed 250 nurses, 87 percent of whom said they struggle to see while performing patient care activities at night. Their research also found nurses can turn on the light in a patient's room an aver- age of nine times during a single night shift. Mr. Scarpone-Lambert and Ms. Mancillas started selling the 2-by-1-inch LED light, which can hook onto a clinician's shirt collar, in February. n 5 stats on physician burnout in 2020 By Mackenzie Bean F orty-two percent of physicians reported feeling burned out in 2020, according to Medscape's 2021 Physician Burnout Report published Jan. 25. For the report, Medscape surveyed 12,339 physicians in more than 29 specialties from Aug. 30 to Nov. 5, 2020. Five report findings: 1. Sixty-nine percent of physicians said they were somewhat or very happy in 2020 before the pandemic started. This figure fell to 49 percent during the pandemic. 2. While female physicians have historically reported higher rates of burnout than their male peers, this gap grew in 2020. Fifty-one per- cent of women said they were burnout out, compared to 36 percent of men. 3. Critical care physicians had the highest rates of burnout among all specialties, at 51 percent. In 2019, urologists reported the highest burnout rates. 4. Seventy-nine percent of physicians said their burnout began be- fore the COVID-19 pandemic. 5. The three most common contributing factors to burnout that phy- sicians cited were too many bureaucratic tasks (58 percent); spend- ing too many hours at work (37 percent); and lack of response from leaders or colleagues (37 percent). n