Author: Admin

The Best Hospitals, As Ranked by Specialty

If you work in a hospital setting, do you work at one of the best? The annual list of the Best Hospitals in the United States is out, and here are the winners.

Of the more than 5,500 hospitals in the United States, only 158 can call themselves “the best,” at least according to the just-released list of the Best Hospitals in the United States for 2018-2019 from U.S. News & World Report. To determine the winners, U.S. News collected and analyzed data from nearly 5,000 medical centers, as well as survey responses from 30,000+ physicians, and ranked those with the best scores across 16 specialties. Below are the top three hospitals named the Best for Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Neurology & Neurosurgery, and Geriatrics, as well as their scores in their respective specialties.

Best Hospitals for Cancer

  1. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX – 100/100
  2. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY – 97.4/100
  3. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN – 95.3/100

Best Hospitals for Cardiology & Heart Surgery

  1. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH – 100/100
  2. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN – 99.6/100
  3. Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, CA – 84.3/100

Best Hospitals for Neurology & Neurosurgery

  1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN – 100/100
  2. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD – 95.7/100
  3. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA – 89.1/100

Best Hospitals for Geriatrics

  1. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN – 100/100
  2. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD – 97.5/100
  3. Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY – 94.5/100

The top three Best Hospitals in the United States, across all specialties and over all, according to the report, are Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Hospital, in that order.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Women (and Discrimination) in Healthcare

Despite women accounting for nearly 80% of all healthcare employees, they still face discrimination and barriers to advancement in the workplace, says a new report.

Healthcare is powered by women. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women account for 78.5% of the entire healthcare workforce. Still, the healthcare industry and the women employed by it, are not exempt from discrimination.

Rock Health, the first venture fund dedicated to digital health, recently released the results of their annual Women in Healthcare survey, in which they spoke to 635 women in healthcare about just that—being women in healthcare. The findings of the report indicate that women are pessimistic about achieving gender parity in their industry, that women led companies are better for morale, that African American women strongly believe racial discrimination is a barrier to career advancement, and more.

Here are some highlights from the report:

  • 55% of respondents believe it will take 25+ years to achieve gender parity in the workplace, with approximately 15% saying they believe it will take more than 50 years.
  • This lack of confidence may be tied to the fact that growth for women in positions of leadership has remained sluggish, or even declined, with women only accounting for 22.6% of board members and 21.9% of executives at Fortune 500 healthcare companies, up only 1.6% and 1.9%, respectively, since 2015, and women’s executive roles in hospitals seeing a decrease, down from 36.4% in 2015 to 34.5% in 2018.
  • Women in leadership roles, however, prove better for company morale. For survey respondents employed by companies with less than 10% women executives, the average rating of company culture was 5.5 out of 10, as opposed to companies with 50% or more women executives, which had an average rating of 8.6 out of 10.
  • Gender barriers weren’t the only things measured by the survey. Atop gender bias, 86% of African American women surveyed said their race is “very much” a barrier to career advancement, compared to just 9% of white women.
  • Among women of all races surveyed, 71.2% of women stated that they believe underselling skills is a significant barrier to career advancement.

The full survey results, including more facts and figures from the findings, can be viewed here.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Tips to Craft Your Best Nursing Resume

At first glance, what impression does your resume make on your behalf? Could it impress a hiring manager or recruiter in six seconds? If not, read on.

On average, your resume has about six seconds to make a good first impression, and that is only if it’s being seen by a living, breathing human being, not a machine, such as an ATS. Then, if it is good enough to pique their interest, one in five recruiters will make up their mind about you and your qualifications in less than a minute, and over all, employers will spend, on average, only three minutes and 14 seconds reading your resume. Those numbers shouldn’t scare you, but they should definitely make you think. At first glance, what impression does your resume make on your behalf? Could it impress a hiring manager or recruiter in six seconds, a minute, three? If the answer is no, here are a few tips on how to make it shine.

Keep It Clean and Professional

If your resume only has a very brief period of time to catch someone’s eye, it’s best to find a layout that doesn’t look like the rest, while still retaining a professional design and having clearly marked sections of information. Look to websites such as Creative Market or Etsy for inspiration, or download some modern templates you can use for a small fee.

If you don’t use a readymade layout, make sure whatever layout you use is free of photos and “fancy” fonts, as those may not render properly across all platforms, and over 40% of recruiters are put off by the use of them. Stick to standard fonts, such as Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica, have clear section headings, and make use of bullet points to draw the eye to important pieces of information.

Also, be sure that your contact information is easy to find, and that it is professional. You should include your full name, with your credentials listed after it, address, telephone number, and an appropriate email address—because 32% of recruiters will reject someone simply for having an inappropriate email address.

While we are all taught not to judge a book by its cover, you also need to get noticed for the right reasons, and the first impression your resume makes could make all the difference.

Your Objective Is Already Clear

The Objective section of the resume is dead. If you are submitting a resume, it is common knowledge, and can very easily be assumed, that you are trying to “obtain a position within [your] field to further [yourself] personally and professionally.” Call the time of death on that and send it on down to the morgue—it’s dead.

Your objective is clear; why you are the right person for the job is not. Which is why the Summary section has replaced the Objective, and is alive and kicking. Instead of using a bunch of regurgitated, standardized language about why you are trying to find a job in your field, show off your qualifications. Talk about your accomplishments and how you add value to the facilities you’ve worked for and the lives of your patients, or how you excelled in nursing school.

Give them the most impressive bits of your history right up front and make them want to learn more of your details by reading on to your Professional Experience and Education sections.

Show Your Strengths and Avoid Being a Cliché

Over 50% of recruiters will reject a candidate if their resume is full of clichés. Everyone is a hard worker, a team player, is motivated, driven, and works well under pressure—particularly, if you’re a nurse. Soft skills, such as those, may sound good to you, but they are really just filler for those on the hiring end of things, and they add no value to your resume.

If you are going to highlight your strengths, do so in concrete ways.

What states are you licensed in and what certifications do you have? What professional associations do you belong to? Which EMR/EHR systems are you familiar with? What caseload have you handled and in what unit? Which industry-wide protocols, processes, and procedures do you have experience with? Are you bilingual? What skills set you apart from every other nurse?

Also, don’t be afraid to use industry-specific terminology. These people are hiring nurses, after all. They’ll know what you mean when you say you’re experienced with Level I Trauma, da Vinci Surgical Systems, balloon pumps, 12-lead placements, and so on.

Check Your Spelling and Grammar, Then Check It Again, and Once More

59% of recruiters will reject a resume based solely on spelling mistakes and poor grammar. Which may seem silly to some, but attention to detail is important, not only in writing your resume, but in your nursing career, itself. Read through your document multiple times to look for spelling and grammatical errors, or ask a friend who is good with words to do so on your behalf.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

One Nurse’s Take: Working in the ICU

“Since beginning my RN journey, my outlook and perspective on life have changed dramatically,” says Jamie Dupont, RN, in this look at her life in the ICU.

We spoke with Jamie Dupont, RN—and a relatively new RN, at that—about about her choice to become a nurse in the ICU, and what she has learned since. Read on for some insight into the trials and triumphs of her experience.

You’re an ICU nurse, and a relatively new one. How are you liking your job so far? Is it different than you expected it to be? What are the major differences between nursing school and being a nurse?

I am new to the field of nursing; however, I am experienced in the medical field as a paramedic. I enjoy the ICU aspect of medicine. It is very challenging not only physically and mentally, but emotionally, as well. I am used to dealing with a patient for a very short, limited amount of time, whereas being in the ICU, I can have a particular patient and their family for up to four twelve-hour shifts. It is definitely different than I expected it to be. One wrong decision or error on my behalf, and I could have a serious problem on my hands. It is more high stress than when I was in school. While in school, you have an instructor to look over all of your medications and watch how you perform your skills, so that you do them correctly. Once you are on your own, there are resources all around you, but it’s pretty much up to you to make things happen.

Is working in the ICU the specialty you wanted to get into when you started the process to become a nurse? If not, how did you end up there? What drew you to working in the ICU?

I worked pre-hospital for 7 years and wanted to explore my options as a RN. I did not want to work somewhere that I would be comfortable and not allow myself to broaden my knowledge base. I also was considering moving on in the near future to become a CRNA or ACNP. I am still unsure if graduate school is in my future, however, I start my BSN in August. I figured that critical care is another challenging way to build my knowledge, as an emergency provider. It is also a great way to become a well-rounded RN. If you can hack it in the ICU as a new graduate nurse, you can hack it in any department, at any hospital, in my opinion. I chose to work for a Level 1 teaching hospital. This means that we have the highest inpatient acuity. We admit some of the most sick and unstable patients in the area, which allows me to see some cases that no one else may ever see in their lifetime. Not even as a seasoned nurse, with many years of experience.

What are the challenges you face working in your specialty, and what do you find most rewarding?

One of the biggest challenges in the ICU, especially in a neurosurgical unit, is the amount of mortality that we deal with. Even when patients end up surviving, they have major life altering deficits that affect not only the patient, but their family and friends, also. I see many families that have to make very difficult decisions regarding loved ones, and sometimes you see the results of these decisions. Families go to extreme lengths to keep a family member alive. However, the long-term effects can be detrimental to the patient and the family. It is unfortunate and can be very upsetting to witness what these individuals must go through. Since beginning my RN journey, my outlook and perspective on life have changed dramatically.

Can you describe your typical day on the floor?

A typical day on my unit consists of getting report from the night shift RN. We have a unit huddle every morning, where our nurse manager discusses any important unit issues or things that need to be addressed. I assess my patients as soon as I arrive and start to organize my day. Sometimes my day will go as planned, but most of the time it does not. On day shift, we do “rounds,” where the providers, charge nurse, dietary, OT, PT, and case management will come around and get a quick update on each patient. We figure out a plan from there and what the goal is for each patient. How my day will unfold depends on the patient. If my patient is complex and needs more attention, then they will be getting what they need. We act as a team on my unit and if anyone needs help, there are more than enough hands to go around. Meds are given, interventions are completed as necessary, and families are taken care of on an individual basis. I like to involve family as much as possible, as it will help make my day and the patient’s day move along smoothly. If they will help feed a patient that needs feeding, I will show them what to do. If they would like to help suction a patient’s mouth when they need it, I will give them a quick lesson on how to use the suction catheter. It is all about keeping them involved and making them feel like they are able to do something for their loved one. This especially helps in a time when some of these families feel so helpless.

What personal and professional traits do you think qualify someone to work in the ICU as a nurse?

To work in the ICU, you must have patience, first and foremost. There is a saying that ICU nurses are “OCD” and Emergency Department nurses tend to be more “fly by the seat of their pants”. I think someone can find a happy medium between both, and be a great nurse, in both realms. Patience in learning, patience with people, patience with yourself. That is key to becoming a great ICU nurse. It is not an easy path, to choose to work with some of the sickest people on this earth. There are days that are extremely challenging, even for someone who is used to dealing with very sick or injured people. You have to also be able to have good coping skills. If you are the type of person that takes your work home with you, then the ICU may not be a great job for you. Some of the situations you encounter can be trying and you have to be able to handle it in a healthy manner. ICU is not for the faint of heart, but if you are up for the challenge, it is very rewarding.

What advice would you give to someone considering working as a nurse in the ICU?

I think if you are considering working in the ICU that perhaps you should get some experience and shadow someone in that unit, before jumping in headfirst. I believe, in nursing, no matter what you chose as your path, it is always a good practice to shadow and see if it is something you are going to enjoy doing for twelve hours a day. It may not be everything you thought it would be. Make sure it is something you will enjoy. If not, becoming a nurse is a great opportunity to branch out and find something of interest. There are many avenues in this field, which is the main reason I went to school to become a RN. Opportunities are endless! The only quality that all RNs must have is that they must be compassionate and caring. If you are both of these things, then the nursing world is your oyster.

Interested in sharing some insight about your specialty and experience with your fellow nurses? Email us to set up an interview.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Women More Likely to Survive a Heart Attack if Doctor is Female

Female doctors outperformed their male counterparts in regards to heart attack survival rates, as a whole, and particularly, for women heart attack survivors.

A new study published by the National Academy of Sciences has examined patient gender disparities in survival rates following acute myocardial infarctions, or heart attacks, based on the gender of the treating physician, and has found that not only are women less likely than men to survive traumatic health episodes, such as heart attacks, overall, but that mortality rates of women following a heart attack are lower, if they are treated by a female physician. The findings also indicate that the mortality rate of females who experienced a heart attack decrease, if they are treated by a male physician with more female colleagues, or if that male physician has treated a higher percentage of female patients in the past.

Brad Greenwood, Seth Carnahan, and Laura Huang examined two decades worth of records from Florida emergency rooms, including every patient who was admitted for a heart attack from 1991 through 2010. The records revealed women are more likely to die in the years following a heart attack, even when age was accounted for, when treated by male physicians, compared with either men treated by male physicians or women treated by female physicians. Overall, the research suggests that female physicians outperformed their male colleagues in regards to survival rates, and their patients were more likely to live.

“These results suggest a reason why gender inequality in heart attack mortality persists: Most physicians are male, and male physicians appear to have trouble treating female patients,” the researchers wrote.

According to the study, the survival rate for men with female physicians was 88.1%, compared to 86.6% for women with male physicians—even after the team accounted for elements such as the doctors’ experience, and the patients’ age, ethnicity, and other factors.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

White Coats: Style Choice or a Sign of Better Care?

While an longstanding, iconic symbol of physicians, does wearing a white coat actually matter, when it comes to patient perceptions of trust and confidence?

The white lab coat has long been an iconic symbol of physicians—the reception of which also serves as a rite of passage for many—but does wearing one truly impact patients’ levels of trust and confidence in their doctors? While past studies have indicated that physician attire does affect patient perceptions, a new study from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston department of Obstetrics and Gynecology has found that wearing, or not wearing, a white coat has no impact on patient satisfaction.

The study, published in the American Journal of Perinatology, was conducted to determine if or how the white coat influences physician-patient communication, and in turn, satisfaction. In the study, new mothers in the postpartum unit at the hospital were randomly assigned to teams of rounding physicians, who either donned a classic white coat or not, but aside from this one variable, provided the same level of care. Shortly before discharge, the women completed a modified version of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, the only national, standardized survey used to measure patient satisfaction.

Of the respondents, 40% could not even recall whether or not their physician was wearing a white coat, and overall, the responses provided showed that the presence or lack of presence of a white coat did not impact the communication between patients and physicians, nor the patients’ satisfaction.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

PA Salaries Increase, Top $100k on Average

The average annual PA salary increased nearly 3%, compared to the previous year, with a majority of PAs now earning a base salary of more than $100,000.

A new report from the AAPA released this month finds that the average annual physician assistant salary increased 2.9% compared to the previous year, with full time, salaried PAs (78.7% of the profession) now making, on average, over $100,000 annually. The report also found that PAs who are employed in a hospital setting are earning higher salaries, securing more leadership positions, and receiving better benefits than their counterparts employed by physician practices.

The 2018 AAPA Salary Report, which collected responses from 9,140 PAs, finds that while both hospital-based PAs and those employed by physician practices enjoy healthy salaries, leadership opportunities, and benefits, those in a hospital setting are earning more (base salaries of $107,000 versus $101,000 on average in 2017), hold more formal leadership positions (57.5% versus 28.2%), and typically receive more paid time off (20.0 versus 17.8 days of general PTO, 8.4 versus 5.0 days of sick PTO) than those based in physician practices. These two types of PAs account for 81% of all PAs, with physician practice-based PAs making up the largest group of the profession (46.1% of PAs), and hospital-based PAs trailing closely behind as the second largest group (34.9% of PAs).

As reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the PA profession is projected to increase 37% from 2016 to 2026, which is well above the average for all occupations. These findings by the BLS, as well as the new AAPA report, indicate that as more and more barriers to PA practice are removed and the demand for non-physician providers grows, PAs can likely expect their employment opportunities, as well as their salaries, to continue to increase.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

A Better Way to Make the CME Allowance Work for Clinicians

Has your CME allowance remained stagnant, while CME costs continue to rise? Here’s how to get the most bang for your allowed buck.

By Jordan G Roberts, PA-C

If you are employed, you probably have a perk that includes some amount of money to cover the costs you incur while earning continuing medical education (CME).

This perk has an obvious problem, however. Its absolute dollar amount has generally remained stagnant while CME costs continue to rise. Public pressure has caused pharmaceutical and medical device companies to decrease their funding for such programs, and clinicians have picked up the tab. Over your career, you may have noticed an explosion of choices and variety of CME available. (If you haven’t, I’d like to introduce you to my friend Google). This is despite a near 25 percent decrease in the number of individual CME providers around since 2006.

Over the past ten or more years, the CME industry’s volume of physician interaction has grown 37 percent. Over the same decade, interactions with physician assistants and nurse practitioners has accelerated more than 90 percent.

While both free and paid options are available, the paid programs have become more expensive over time. One reason for this is the loss of (or unwillingness to accept) industry funding. Another is CME providers’ increased investment in higher quality and more robust offerings. A third factor may be textbook capitalism. Remember that 25 percent decrease in CME providers over ten years? That’s not because they are going out of business, although participants grossly underestimate the costs of running such programs. No, smaller providers are being bought out by their competitors, decreasing competition.

In today’s fast-paced world of exponential information growth, it is more important than ever for clinicians to stay as up-to-date as possible. Couple this challenge with an increasing trend toward employment of physicians, PA’s, and NP’s, and it’s no wonder there is so much negativity aimed at the “benefit” of a CME allowance.

Rather than accept lower-quality CME or skip that important conference, we propose a unique solution.

The benefits to the employer include better healthcare providers, happier, more connected clinicians, and a major return on their investment. Yes, CME saves the healthcare system money.

The benefits to the clinicians include lower levels of job-related stress, higher feelings of career satisfaction, and decreased burnout.

It’s a win for all parties at the table.

Continue Reading to Learn about the Solution →

Jordan G Roberts, PA-C helps medical education companies create and distribute the best medical education around. He helps students and clinicians improve their clinical game by using his background in neuroscience to teach simple ways to learn complex medical topics. He is a published researcher, national speaker, and medical writer. He can be found at Modern MedEd where he promotes clinical updates, medical writing, and medical education.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

US Congressman/Former BioPharma Company Board Member Arrested

Chris Collins, the United States Representative for New York’s 27th congressional district, has been arrested by the FBI on charges of insider trading.

Chris Collins, the United States Representative for New York’s 27th congressional district, has been arrested by the FBI on charges of insider trading and lying to the FBI.

It is alleged Collins, 68, used his position with an Australian biopharma firm, Innate Immunotherapeutics, to help his family and friends make illegal stock trades, and to avoid massive losses of more than $768,000. Collins served as a board member for Innate Immunotherapeutics, a small North Melbourne-based pharmaceutical company, for three years, until 2017, and he currently owns 17% of their stock, making him one of the company’s biggest shareholders.

The charges allege that Collins received an email from Innate’s CEO, Mondher Mahjoubi, in June of last year, warning him that the company’s only drug, the multiple sclerosis treatment MIS416, had failed in its latest trials. It is alleged that Collins and his collaborators managed to avoid losses of more than $768,000 by disposing of 1.39 million shares as the result of this tipoff.

On Wednesday, August 8, 2018, Collins called the charges “meritless,” and went on to say, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am proud of my affiliation with Innate.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also announced Wednesday that it has filed securities fraud charges against Collins, after they began investigating his stock dealings in January of 2017.

Collins has pled not guilty to the charges and has been released on a $500,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for October 11, 2018.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

FDA Supports New Steps to Further Nicotine Replacement Therapy Research

Use of FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy products may double the likelihood of a successful attempt to quit smoking.

In a statement released this month from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., it was announced that the agency is taking new steps to support the development of nicotine replacement drug therapies (NRTs) to assist smokers in their efforts to quit.

“As a public health agency, there is no greater impact we can have to improve the health of our nation than to significantly reduce the rate of tobacco-related disease and death. Through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s comprehensive framework for regulating nicotine and tobacco, we’re developing policies that support the possibility of a world where combustible cigarettes could no longer create or sustain addiction. A key part of this framework are steps to pave the way for products that help currently addicted smokers move away from the deadliest form of nicotine delivery,” Gottlieb said in the statement, which was issued on August 3, 2018.

Gottlieb goes on to say that, “The development of novel NRT products, regulated as new drugs, is a critical part of our overall strategy on nicotine.”

The CDC reports that nicotine may be as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol, and that 70% of adult smokers in the United States want to quit, with nearly half trying to quit each year and only few succeeding. Research has shown that use of FDA-approved NRT products may double the likelihood of a successful quit attempt.

The FDA’s Nicotine Steering Committee, established in September of 2017, has been evaluating new, evidence-based opportunities to advance NRT products, and last week, the FDA released the first of two draft guidances aimed at supporting the development of novel, inhaled nicotine replacement therapies, similar to current over-the-counter pharmaceutical NRT products, that could be submitted to the FDA for approval as new drugs.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.