Wage Gap Between Female and Male PAs Persists

Despite 70% of PAs being female, they earn significantly less than their male counterparts, a new study has found.

A new study conducted by the AAPA and published this month in Women’s Health Issues has found that there is a glaring disparity between the salaries of male and female PAs. For every dollar a male PA earns, his female counterpart earns only 89 cents—though nearly 70% of all PAs are female.

“As a PA educator, I feel keenly the burden of student debt. One way to think about the impact of the gender pay gap is in the context of the $150,000 in student loans facing a typical PA upon graduation. A male PA earning $10,000 a year more than his female PA counterpart could use that extra money to pay off his student loan debt in 15 years. The disparate treatment of women in the PA profession is simply unacceptable,” L Gail Curtis, President and Chair of the AAPA Board of Directors, is quoted as saying.

While this 11% gap may be shocking to some, compensation disparities between males and females have persisted for decades, and despite years of progress in the fight against the gender wage gap, women continue to make less than their male counterparts for doing the same work in nearly all professions. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, on average, women’s earnings were only 82% of men’s.

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.

BU Wins $20M for NSF Engineering Research Center

The recipient’s ultimate goal is to advance nano-bio-manufacturing methods that could lead to large-scale fabrication of functional heart tissue, which could replace diseased or damaged muscle after a heart attack.

from BU.edu

Boston University has won a $20 million, five-year award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a multi-institution Engineering Research Center (ERC), with the goal of synthesizing personalized heart tissue for clinical use. The grant, which is renewable for a total of 10 years and $40 million, is designed to accelerate an area of engineering research—in this case, bioengineering functional heart tissue—that is likely to spur societal change and economic growth within a decade. “The goal is moving from the basic research capability to a technology that could be disruptive,” says BU College of Engineering Dean Kenneth Lutchen, who notes that the ERC program is designed to stimulate translation of research to practice by facilitating worldwide corporate, clinical, and institutional partnerships. “The center will transform cardiovascular care by synthesizing breakthroughs in nanotechnology and manufacturing with tissue engineering and regenerative medicine,” he says.

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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 Moves To Guard Against Abuse Of ‘Orphan Drug’ Program

The FDA is changing the way it approves medicines known as “orphan drugs” after revelations that drugmakers may be abusing a law intended to help patients with rare diseases.

By Sarah Jane Tribble

The Food and Drug Administration is changing the way it approves medicines known as “orphan drugs” after revelations that drugmakers may be abusing a law intended to help patients with rare diseases.

In a blog post Tuesday, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he wants to ensure financial incentives are granted “in a way that’s consistent with the manner Congress intended” when the Orphan Drug Act was passed in 1983. That legislation gave drugmakers a package of incentives, including tax credits, user fee waivers and seven years of market exclusivity if they developed medicines for rare diseases.

A KHN investigation earlier this year, which was published and aired by NPR, found many drugs that now have orphan status aren’t entirely new. Of about 450 drugs that have won orphan approval since 1983, more than 70 were drugs first approved by the FDA for mass-market use. Those include cholesterol blockbuster Crestor, Abilify for psychiatric disorders and rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, the world’s best-selling drug.

Gottlieb announced plans to close a loophole that allows manufacturers to skip pediatric testing requirements when developing a common-disease drug for orphan use in children. He also signaled that bigger changes are being considered, announcing a public meeting to explore issues raised by scientific advances, such as the increase in precision medicine and biologics.

“We need to make sure our policies take notice of all of these new challenges and opportunities,” he wrote. Gottlieb, through his agency, declined multiple requests for interviews.

Over the years, drugmakers have fueled a boom in orphan drugs, which often carry six-figure price tags. Nearly half of the new drugs approved by the FDA are now for rare diseases — even though many of them also treat and are marketed for common diseases.

Gottlieb became commissioner in May, a few months after three key Republican senators called for a federal investigation into potential abuses of the Orphan Drug Act, and the Government Accountability Office agreed to investigate.

The GAO has yet to begin its investigation, saying it doesn’t expect to start work until late this year, when staff is available. Regardless, in late June, Gottlieb announced what would be the first in a series of updates that shift the way the FDA handles orphan drugs.

Those include:

  • Eliminating a backlog in drug applications for orphan designation or status. Getting a “designation” is a critical first step if a company wants to win orphan incentives once the drug is approved for treatment use. And, much like the rise in approvals, the requests by companies to get drugs designated with orphan status has also skyrocketed. Gottlieb said in June that he wanted to get rid of the backlog; on Tuesday, he said the effort was complete. About half of the 200 applications from drugmakers won orphan status.
  • Mandating that drugmakers prove their medicine is clinically superior before getting the market exclusivity that comes with being an orphan. The agency had lost a lawsuit in which a company said it was owed the exclusivity period regardless of whether its medicine was better. And two more lawsuits had been filed by Eagle Pharmaceuticals and, more recently, another by United Therapeutics. The FDA Reauthorization Act, which passed last month, made it law that a drug has to be clinically superior to get the incentives.
  • Closing the loophole for pediatric orphan drugs by requiring all drugs approved for common adult diseases, like inflammatory bowel disease, undergo pediatric testing when getting approval as a pediatric orphan drug. Pediatric testing is not required for orphan drugs, and last month Congress mandated that orphan drugs for cancer be tested for children. Still, the American Academy of Pediatrics celebrated the proposed change but warned it was only a “first step.” Dr. Bridgette Jones, chair of American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs, said late Tuesday that orphan drugs are “still mostly exempt from pediatric study requirements … children deserve access to safe, effective medications.”

Dr. Martin Makary, who wrote a critical 2015 paper on orphan approvals, said the changes at the agency indicate that Gottlieb seems “concerned about all the right things.”

“The government does a lot of lip service in general,” Makary said. “This is not lip service.”

The restructuring has been swift in some ways.

Sandra Heibel, a senior consultant at Haffner Associates, a firm that helps companies submit orphan drug applications, noted that the approval process for designations definitely sped up over the summer, and “we are absolutely getting responses from the FDA back in 90 days. That has come through.”

Other changes to the agency, though, will evolve slowly. For example, the orphan drug office has begun reaching across the FDA’s divisions for help in reviewing drugs. In May, the FDA’s orphan reviews began to work with the office of pediatric therapeutics to review pediatric applications — ideally increasing the expertise applied when considering a company’s request for orphan drug use in children.

In an emailed note Tuesday, the agency confirmed that Gottlieb’s orphan modernization plan is part of a larger effort to increase competition and decrease drug prices. One focus is on targeted drugs — especially those that affect rare diseases or diseases for which there is no effective therapy, the agency said.

“Such drugs present some of the biggest opportunities in medicine to treat and cure debilitating and very costly diseases,” the agency stated.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation. This KHN story also ran on NPR. KHN’s coverage of prescription drug development, costs and pricing is supported in part by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

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.

The Real Story About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Research shows that the condition is a true physiological disease. Here’s what to look for, and how PTs are helping those who have it.

from PT in Motion

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has come a long way since the 1980s, when it was widely dismissed as “yuppie flu” and was suspected by many health care providers of being a psychological rather than a physiological condition.

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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.

5 Things I Wish I Had Learned in PT School

There are just some lessons that, as a PT, you simply cannot learn in a formal educational environment.

from WebPT

I am not one of those people who bounded out of physical therapy school, brimming with confidence and ready to take on the world. I didn’t lead any groups or clubs during school. I made absolutely no effort to network. And I wound up spending the first two years of my PT career bouncing around a bit, trying to find my footing in the physical therapy industry. While I had a really solid clinical education in PT school, there are some thingsthat you simply cannot learn in a formal educational environment, because these lessons end up being pretty unique to you as an individual.

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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.

The Crucial Nature of Nurse Volunteerism

In recent weeks, we’ve heard of flooded nursing homes and hospitals, emergency evacuations, heroic deeds, and thousands of people — including nurses — going above and beyond the call of duty.

From Nurse Keith’s Digital Doorway

As the United States grapples with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, I am reminded of how nurses’ collective and individual dedication to volunteerism and community service are central to the fabric of society, as well as to the notion of who we nurses are and what we are capable of. Nurse volunteerism serves many purposes, and its importance is worthy of intensive discussion.

Viewing the devastation that Harvey has wrought in Houston, eastern Texas, and parts of Louisiana, I want to call attention to the many nurses and healthcare professionals who were on the ground from day one, slogging it out in the wet trenches of emergency response as the rain fell and the waters rose.

Stories abound of flooded nursing homes and hospitals, emergency patient evacuations, heroic deeds, and thousands of people — including nurses, of course — going above and beyond the call of duty in order to save lives and protect property.

Nurses continue to give of themselves as the flood waters recede and the rebuilding efforts begin in earnest, and there are undoubtedly countless untold stories of heroism and gallantry that will go unrecorded but not forgotten. No matter, the collective experience is burned into our memories, and many in Texas and beyond will continue to volunteer and give in ways small and large for years to come.

Nurses and Disasters

Nurses have been part of disaster relief since the notion began. Clara Barton, nurse extraordinaire, formed the American Red Cross in 1881. While President Rutherford Hayes dragged his feet vis-a-vis allowing the United States to join the International Red Cross, Barton took it upon herself to found the American Red Cross, and as its first President she dedicated its mission to disaster response as well as war relief.

Over the many decades, innumerable nurses have volunteered with Doctors Without Borders, as well as smaller organizations like Global Outreach Doctors. (Andrew Lustig, the head of Global Outreach Doctors, has appeared as a guest on RNFM Radio to discuss his organization’s amazing work in some of the most dangerous places on earth.)

When disaster strikes around the world, nurses snap into action. Some may respond within the walls of their place of employment (like Houston nurses working in flooded hospitals and nursing homes), while others may jump in their cars or on airplanes to meet disaster head on in far-flung locations. Whatever the scenario, we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that nurses always appear when and where they’re needed most.

Day-to-Day Volunteerism

Beyond the more “newsworthy” incidents of nurse volunteerism, I recognize that nurses volunteer on a regular basis for all manner of events, organizations, and causes. Whether through faith-based outreach or wholly secular efforts, nurses have a general mindset geared towards contributing to the well-being of others. How do nurses volunteer? Let me count the ways:

  • Staffing first aid stations at races and other events
  • Joining the Medical Reserve Corps and other organizations
  • Participating in local, regional, and national disaster drills and emergency preparedness exercises
  • Volunteering for hospices and other facilities
  • Sitting on the boards of directors of non-profits
  • Volunteering for nursing and healthcare organization activities
  • Contributing nursing skills at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and for street outreach and other services
  • And more activities than we can readily name

When we think of nurse volunteerism, what comes to mind are established organizations or efforts to which nurses lend their skills, expertise, and knowledge. Having said that, we also know that nurses are the consummate good samaritans who respond in the course of their daily lives to car accidents, falls, injuries, and medical emergencies on airplanes, in stores, on sidewalks, and generally any situation wherein human vulnerability and frailty manifest. I can myself recall car accidents where I’ve stopped to lend a hand; bicycle accidents I’ve witnessed and responded to; the fainting of an elderly person in a restaurant; a child stung by a bee in a park.

Nurses are trained in assessment, critical thinking, triage, and taking prudent action, and that training makes us invaluable members of any community or society.

Volunteerism and Your Nursing Career

As a career coach, I recommend that nurses perform volunteerism in the interest of their careers. Volunteering is honestly a very good resume-builder, and also demonstrates that a nurse believes that he or she has something to contribute to society as a nurse beyond what happens at work.

While volunteer positions won’t make or break a nursing resume, a nurse engaged in valuable extracurricular volunteer activities makes a statement about that nurse’s character.

In terms of networking and meeting other like-minded professionals and non-professionals, volunteering puts nurses in touch with individuals beyond their usual social and professional spheres. When participating in meaningful volunteer efforts, that shared experience can produce bonds potentially far stronger than those formed in the workplace.

Staffing a first aid station at a breast cancer walk, volunteering at a camp for autistic children, or meeting in the face of a disaster like Hurricane Harvey can be a landmark moment in many nurses’ lives, and lifelong friendships can be formed even under the most stressful and difficult conditions.

The career value of volunteerism goes far beyond resume enhancement; nurses who volunteer derive satisfaction and personal fulfillment from giving back and serving others, as well as the opportunity to meet and bond with other volunteers of similar mind and motivation.

Nurse volunteerism can be the building block of a personal and professional network, as well as an example of a nurse’s dedication to community and society. Some employers highly value such characteristics in potential employees.

In the End, Do it for Yourself

While building a resume or being a more attractive job or school candidate are reasonable purposes for volunteering, I urge nurses to use volunteer opportunities as tools for personal growth and fulfillment. Volunteerism is laudable and noble, and it behooves us to allow our volunteer efforts to build our character, bring us satisfaction, and broaden the reach and depth and width of our nursing career and lives.

The potential for personal and professional growth is a powerful antidote to professional boredom, career disenchantment, and nursing ennui. Volunteering — no matter the cause or organization — can be a key to a more meaningful life inside and outside of one’s nursing career and identity.

[To listen to the companion podcast to this blog post, please click here.]

Keith Carlson, RN, BSN, NC-BC, is the Board Certified Nurse Coach behind NurseKeith.com and the well-known nursing blog, Digital Doorway. Please visit his online platforms and reach out for his support when you need it most.

Keith is co-host of RNFMRadio.com, a wildly popular nursing podcast; he also hosts The Nurse Keith Show, his own podcast focused on career advice and inspiration for nurses.

A widely published nurse writer, Keith is the author of “Savvy Networking For Nurses: Getting Connected and Staying Connected in the 21st Century,” and has contributed chapters to a number of books related to the nursing profession. Keith has written for Nurse.com, Nurse.org, MultiViews News Service, LPNtoBSNOnline, StaffGarden, AusMed, American Sentinel University, the ANA blog, Working Nurse Magazine, and other online publications.

Mr. Carlson brings a plethora of experience as a nurse thought leader, online nurse personality, podcaster, holistic career coach, writer, and well-known successful nurse entrepreneur. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his lovely and talented wife, Mary Rives.

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.

How to Help Your Fellow Nurses Deal with Disaster Relief

The American Nurses Foundation is collecting donations to support nurses in their disaster response and recovery following the recent hurricanes.

The American Nurses Association has begun collecting donations via the American Nurses Foundation to help nurses who have been affected by the recent natural disasters in the United States, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. 100% of the funds raised will directly support nurses in their disaster response and recovery efforts in southeastern Texas, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and more, and will be distributed to charities on the ground to benefit those in need as soon as possible.

To make a donation or share the donation link, please visit givedirect.org/donate/?cid=1680, or learn more about the American Nurses Foundation at anfonline.org.

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.

Keys to Successful EHR Selection in a Value-Based Care System

Providers need to find health IT companies offering a high degree of usability and integrated solutions during the EHR selection process for value-based care success.

from EHR Intelligence

While most providers understand the goals of the value-based care system, many still approach EHR selection through a volume-based lens. According to a post by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka, MD, health IT vendors are partially to blame. When advertising a system’s capabilities, health IT companies should begin framing their successes in relation to what their services help hospitals accomplish rather than how popular they are. This is what value-based care was designed to do—push the healthcare industry’s focus away from quantity and toward quality.

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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.

Uninsured Rate Falls To Record Low Of 8.8%

The latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau showed the nation’s uninsured rate dropped to 8.8 percent. It had been 9.1 percent in 2015.

By Phil Galewitz

Three years after the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion took effect, the number of Americans without health insurance fell to 28.1 million in 2016, down from 29 million in 2015, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

The latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau showed the nation’s uninsured rate dropped to 8.8 percent. It had been 9.1 percent in 2015.

Both the overall number of uninsured and the percentage are record lows.

The latest figures from the Census Bureau effectively close the book on President Barack Obama’s record on lowering the number of uninsured. He made that a linchpin of his 2008 campaign, and his administration’s effort to overhaul the nation’s health system through the ACA focused on expanding coverage.

When Obama took office in 2009, during the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, more than 50 million Americans were uninsured, or nearly 17 percent of the population.

The number of uninsured has fallen from 42 million in 2013 — before the ACA in 2014 allowed states to expand Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides coverage to low-income people, and provided federal subsidies to help lower- and middle-income Americans buy coverage on the insurance marketplaces. The decline also reflected the improving economy, which has put more Americans in jobs that offer health coverage.

The dramatic drop in the uninsured over the past few years played a major role in the congressional debate over the summer about whether to replace the 2010 health law. Advocates pleaded with the Republican-controlled Congress not to take steps to reverse the gains in coverage.

The Census numbers are considered the gold standard for tracking who has insurance because the survey samples are so large.

The uninsured rate has fallen in all 50 states and the District of Columbia since 2013, although the rate has been lower among the 31 states that expanded Medicaid as part of the health law. The lowest uninsured rate last year was 2.5 percent in Massachusetts and the highest was 16.6 percent in Texas, the Census Bureau said. States that expanded Medicaid had an average uninsured rate of 6.5 percent compared with an 11.7 percent average among states that did not expand, the Census Bureau reported.

More than half of Americans — 55.7 percent — get health insurance through their jobs. But government coverage is becoming more common. Medicaid now covers more than 19 percent of the population and Medicare nearly 17 percent.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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.

PCPs Spend More than Half of Workdays Interacting with EHRs

A new study of 142 family medicine physicians shows they spend an exorbitant amount of their day on clerical or administrative tasks.

from Health Data Management

Primary care physicians spend an average of nearly six hours—more than half of their workday—performing clerical and administrative tasks in their electronic health record systems. That’s the finding of a retrospective cohort study of 142 family medicine physicians at a large academic healthcare center in southern Wisconsin, conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the American Medical Association.

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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.