The Ohio Board of Nursing is taking more than a year to investigate complaints, the Dayton Daily News reported. That’s allowed some nurses to continue with caretaking duties while complaints are reviewed.

The board received 6,880 complaints in the 2011 budget year that ended on June 30, and the allegations are on pace for a double-digit increase in the two-year accounting period, the newspaper reported. There were 11,645 complaints during the previous two-year period.

Complaints include allegations of drug theft, substance abuse, patient abuse, poor practices and other criminal conduct.

Judy Patak of Beavercreek told the board in January 2011 that a nurse caring for her severely disabled husband had treated him improperly during a feeding. The case has yet to get a hearing.

“If they get fired, they can just go somewhere else, and the other agencies, they don’t know their ethics or what they’re like,” Patak told the newspaper.

One of the three nurses criminally charged for not reporting the poor health of a 14-year-old girl also has yet to have a hearing with the board.

Makayla Norman, who had cerebral palsy and was dependent on others for her care, died almost a year ago. She weighed only 28 pounds and was covered with bedsores and caked in dirt, authorities said.

The newspaper said that the license for Mary Kilby, a registered nurse working for Cincinnati-based CareStar Inc. as Norman’s case manager, remains active.

Kilby was indicted with others on charges of failing to provide care to a functionally impaired person and failing to report child abuse. She faces an April 18 trial.

Nurses have a right for allegations to be fully investigated, said Betsy Houchen, director of the nursing board. That requires the board to interview witnesses, issue subpoenas and gather all the evidence. Cases are then presented at one of six board meetings held annually.

“They are serious violations,” Houchen said. “We want to have all the information that we need for the board to consider.”

The board can suspend immediately nurses who are convicted of a felony.

The board’s most-recent annual report says the “steady and dramatic increase in disciplinary complaints” has been a significant challenge for the panel.

Houchen said an increased emphasis on reporting concerns, along with growth in the industry, have fed the spike in complaints.

There were 210,000 licensed nurses in 2006 compared with 251,000 in 2011, she said.

Junior Rachel Schwartz changed her major to health sciences after being denied from the nursing program three times.

“I was always a really hard worker, and I got pretty good grades,” Schwartz said. “I had to have all my prerequisites completed, and anatomy and physiology were really difficult for me at this school.”

After struggling with those two classes, which brought her GPA down, she decided to change her major and pursue an accelerated nursing program. She will graduate a year and half later than she expected.

“I have to use my two repeat-forgives on anatomy and physiology, which I have to retake for health sciences, anyway,” Schwartz said. “I still have to do really well in both those classes to get into that [accelerated nursing] program.”

Applications reviewed by the Bachelor of Science in Nursing admissions committee are evaluated and selected based on overall GPA and prerequisite course grades. The minimum GPA required to be considered is 2.8, and a C-minus is the minimum grade applicants can receive in their prerequisite courses to be considered.

Applications must be turned in about six months before the start date and are advised to have completed 25 credit hours.

Even with these guidelines, Schwartz believes that students are often confused about the qualifications for the program.

“They tell students that they have to have a minimum GPA of 2.8, but they don’t actually accept anyone with less than a 3.2,” she said. “I’ve known people with 3.8, 3.9 who have gotten denied. I think it’s because they say they want well-rounded people who have done volunteer work.”

Sheri Tratnack, a professor of psychiatric nursing, believes that one of the main problems associated with the competitiveness of the nursing program is the lack of nursing professors.

Tratnack thinks this is because nurses with advanced degrees make more money working as a nurse than as a teacher.

“You can definitely make more money in practice than in teaching,” Tratnack said, “but I love teaching. I taught undergraduate nursing before and really enjoyed it. It’s fun and it’s very enjoyable to work with students coming in.”

(JMU Breeze) Julie Sanford, head of nursing department, said this lack of professors isn’t unique to JMU. Many colleges are having a hard time meeting the demand for the educational preparation of registered nurses with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

The latest data shows that more than 67,000 qualified applications to professional nursing programs were turned away last year, including more than 11,000 applicants to graduate programs, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 

There are currently 28 full-time nursing professors and 10 part-time professors on staff at JMU. This is drastically lower than the roughly 128 nursing professors at the University of Virginia.

In order to meet state requirements and for safety and supervision purposes, there must be a 10-1 ratio of students to faculty in the clinical classes. This means that the number of teachers directly affects the number of students that can be accepted into the program, so a shortage of teachers would mean the program has to take fewer students.

“There is definitely a shortage of nursing professors,” said Ashia McCrary, a junior nursing major. “If there were more, we would be able to have more clinical time and there would be more spots … it’s pretty competitive right now, so many people get turned away.”

There are plans currently underway to increase the nursing program, but the department won’t give details until they’re finalized.

“For every 50 hours that a student spends in simulation, they’re 90 percent less likely to make a mistake on the floor,” said Margaret Pomfret, Ashland University’s associate vice president for university campaign and government relations. “What we’re doing is definitely cutting edge.”

In 2010, AU acquired the MedCentral College of Nursing. Ashland is leasing MedCentral’s academic building on Glessner Avenue, plus two residence halls on the Balgreen campus at Marion Avenue and Trimble Road.

AU broke ground for the Dwight Schar facility at 1020 S. Trimble Road in June. The facility is projected to cost $15 million. Pomfret said the university raised $11.6 million in 18 months and received a $1.58 million grant for the building.

“We are on target to have students begin fall semester in the new building,” said Faye Grund, dean of the college of nursing. “We are most excited about having a new facility. It will provide for us the most current and advanced simulation labs in the state of Ohio.”

Labs will take up 12,000 square feet. The facility will include nine classrooms and four physical examination rooms.

Grund, the former president of the MedCentral College of Nursing who joined AU in 2010, said the university’s nursing school will offer more than regular programs. Students with a degree in another field can apply for an accelerated nursing program they can complete in 15 months. There will be an advanced entry program for transfer students.

Students will take their core liberal arts courses their first two years in Ashland, then spend their last two years at the new facility.

“It’s a large undertaking that’s going to have a really positive outcome,” Grund said.

AU President Fred Finks said in many colleges, students take the core courses before finding if they are admitted to the school of nursing.

“If you’re admitted to Ashland, you’re automatically in the college of nursing,” he said. “You don’t have to wait. That sets us apart from Ohio State or Akron.”

Finks said healthcare will be one of the fastest-growing industries in the coming years. At the school of nursing, students also will be able to pursue dietetics, exercise science and athletic training. Ashland will add a doctor of nurse practice degree in 2013.

“We’ve had an RN to BSN program for over 30 years,” Finks said. “This is going give us an opportunity to grow the program from 350 now to 750.”

Those nurses will be needed.

“In Ohio, the shortage will be 32,000 by the year 2020,” Finks noted.

AU’s nursing school is one of several projects in the area. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is scheduled to build a new outpatient clinic on South Trimble Road by spring 2013. Construction on the $10 million project is scheduled to begin this spring.

The facility will more than double the space available for medical and mental health care at the existing clinic at the former Swallen’s complex on Park Avenue West. It will serve six counties and be built with federal funds.

The Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging was given the former Hawkins Market at Park Avenue West and Lexington-Springmill Road in Ontario by grocery store founder Otis Earl Hawkins. The site will be named Hawkins Center in recognition of the donor.

Duana Patton, agency chief executive officer, said officials hope to select an architect for the project this month. She hopes to be relocated from the current Park Avenue West location either late this year or early next year.

“We truly believe that facility will allow us to enhance the manner in which we serve our customers,” Patton said. “The whole vision of that building is to become shared space (with partner tenants that serve a similar population).”

mcaudill@nncogannett.com 419-521-7219

(TCPalm.com) Nurses are once again expected to be in rising demand in Florida this year, with almost 30,000 needed, according to a new report on Thursday.

Hospitals and home health look to be the biggest employers seeking nurses for existing vacancies and a growing demand for health care, said the report by the Florida Center for Nursing.

The statewide demand for nurses has turned upward after being flat for several years as a result of the recession, the report said. Experts said hiring had been down because patients were putting off health care, and financial pressure led many nurses to postpone retirement and work longer hours.

Nursing schools expect to produce about 11,000 graduates this year, the report said. As of last summer, the state had about 530,000 licensed nursing professionals.

That trend is gradually shifting in South Florida, as well, said Ralph Egües Jr., executive director of the Nursing Shortage Consortium of South Florida, a group made up of hospitals, nursing schools and other health providers.

“It’s up. But things have not started to significantly change yet. We still have a lot of nurses working four 12-hour-days or who have not retired who would like to,” Egües said.

At some point soon, he said, the economy will improve enough that nurses feel comfortable to retire and work less, creating a huge need in South Florida. He predicted vacant nursing jobs, now under 5 percent of the total, may zoom to 12 percent or more – even more than before the recession.

“I don’t think we’re going to come out of this gradually. I think it’s going to more like falling off a cliff,” Egües said.

The report projected a need for almost 30,000 nurses this year, including 15,750 registered nurses and 14,000 licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants. About half the need is to fill open jobs, the rest to handle newly needed jobs.

New jobs would be created by the opening of a few new hospitals – one is planned in Jupiter – as well as growth in outpatient centers and home health.

No South Florida figures are available but Egües said the trends are similar.

The main goals of the new research will be to examine early contributors to breast cancer, and to explore reproductive health and fertility in younger women, said Dr. Jorge Chavarro, an assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology, who is helping to lead the study.

Earlier phases of the research uncovered the dangers of trans fats, vitamin A supplements, and cigarette smoking; only the link to lung cancer was known before the Nurses’ Health Study, but the study revealed that smoking also caused heart disease and other cancers, Chavarro said.

More than 90 percent of the women who first joined the study in 1976 or 1989 are still answering annual questionnaires, he said. This time, nurses will fill out their questionnaires online and will be asked to participate every six months for the first few years.

The study will also ask questions designed to help nurses themselves. Earlier research looked at the impacts of nurses’ shift-work, particularly at night. This study will examine exposures to cleaners, and medications such as chemotherapeutics, antibiotics and anesthetics, he said.

Nurse Patty Conaway of Atlanta said she used to mix chemotherapy drugs in tiny rooms without masks or other protections. She wonders what those clouds of dust may have done to her body. “I think about it to this day if it’s ever going to come back and haunt me,” said Conaway, whose health, at 62, is still excellent.

Already, 25,000 nurses ages 46 and under have agreed to participate in Nurses’ Health Study 3, based on word of mouth from nurses like Conaway; the study is now expanding its outreach efforts to bring in more women across the US as well as Canada.

It used to be simple to recruit. With the first study, researchers mailed out one request letter and more than 100,000 women agreed to participate. When they went looking again in 1989, they sent out multiple mailings and reached out to more women, but still topped 100,000 relatively easily. This time it’s more of an effort, Chavarro said.

“We’re doing everything it takes,” he said. To participate in the Nurses’ Health Study, go to www.nhs3.org.

Yet, since the summer, the Department of Public Welfare has removed 25,000 city children from the medical assistance rolls, kids whose family incomes are believed to still fall within the qualifying guidelines. For these now-uninsured children – and every other child who attends the city public schools – the district’s layoff of 47 school nurses means that the children’s health and educational prospects have taken a step backward.

The result – predicted a school nurse who barely escaped losing her job – will be “more chaos” added to an already overburdened system of no-fee health services that acts as a safety net. “The public needs to understand our function,” she said. “The role of the school nurse is to keep children healthy enough to be educated and make sure they have no barriers to education from a health-care standpoint.”

Identifying health care needs before students get an illness – that is, prevention – is critical, the nurse explained, recalling a school open house last fall at which she distributed vision and dental paperwork, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) applications. “I had more parents stop for CHIP forms than I ever had before,” she said. “People are suffering, getting jobs without health insurance, so they don’t qualify for medical assistance. But so many kids are medically fragile.”

Sick children going to school is “nothing new,” happening even when she was a child, noted a veteran Philadelphia teacher with 50 years of classroom experience. “Kids would get sick on Saturday and the parents would say, ‘Go see the school nurse,’ especially during tough economic times. Nurses were a mainstay during the Depression, when parents didn’t have money for the doctor.”

An aging population and new requirements tied to the national health care overhaul are contributing to the shortage. The estimate is based on a survey conducted last year among employers in six nurse-intensive industries.

While some recent nursing graduates have been unable to find work in isolated pockets, the statewide demand far exceeds the supply of nurses.

The center was created to collect and analyze data on nurse supply, demand and education in Florida. It is projecting the shortage will grow to more than 56,000 by 2025.

The criticism lumped on promoters and matchmakers for fingering Karpency (21-2-1, 14 knockouts), an unheralded southpaw from Adah, Penn., to face Cleverly (23-0, 11 KOs), THE RING’s no. 4-rated light heavyweight, on Saturday at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales, is justified. Karpency hasn’t beaten any contenders and lacks the amateur credentials that dot the resumes of even the most inauspicious of challengers. He also hasn’t fought in over a year.

Karpency says he understands the criticism.

“I don’t think even the most intense boxing fans know who I am,” conceded the 26-year-old registered nurse, who, when not pursuing his dream of a world title in the ring, works in the psychiatric unit of Uniontown Hospital in Uniontown, Penn.

Karpency’s hometown of Adah is in Western Pennsylvania, just a stone’s throw from the West Virginia border where most of his professional fights have taken place. Adah was once a booming coal-mining community during the 1930s, but once the mines closed, the town emptied out. Today, the town’s population is about 150.

“If I had grown up somewhere in a big boxing hotbed like Los Angeles or Philadelphia or Miami, maybe a promoter would have been able to see me perform at local fights,” said Karpency. “Around here, there are no big promoters and big press as far as boxing. All of your fights are untelevised with small crowds. It’s really hard to get exposure.”

American football, from the NFL and college teams down to the high school level, is the region’s dominant sport. Virtually no boxing exists in the area, save for Karpency’s father Tom Sr., who has trained him since he was a young boy. Karpency grew up around the sport and had his first amateur bout in elementary school, but admits that he didn’t take the sport seriously until the age of 19.

Yet while his anonymity and overall lack of notoriety won’t do him any favors in the betting line, he believes flying under the radar will work to his advantage inside the ring.

“It’ll help me greatly because they’re probably not expecting a world-class fighter,” said Karpency, who has been a sparring partner for Roy Jones Jr., Beibut Shumenov and Glen Johnson. “I’m sure that Nathan Cleverly is preparing his fullest, but how much motivation did he have to get ready for this fight? It’s like Bernard Hopkins; he’d prepare much harder to face Chad Dawson than he would for me.

“Of course I’m motivated because it’s my first opportunity at a world championship, so I think it works to my favor.”

It’s hard to minimize the sizable gap in experience and level of competition between Karpency and Cleverly. Karpency’s biggest win to date came in 2009 against Jersey shore crowd favorite Chuck Mussachio, who was unbeaten heading into the bout but is generally regarded as a club fighter. By contrast, Cleverly holds a tenth-round TKO win over Karo Murat, the man who had handed Karpency his most recent defeat by unanimous decision in Germany just four months prior.

This will be Cleverly’s third title defense, while Karpency hasn’t beaten a fighter with a winning record since the aforementioned Mussachio.

The Murat fight in Germany in 2010 was Karpency’s first trip abroad for a fight. He was down in the second round but fought valiantly to the end, losing by a respectable margin.

“The Karo Murat fight was a great experience and I believe it will be a great tool to have in this fight,” said Karpency. “It will be my second trip overseas and I’ll definitely be more comfortable with the atmosphere and what to expect as far as press and media and being the underdog. It was just a great learning experience.

“The only thing that was weird for me in Germany – which isn’t the same in Wales – is the fact that the crowd is very quiet, which is awkward. In Germany you can almost hear a pin drop when you’re fighting.”

Without the financial backing from a major promoter or manager being, Karpency has had to work full-time through preparations for this match at his day job. That means 40 hours a week in 12 hour shifts.

“This is the hand I’m dealt,” said Karpency. “This is what I’m up against.”

It’s not so bad though, he says. Though the hospital initially didn’t understand his other career, they now work around his demanding training schedule the best they can.

“It’s been working out well but it’s a very strict schedule and I do my best to get the most out of every day,” Karpency said.

Karpency isn’t coming to the United Kingdom spouting threats and promises, predicting that he’s going to shock the world or defy the odds. His expectations of himself are reasonable. And while  modest,  they still far exceed the limitations placed on him by the media in the UK and elsewhere.

“I think that I’ll impress,” said Karpency. “I think that I can compete with the best in the world and they’ll be pleasantly surprised by my performance.

“I’m coming to win the fight. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to knock him out in the first minute of the fifth round, but I’m coming to win.”

While many people would like to get into the field of nursing—as a nurse practitioner, certified nurse anesthetist, licensed nurse midwife or other specialty—it can be challenging to know how to go about getting a masters degree in nursing.

A website has been getting a lot of attention lately for its comprehensive and helpful information, listings and reviews of top-tier accredited masters in nursing degree programs.

Masters in Nursing Guides offers articles filled with tips and advice on why and how a masters degree in nursing or master of science in nursing (MSN) program will provide both young students just starting their career as well as established nurses who would like to go back to school to further their education with the skills they need to deliver high quality nursing care.

For example, one section of the website is devoted to information about nurse practitioner programs, and how RN to MSN programs can help people begin working in this field of healthcare. Nurse practitioners, or NPs, typically work in tandem with physicians, do follow-up work with patients, and handle a variety of medical appointments.

When a registered nurse completes advanced education a minimum of MSN or RN to MSN programs, he or she can turn out to be a nurse practitioner, an article on the website explained, adding that training to turn into a nurse practitioner involves getting used to procedures concerned in the prognosis and administration of widespread medical conditions.

“Specialization must involve coaching within the dealing with of various cases, together with continual illnesses. Nurse practitioners are assumed to have been exposed to a broad range of well being care services.”

The website is extremely user-friendly; prospective students are welcome to browse through the many articles about masters in nursing, some of which answer basic questions like how long it takes to graduate—usually around 18 to 24 months—to if online programs are available and what the requirements are to enroll in a school.

About Masters in Nursing Guides
Masters in Nursing Guides provides prospective students and nurses with information, listings and reviews of top tier accredited masters in nursing degree programs. The website is an outstanding resource guide filled with educational articles, tips and advice on everything from degree programs to what types of careers are available. For more information, please visit http://www.mastersinnursingguides.org

(Philly.com) Pennsylvania nursing-home operators, already hit hard by last year’s cuts in federal and state funding, face another revenue loss in Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The budget proposal, released Tuesday, calls for a 4 percent cut in the Medicaid reimbursement rate for nursing homes. The total revenue loss for nursing homes is projected by the Pennsylvania Health Care Association to be $46.5 million.

That amounts to a nearly $8-per-day reduction in the average daily reimbursement of $194 for Medicaid patients, the Harrisburg trade group for nursing-home operators said Wednesday.