Hospital Employee Health – February 1, 2022
February 1, 2022
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Winter of Our Discontent: Omicron Variant Pushes Healthcare to Brink
With omicron causing much higher breakthrough infection rates than previous COVID-19 variants, there is concern infected healthcare workers must isolate amid an ongoing nursing shortage. The previous recommendation for 10 days has been changed to seven, and shorter than that under certain conditions. -
Are Boosters Prolonging the Pandemic?
Some people have raised the question of whether booster shots are unethical from a global perspective, and even counterproductive to ending the pandemic because highly mutated variants will continue to arise in unvaccinated patients. -
Worker Safety Is Critical to Patient Safety
As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the national nursing shortage, healthcare workers are finally seen as a valuable commodity that should not be routinely lost to injuries trying to manually lift and mobilize patients. Ultimately, understanding worker safety equals patient safety improves the well-being of an organization. -
Missed Nursing Care and Declining Patient Safety
While the immediate effect of the COVID-19 omicron variant on the healthcare workforce is the pressing issue, there were serious concerns about staff shortages and the effect of “missed nursing care” on patients well before the pandemic. Missed nursing care is defined as delaying, omitting, or rationing care by nursing staff.