-
3 simple New Year’s resolutions for church staff
Deborah Ike Religious CommunityWe're near the finish line of 2020, with everyone ready to bid this chaotic year adieu. As we try to shake off a rough year, it's time to look ahead and consider how to start 2021. While COVID-19 isn't fully behind us, we can still take a few actions to make this new year better than the last.
-
The meaning of the healthcare podcast revolution
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareWhen podcasts began appearing around 2004, capitalizing on the presence of MP3 players like the iPod, little did we know that they would eventually become a driving force in the wider culture, let alone in healthcare, nursing, medicine, and related fields. Podcasts have emerged as a leading technology for disseminating opinion, entertainment, and information. Through the expanding podcast sphere, laypeople and professionals are leveraging the power of digital audio to create content covering most every aspect of human endeavor.
-
Study: Differences in height across nations explained by poor nutrition…
Amanda Ghosh Medical & Allied HealthcareA massive, long-term study published in The Lancet by Imperial College London reveals concerning truths about the impact of diet on height, weight, and health. The study followed 65 million children between ages five and 19 in 193 countries from 1985 to 2019. Here’s what we learned.
-
Hindsight is 2020: Putting the year in perspective
Linda Popky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementAdmit it. If two years ago someone had walked into your office with a movie script containing half of the things that happened in 2020, you would have laughed them out of there. Or perhaps suggested they needed psychological help. None of us saw this coming. Yes, the infectious disease experts warned we should be on the lookout for a viral pandemic, but they couldn’t tell us how or when this would arrive or the impact it would have on our society. Now that we’re getting close to the end of this tumultuous year, what learning can we take forward for the future?
-
Survey: Older patients less likely to have elective procedures as COVID-19…
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareOlder patients continue their aversion to elective procedures during the continued onslaught of COVID-19, according to a survey by analysts at investment firm Needham & Company. The study, conducted in November, featured responses from several hundred people with an average age of 61. Only about a quarter (27%) of them are still willing to choose elective procedures. As economies shutter again — notably California and New York — these numbers are likely to continue until the pandemic is under control or effective vaccines reach critical mass.
-
Study: Normal lung function remains intact during exercise despite mask…
Amanda Ghosh Medical & Allied HealthcareThere's no question that masks are uncomfortable, and they're more uncomfortable when you exercise. But evidence confirms — the lungs are no worse for wear when healthy people wear a face mask and work out. A study published last month in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society found that "there is little empirical evidence that wearing a facemask significantly diminishes lung function, even when worn during heavy exercise."
-
US economy gains 245,000 jobs; unemployment rate drops to 6.7%
Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementU.S. employers added 245,000 nonfarm jobs in November after 638,000 new hires in October and 661,000 in September, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. November’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.7% from October’s 6.9% and September’s 7.9%. The November federal jobs report reflects an easing of COVID-19 restrictions to slow coronavirus transmission, which have been unsuccessful as local and state governments resume restraints on gatherings of businesses and public places. November’s national nonfarm jobless rate has decreased 8.0 percentage points from an April high. However, November’s rate is 3.2 percentage points higher than February’s figure.
-
ABLE accounts for the disabled: FAQs
Grace Ferguson Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementOne in 4 U.S. adults have some form of disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Further, 1 in 3 disabled people aged 18-44 had an unmet healthcare need due to cost in the past year, and 1 in 4 aged 45-64 did not have a routine check-up. These are just a few of the many needs people with disabilities are unable to meet. To help disabled people save and pay for disability-related expenses, the U.S. Congress created the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act — which was signed into law on Dec. 19, 2014.
-
Travel nurse demand skyrockets as COVID-19 persists
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareTraveling nurses continue to be in high demand as COVID-19 spikes during the last two months of 2020. According to the staffing firms that recruit them for hospitals, high demand and short supply nationwide seem to be the order of the day. The tight supply of nurses available drives prices higher, too, in a real lesson of supply and demand. For example, average pay packages for ICU travel nurses in November were about $2,250 per week. That's about a 28% increase from 2019's average rates, according to recruiting firm NurseFly.
-
Where inequality goes, so goes health
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareA robust body of literature supports the thesis that inequality and health are inextricably entwined. The fight against deepening inequality in the United States and around the world is one which simply cannot be ignored in the 21st century. It is, in fact, our moral and ethical duty to address these issues and steel ourselves to resolve them, especially in this time of a historic and deadly pandemic.
All Medical & Allied Healthcare Articles