Free Republic

Nope, it's not what you think. It wasn't pro-Hamas protesters—this time. We’ve seen anti-Israel protests at several graduations, and we’ve seen commencement ceremonies canceled altogether as some universities bent their knee to the demonstrators—but we haven’t seen this before.A graduation ceremony for nursing students at Howard University in Washington D.C. was canceled right in the middle of the keynote address Thursday as furious parents who were locked out due to capacity issues pounded on the doors and even smashed a window.It was a chaotic scene:1 hurt in chaos after Howard University nursing graduation ceremony reaches maximum capacity 📹: @Dream_Girl_MG https://t.co/BEL54p8OVJ...

Leaders of an advocacy group for nursing home residents who blame ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the COVID-related deaths of thousands of relatives, urged New York City voters to reject his expected comeback bid for mayor. “New York deserves better than Andrew Cuomo, and we’ll be there every step of the way as a reminder,” an open letter to the three-term Democrat drafted by the group Voices for Seniors said. “We will not forget,” the letter, obtained by The Post, said. “Silence is not an option.” Chief among the group’s grievances is the Cuomo administration’s controversial March 25, 2020 edict that...

Brandon Holcombe went straight from high school to working as a welder in northern Georgia, but it wasn’t for him. Holcombe worried that the field was being automated away by robots, and besides, he wanted something with more problem-solving skills. Now, a decade later and at 28 years old, Holcombe is a long way from welding, studying at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to become a registered nurse. “Each day brings new learning opportunities,” Holcombe said. The number of men in the U.S. with the job of registered nurse has nearly tripled since the early 2000s. Many come to...

A nurse from Georgia allegedly stole jewelry from hospital patients she had been entrusted to take care of. Stephanie Phillips-Siwiec, 54, is accused of stealing valuables on at least two occasions and, at one point, using hand sanitizer to forcefully remove the rings from the fingers of a dementia patient who only realized hours later. Phillips-Siwiec faces charges of abuse, neglect or exploitation of the elderly, three counts of robbery and aggravated battery. Charging documents seen by Fox 5 allege how the nurse was working the overnight shift at Wellstar North Fulton Medical Center north of Atlanta. The theft took...

Some of the country’s largest media outlets have called on President Biden to step aside and allow another Democrat to take on former President Trump in November, following the president’s concerning debate performance last week. Biden’s first debate performance raised alarms among some Democrats and supporters, with the president struggling to string ideas together or rebut Trump’s many false statements. Almost half of Democrats in a new poll say Biden should allow a different candidate to take the party’s nomination. Here are the major outlets that have called on Biden to drop out of the race. The New York Times...

Former Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel — who is 94 years old — wondered whether President Biden belongs in a nursing home instead of the White House following last week’s debate disaster. “I have never been more shocked and embarrassed by any presidential debate than I was last Thursday,” Rangel, who served in Congress from 1971 to 2017, said Sunday on 770 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.” “One [candidate is] a convicted felon who has no respect for the truth, for morality. The other seemed so damned confused I didn’t even know whether he knew where the hell he was at...

Program will address ‘insidious problem’ with racism in medicine: nurses association Nursing students at the University of Illinois soon will receive “diversity, equity, and inclusion” training via virtual reality courtesy of a $20,000 grant to address racism. The American Nurses Association, which awarded the grant through its National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing, says the funds will address an “insidious problem” with racism in nursing. But other medical professionals and scholars say the project is a waste of money. The university’s College of Nursing plans to use the grant to hire a software engineer to create virtual reality training...

Heather Pressdee, a nurse in Butler County who was already facing charges related to giving patients lethal doses of insulin, is now facing charges related to the mistreatment of 19 additional patients. 41-year-old nurse allegedly administered lethal doses of insulin to three patients beginning in 2020. Now 19 additional patients have been found to have been mistreated while under her care at five different care facilities. In total, 17 patients under Pressdee's care have died. Now, she is facing two new charges of first-degree murder, 17 counts of attempted murder, and 19 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person. The...

At a time when registered nurses are going on strike to protest staffing shortages, thousands of applicants who want to enter or advance in the profession are being turned away from nursing schools. Nearly 78,200 qualified applications were not offered spots at nursing schools last year, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, which represents schools with baccalaureate and advanced degree programs. This includes nearly 66,300 applications for entry-level bachelor’s degree programs. The number of applications turned away from baccalaureate programs has been higher in recent years than it was prior to 2019. (One person may submit applications...

Mandatory wearing of masks in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in Marin County will return in November to curb an anticipated spread of respiratory diseases, including COVID-19, according to county officials. The masking requirement will take effect from Nov. 1 through March 31, 2024, Marin Health and Human Services officials said Wednesday. Once the measure has taken effect, all individuals within higher-risk health care settings in Marin County, especially in patient care areas, will be required to wear masks. Children below the age of 6 and those with valid medical reasons are exempted from the mandate, county officials said. Under...

A student earning her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Alabama says she left the school after a professor brought Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ideas into the classroom. She said the ideas were offensive and dangerous. Sarah Budde, an emergency room RN in Florida, thought Alabama would be the best place for her to pursue her doctorate. However, she changed her mind after taking the multicultural and social education for leadership personnel class taught by Dr. Nirmala Erevelles. "As a student, I paid for this program and paid for the...

<p>Cops have launched an investigation into a series of mysterious assaults on crippled astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. The probe reportedly began after the author of the best seller "A Brief History of Time" was left stranded in his wheelchair in the garden of his country home last summer on the hottest day of the year.</p>

A study has found that health managers should consider the levels of a range of staff, beyond just doctors and nurses, when assessing patient safety. Research shows hospitals with higher levels of allied healthcare professional (AHP) staff, such as physiotherapists, radiographers, dieticians and occupational therapists, report significantly lower mortality rates. The findings showed that for hospitals where doctors and allied health professionals had to cover fewer beds, there were significantly lower mortality rates. However, for hospitals where there were more healthcare assistants and assistants to allied health professionals in the staffing mix, there were higher mortality rates. The study also...

The Republican senator wanted to make a point about America’s COVID policies compared to the rest of the world. On Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul wanted to know if the dean of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing was ‘pro-choice.’ ‘Are you pro-choice in regards to patients making individualized medical choices?” Paul asked Dr. Sarah Szanton. “Broadly, thank you, yes,” Szanton replied. Paul was beginning a larger discussion to note that other nations have enjoyed more medical freedoms than most Americans have had. “Are you aware that your university doesn’t allow choice with regard to vaccination, that you require all of your...

A massive, coordinated scheme to sell false and fraudulent nursing degree credentials has been brought down by a joint federal law enforcement operation, Justice Department officials said Wednesday. As first reported by ABC News, officials said the scheme involved peddling more than $100 million worth of bogus nursing diplomas and transcripts over the course of several years -- fake credentials that were sold to help "thousands of people" take "shortcuts" toward becoming licensed, practicing nurses. Officials said the forged diplomas and transcripts were sold from what had been accredited schools to aspiring nurses, in order to help candidates bypass the...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KDVR) — A class action lawsuit filed Tuesday by Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC outlines years of alleged sexual assault that was recorded and photographed on the phone of a registered nurse at Saint Mary’s Hospital, SCL Health and Intermountain Healthcare. Christopher Lambros, 61, allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted, and/or took lewd photos and videos of patients for at least 10 years while he was an RN, primarily in the Intensive Care Unit in Grand Junction. Lambros received his nursing license in Colorado on June 12, 2012. Around the same time, he was hired by Saint Mary’s, SCL Health...

An acute nursing shortage is clogging or even closing hospital emergency rooms across Canada, pushing an already stressed national health system to the brink with potentially severe consequences for patient care. Burnout from the Covid-19 pandemic, abuse from patients and salary discontent have seen nursing staff quitting their jobs in droves, and experts say the situation is only likely to worsen. The impact on emergency care is such that Ottawa police recently had to take a shooting victim to hospital in their squad car, rather than wait for an ambulance, and an elderly woman who fell and broke her hip...

College Station, Texas I was fired from my nursing job this year for refusing to take “implicit bias” training. After 39 years of providing equal care to all my patients without regard to their race, I objected to a mandatory course grounded in the idea that I’m racist because I’m white. I fear every healthcare professional will soon be forced to make the same awful decision I did: Falsely admit to being racist or abandon the medical field. My ordeal started in September 2021 when my employer, Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health, rolled out its annual training modules for...

Medical education, medical research, and standards of competence have been upended by two related hypotheses: that systemic racism is responsible both for racial disparities in the demographics of the medical profession and for racial disparities in health outcomes.

Half of nurses in the U.S. are now battling against violence on wards, one of the largest nursing unions in the country said today. In its bi-annual survey, National Nurses United found more than 48 per cent of nurses said they were facing a small or significant spike in violence at work. This was more than double the 21 per cent that said there were more assaults in their hospitals in March last year. Cases included patients spitting on nurses after being told they had tested positive for COVID-19, and scratching, hitting or even threatening healthcare workers with firearms. Hospitals...