Editor's Note This study from the UK finds that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were associated with high short-term protection, but this protection waned considerably after 6 months; whereas, infection-acquired immunity boosted with vaccination remained high more than 1 year after COVID-19 infection. Of 35,768 participants analyzed, 9,488 (27%)…

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In the March 2022 issue of OR Manager, the Competency and Credentialing Institute (CCI) presented and analyzed the current sources of data that have historically made up a demographic representation of the perioperative nursing workforce. Our article also spoke to the issue of the lack of coordination among the groups…

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Editor's Note According to a March 4 notice filed by NYC Test & Trace Corps, New York City's (NYC’s) initiative for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, the city is ending universal contact tracing by the end of April, Becker’s Hospital Review March 10 reported. This means that NYC Health +…

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Editor's Note Based on data submitted by Janssen Biotech Inc., a pharmaceutical company wholly owned by Johnson & Johnson, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized on March 7 the extension of the shelf life for refrigerated Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, the American Hospital Association March 14 reported. The…

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Editor's Note ECRI, on March 14, issued its annual list of Patient Safety Concerns, which is dominated this year by staffing shortages and healthcare workers’ mental health that have been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, the top concerns were typically associated with clinical issues caused by…

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Editor's Note Surgical backlog is still a challenge that many ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are currently working through. According to Becker’s ASC Review March 3, this backlog “could take years for some centers to recover from depending on the specialty and site of care” and has led some ASCs to…

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Editor's Note Overall healthcare employment in the US was up in February to a seasonally adjusted 16,184,800 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on March 4. That’s up 63,500 since January. Hospital employment also was up by 2,700 jobs. The overall unemployment rate for February was 3.8%, for a…

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Editor's Note In this survey by the American Nurses Foundation, published March 1, 63% of nurses younger than 35 years said they intend to leave or are considering leaving the profession. A total of 12,694 nurses were surveyed. Other findings for nurses under 35 years of age, include: 46% said…

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Editor's Note On March 1, the American Hospital Association (AHA) submitted a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee urging Congress to consider and address the challenges the healthcare workforce is currently facing. As healthcare workers enter the third year of the pandemic, AHA likened current challenges to “a…

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Editor's Note This study led by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, finds substantial changes in the healthcare workforce during years 2020 and 2021 of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the findings: Healthcare employment levels fell from 22.2 million in 2019 to 21.1 million in 2020 (a 5.2% decline), and then…

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