Recently Bloomberg released their first in a series of articles on Advanced Practice Nursing. Practitioners. This first installment focused on nurse practitioner education, offering harmful and unsubstantiated opinions regarding the educational preparation and subsequent care provided by U.S. based Nurse Practitioners to patients across the United States. As dedicated nurse practitioner faculty and nurse practitioners (NPs), each with over 30 years’ experience in the field, we denounce this misguided reporting as irresponsible and dangerous to patient safety, as we did almost five years ago in Becker’s Hospital Review rebutting a similar article. Perpetuating the messaging that NPs are “unsafe” is old, tired, and unsupported by peer-reviewed research. 

Here are the chief nursing leaders from the 11 hospitals with Magnet with Distinction programs.

A patient-controlled liquid oral opioid device could address delays in pain medication delivery, according to a study published July 26 in the Journal of Pain Research.

The University of South Carolina in Columbia has opened a new training facility for nursing students in partnership with Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia, S.C.

Health systems and universities are increasingly offering externship programs to help nursing students gain practical experience before graduation.

Sharon (Pa.) Regional Medical Center, part of Dallas-based Steward Health Care, will close a 125-year-old nursing school after the current class of students graduates next May, according to a news release sent to local news outlets. 

The Women's Hospital of Texas, part of HCA Houston Healthcare, is ready to hire nurses affected by the layoffs at Texas Children's Hospital, the HCA hospital's chief nursing officer said in an Aug. 7 post on LinkedIn. 

So far this year, nurses have been included in job reductions at Optum and two hospitals. 

Editor's note: This letter to the editor is in response to the article, "The Miseducation of America's Nurse Practitioners," published by Bloomberg. It has been lightly edited.

More cities in Vermont are turning to community nurses to provide in-home health care, WBUR reported July 30.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center is relaunching an eight-week paid summer externship program for qualified prelicensure nursing students.

Many virtual nursing models involve separate teams where nurses work as either a bedside nurse or a virtual nurse. But Cleveland-based University Hospitals is taking a different approach. 

Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems has hired almost 3,000 registered nurses during the first half of 2024 and its nurse retention rate is "very strong at its highest level in a decade," CEO Tim Hingtgen said July 25 during the company's second-quarter earnings call. 

The rapid proliferation of nurse practitioners programs in the U.S. is spurring concerns about the quality of training for these advanced practice providers and potential consequences for patient safety, Bloomberg Businessweek reported July 24.

Hospitals across the country are combatting significant labor shortages. This is especially true in nursing, where shortages are expected to continue intensifying over the next decade. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, we should anticipate a national shortage of nearly 64,000 nurses by 2032. Some states will feel the impacts of this shortage more than others – including North Carolina, which is expected to be short nearly 13,000 nurses by 2033.

The Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses has introduced a new virtual nursing certificate developed with input from nurse leaders at Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health.

Two bills have been introduced in the House of Representatives that aim to tackle the forecasted nurse shortage.

In January 2023, Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health had more than 1,000 open nursing positions. Today, there are less than 290 open RN positions across the system's 17 hospitals — progress an innovative "Nursing Seal Team" helped drive, leaders say. 

The number of nurses planning to leave their workplace dropped year-over-year, according to a study published July 18 in JAMA Network Open.

Amid a nationwide push to educate, train and hire more nurses at the bedside, and faster, Rhode Island passed a law that allows new nurses to practice before their NCLEX results are known. But patient safety is a concern.