The number of registered nurses entering the workforce has more than doubled in the past decade, according to a national study released today. California is seeing a similar trend, with some regions experiencing a surplus. [Second newscast.]
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Multimedia Journalist
What Shortage of Nurses? In California, We May Have Too Many
From the 1980s to the 2000s, the number of young people going into nursing schools plummeted — both nationally and in California. To reverse the trend, the government launched recruitment efforts to to spur more people to go into nursing.
It looks like they did a pretty good job. The number of registered nurses nationwide skyrocketed in the past decade, according to a study released in today’s Health Affairs. Recent grads aged 23-26 increased by 62 percent. There hasn’t been a spike in nursing grads like this in the U.S. since the 1970s.
And it’s no different in California. Nursing school enrollments have doubled in the past decade, says Joanne Spetz, a nursing professor at UCSF and co-author of a UCSF report looking at California’s nursing forecast. The report shows that in the past five years, the number of California nursing graduates has doubled. Spetz says that’s because California also made huge efforts to recruit nursing students, like implementing accelerated degree programs.
Read the rest on KQED’s State of Health blog.
Mental Health Care May be Mandated in California, But Most Aren’t Getting Treated
More than two million adults in California say they need mental health care, but about half of them aren’t getting it, according to a report released Wednesday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
California mandates health insurance companies provide equal care for mental and physical health problems. But mental health services are often inadequate–or they don’t exist at all, says lead author David Grant.
One reason is when hospitals want to cut costs, mental health care is often the first to go. Grant notes that, just this morning, LA’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center announced it is cutting most of its psychiatric services.
“It’s a disaster,” Grant said about Cedars-Sinai’s closing. “Health care is undergoing so much change and it’s under so much financial stress right now. Providers are really looking for ways to reduce health care costs.”
Read the rest on KQED’s State of Health blog.
Union Pushes for Investigation of Kaiser
Health care workers want the state to investigate Kaiser Permanente’s mental health services. The National Union of Health Workers says it found Kaiser violates state rules for timely access to mental health care. [Second newscast.]
Petitions for UC Davis Chancellor to Resign
Calls for the chancellor of UC Davis to resign are growing louder amid the controversy over campus police pepper-spraying peaceful demonstrators. One student’s online petition now has more than 76,000 signers.
What the Health Effects of Pepper Spray Are and How to Treat Them
(Lauri Rantala/Flickr)
This video of UC Davis campus police dousing protesters with pepper spray has close to two million views on YouTube and counting. UC Davis student David Busco was one of the students sprayed that day, saying the pain felt like “thousands of pieces of glass shooting into your eyes.”
Busco says the pepper spray was all over his face and mouth, meaning he could not avoid inhaling it, unless he stopped breathing. Concerned students poured bottled water over him, but this only worsened the problem by further spreading the pepper spray around his face and body. Busco says friends soon carried him to the nearest house and, after a quick Google search about pepper spray removal, washed him with dishwasher soap in the shower.
Pepper spray is legal for use in most states by anyone over age eighteen who is not a convicted felon. It is frequently being used during Occupy protests nationwide. We’re told it hurts (it look likes it hurts), but what exactly are the health effects? And what’s the best way to treat it?
Read the rest on KQED’s State of Health blog or KQED’s News Fix blog.
Bay Area Kids Get a Little Fatter … Except in San Mateo County
Health advocates heaved a sign of relief this month over a new report showing that the obesity epidemic may be leveling off. In the past five years, the percentage of overweight and obese kids in California dropped by one percent. Not a screaming success, but a lot better than the gains seen since the 80s … or even in the past decade. The rate of overweight kids in California increased by six percent between 2001 to 2004 alone.
Some individual counties saw drops in obesity levels while others, like Del Norte County, saw massive increases. The report, aptly named “A Patchwork of Progress,” reflects on these discrepancies. The Bay Area itself is somewhat of a patchwork, too. In nearly all Bay counties, childhood obesity rates are on the rise. The single exception was San Mateo county, which saw 5.6 percent decrease.
Read the rest on KQED’s State of health blog.
Recent Veterans Less Likely To Take PTSD Medications
A local researcher has found that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are twice as likely as other vets to stop taking their medication for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Childhood Obesity Still Rising in Bay Area
Thirty-eight percent of California children are overweight — a slight decline from about five years ago. But the numbers aren’t dropping in the Bay Area. [Second newscast.]
Report: Minority Outreach Critical for Health Benefit Exchange
California is setting up an insurance exchange as part of the federal health care overhaul. Millions of Californians will be eligible for government subsidies to buy coverage in the online marketplace. The authors of a report out today want to make sure African-Americans, Latinos and other minorities don’t get left out.