Wednesday | March 15, 2023

Healthcare starts with you. This is your beat.

Good Morning, TNB readers!

The Nursing Beat (TNB) is committed to supporting nurse-driven organizations, so I am excited to announce that we have partnered with Healthcare Influencer Network (HIN). This nurse-founded company offers social media management and strategy services to elevate the voices of nurses. Through our partnership, we want to elevate and empower all voices within our powerful nurse community. So follow along on our Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn to see all of the great work that HIN is doing! 

Stay curious!

Hannah B. (aka Nurse Hans)

Chief Ops Guru

MORNING BRIEF 🍳 ☕️

Hospitals Sticking Recent Nurse Graduates Insane Training Costs

In a practice that appears to be on the rise, hospitals are billing recent nurse graduates with the cost of their training if they leave or are fired before their contracts expire, NBC News reports. These costs can be up to $15,000, leaving nurses to aptly view their contracts as “indentured servitude.” 

What makes the situation all the worse is that the cost of the training doesn’t always match their value. One nurse who spoke with NBC said that her supposedly $4,000-worth training retread a lot of the same ground from her nursing school or covered topics that weren’t relevant to her specialty. This system leaves nurses fearful of speaking out about unsafe working conditions, lest they be fired and face thousands of dollars of debt. National Nurses United says employers are passing on the cost of routine training required for any RN position. 

Medicare Advantage Plans Use AI to Cut Care for Seniors

We’ve talked a lot about how artificial intelligence can benefit the healthcare industry by helping providers detect fractures or cancers. But as with any technology, AI in healthcare can also be used for nefarious means. For example, as STAT reports, Medicare Advantage insurers are using AI to estimate when a patient should be ready to leave a nursing home — and then cutting off payment for care on that day, even if the patient requires more help.

Health insurance companies are using AI to drive their medical claim denials to new heights. These denials set off disputes between doctors and insurers, which can delay the treatment. If a patient disagrees with an insurerʻs decision, they can file an appeal and spend months trying to recover their costs, sometimes as their health deteriorates. Rather than using AI predictions as a starting point for discussions, insurers use them as the final decision. 

Breast Implants Linked to Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration put a “black box warning” on breast implants and restricted their sales. This was primarily due to Allergen recalling its Biocell-textured breast implants after they’d been linked to breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma. In an update to a previous warning, the FDA is now sounding the alarm about the link between breast implants and squamous cell carcinoma. 

After reviewing the literature, the FDA identified 19 cases of squamous cell carcinoma — resulting in three deaths — in the scar tissue around breast implants. The cancer was diagnosed 7 to 42 years after initial implant placement, and most women in the reports experienced swelling, breast pain, lumps, and discoloration. The agency notes that cancer around breast implants may be rare, but it does yet understand the exact cause, incidence, and risk factors.

COMMUNITY PICKS 🌼 

Note-takers rejoice! This smart notebook and planner by Rocketbook can help you stay on top of your schedule, goals, and much more! The pages are erasable but can be stored in an app with a QR code for easy reference!

🔎 NOBC INSIGHTS powered by

The “Nurse” Identity: Everything You Say at the Bedside, and Board Table Says Something About You

Understanding and accepting others’ identities is a critical component of successful communication. Our linguistic system performs two functions simultaneously every time we speak. The first function of language is to transfer information: When I say the sentence, “the sky is blue,” you, the listener, receive more information than just what I am trying to communicate. The way I talk gives you signals about who I am. This is the second function of language: to communicate our identities to one another.

Nurses tend to have mixed feelings about this second function of language when it comes to leadership in the boardroom: sitting on a board for the first time can feel as though you’re linguistic identity as a nurse is at odds with their new linguistic identity as a company or community leader, you start to wonder why you are there and what you could contribute.

Understanding the connection between language and identity, the two functions of language, and how they work together to convey meaning can help nurses develop concrete strategies for transferring their linguistic skills and identity as a nurse into a new environment: the boardroom.

Samantha Beaver | Linguist; Author; Senior Workplace Communications Analyst; Communications and Research Consultant; NOBC News Editor

Memra Language Services | Nurses on Boards Coalition

⚖️ Raising the Bar powered by

What to Do If You Have Been Fired Unlawfully 

You have worked at a job for three years, and a sudden termination blindsided you. You feel that this termination was unlawful and want to explore your options. An unlawful firing, also known as wrongful termination, is when an employer terminates an employee violating state or federal law. In addition, you must file a claim if an employer violates an employee’s constitutional rights. 

At-will employment means that your employer can fire you at any time for any reason or no reason. For example, suppose a lawyer has deemed that you were fired unlawfully. In that case, you can file a complaint or lawsuit against your employer to seek compensation for damages such as lost wages and benefits, emotional distress, and other damages. Termination is not a healthcare issue but an employment law issue, meaning you must find an employment lawyer in your state. The statute of limitations ranges from 180 days to three years from the termination date. If you don’t take timely action quickly, a court will dismiss your claim.

Irnise F. Williams, Esq. is a nurse and principal attorney at The Law Office of Irnise F. Williams, LLC. You can learn more about her practice at www.irnisewilliams.com. You can follow her on all social media platforms @yournurselawyer.

DAILY DIVERSION 💊

Winning an Oscar is the highest honor for filmmakers, so you might be tempted to think the Oscar statuette has a commensurate value. But, in actuality, that prize is only worth $1. Academy Award regulations state that award winners can only sell or dispose of the statuette or permit it to be sold or disposed of after first offering it back to the Academy for a whole dollar. 

🤯 ONE BIG NUMBER

Thanks for reading! 🤓