News Briefs – OCTOBER 2022
by INELDA
Dire Global Nursing Shortage
According to ABC News, the U.S. nursing shortage may reach over 1 million people by the end of the year. After a long pandemic, low compensation, and being forced to work extended hours, nurses are burning out. The article reports that 1 in 5 nurses left the profession during the pandemic and over 50% of the registered nurses are currently over 55 years of age.
This shortage goes well beyond U.S. borders, and the effects are being felt worldwide. According to the International Council of Nurses, “up to 13 million nurses will be needed to fill the global nurse shortage gap in the future.” Health Policy Watch reports that “[i]n some countries, over 80% of nurses reported some form of psychological distress caused by the pandemic and as many as 9 out of 10 nurses planned to quit their jobs.” In Canada, emergency rooms are temporarily shutting down due to the shortage, and patients are not receiving necessary care.
Death Prediction Model for Those Living With Dementia
A team of researchers led by University of California, San Francisco examined the accuracy of a model predicting time until death for community-dwelling older adults with dementia. The study, as reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, was conducted on two cohorts totaling 6,671 individuals from 1998 to 2016 and 2011 to 2019. The findings showed that estimating mortality risk in older adults with dementia is important for guiding decisions such as cancer screening, treatment of new and chronic medical conditions, and advance care planning. This model could possibly influence how and when individuals seek end-of-life doulas.
California Legalizes Human Composting
California joins Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Vermont in allowing residents to compost human remains after death. The California law will go into effect in 2027. The process, also known as natural organic reduction, requires the corpse to be placed in a steel container with organic material until what remains is about a cubic yard of human compost, a process that usually takes between two and six weeks. This burial alternative is considered an environmentally friendly option to cremation, which releases toxic carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.