Consortium's next conference on technology and nursing to take place at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort

Early-bird registration now open

Poster abstracts being accepted

Sponsorships opportunities available

The Nursing Consortium of Florida's next conference Caring Connections; Discovering Magic at the Intersection of Technology & Nursing will take place at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. The two half-day conference will begin at noon on Friday June 28 and conclude before noon the following day.  Register today and be among the first to see the special travel packages available only to conference attendees and their accompanying families and friends.  Submit an  abstract to share how your organization's technology implementations are contributing to improved patient outcomes and experiences and to nurse team learning and collaboration.  Become a conference sponsor and add to the magic!  In addition to a great conference, we will offer an extraordinary get-a-way value for those traveling to Orlando and locals alike. Once registering to attend the conference, attendees will be able to book a discounted hotel room and select from a range of specially-priced Theme Park tickets including partial-day tickets available only to those attending a conference at Walt Disney World®.  

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funding opportunity: Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS)

Are you a doctoral student who’s passionate about influencing public policy to create healthier, more equitable communities? Health Policy Research Scholars is a leadership program for full-time doctoral students across diverse disciplines and backgrounds who center equity in their research. As an HPRS participant, you’ll:  

⭐Gain access to the tools, insights, and diversity of mentors needed to accelerate and distinguish your research.

⭐Receive an annual award of up to $30,000.

⭐Become a part of a tightly knit network of visionary change agents.  

Please click here to read more or click here to register for an informational webinar on January 25 from 1–2 p.m. ET. The application deadline is March 7 at 3 p.m. ET. 

Results of American Nurse Journal’s seventh annual Trends and Salary Survey

More than 3,500 nurses took part in the seventh annual Trends and Salary Survey conducted by American Nurse Journal at the close of 2023. Survey results helped paint a slightly more hopeful portrait of nursing with regard to turnover rates, higher salaries, and personal safety. However, challenges still exist. For example, although a smaller percentage of nurse managers report more open positions in the past 12 months, they said that recruiting to fill those vacancies has been harder this year than last. Most nurse managers say turnover increased in the past 12 months, though at a lower percentage compared to the previous year. Job satisfaction (flat for nurse managers at 63% but up from 65% to 70% for clinical nurses) may play a role in the slight improvement in turnover. A contributing factor to the job satisfaction rise could be improved staffing levels, with 56% of clinical nurses reporting that staffing levels at their organization met patient needs at least 80% of the time— an increase from 49% the prior year. Please click here to read complete results of the survey.

Miami Cancer Institute to host fifth Global Summit on Immunotherapies for Hematologic Malignancies in March 2024

Consortium member Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, will host the Fifth Annual Global Summit on Immunotherapies for Hematologic Malignancies on March 8-9, 2024 at the JW Marriott Hotel on Brickell Avenue in Miami. Presenters at the summit will share updates on recent advances in the treatment of leukemia and myeloma, targeted therapies for acute myeloid leukemia, CAR-T cell therapies, as well as new approaches to treating lymphomas. In addition, there will be special presentations on unmet needs in Latin America and the role of haploidentical transplants. This educational summit is intended for hematologists, oncologists, pathologists, radiation oncologists, palliative care staff, oncology and hematology nurses, laboratory personnel, pharmacists, and other allied health care team members interested in the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies. Please click here to read more or to register.

Tampa General Hospital is first in Florida to join Attorney General Ashley Moody’s 100% Club to fight human trafficking

Tampa General Hospital has become the first hospital in Florida to join Attorney General Ashley Moody’s “100 Percent Club,” a project aimed at raising awareness about human trafficking and urging Floridians to join the fight to end this crime. Moody visited Tampa General recently to recognize the hospital for participating in the 100 Percent Club initiative and their commitment to putting an end to human trafficking. “Human trafficking harms victims in various ways—with most seeking medical care at some point during their captivity. That is why it is so important that doctors, nurses and medical staff know how to spot and report human trafficking,” said Attorney General Moody. To report human trafficking in Florida, call 1 (855) FLA-SAFE.  Please click here to read more.

Insights for hospital execs to better understand AI

One of the biggest concerns about the remarkable development of artificial intelligence (AI) and how AI is relentlessly pushing into business practice generally and into healthcare more specifically is how well top healthcare execs understand AI in a way that can be ultimately useful to their organization. KaufmanHall Managing Director Ken Kaufman provides a helpful Insights report and commentary on a story about Microsoft’s OpenAI technology recently published in New York magazine. Microsoft has built a series of AI assistants into Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint, now known as “Office Copilots.” These Microsoft applications are only moderately sophisticated yet still provide remarkable capabilities. Please click here to read more. 

Healthcare organizations need to prioritize a culture of safety

Safety is defined as a condition of being protected from or not causing danger, injury, risk or loss (Joint Commission, 2021). Safety from physical harm as well as psychological harm should be ensured in all workplaces. When we are at our worst, stricken by malady or injury, it is healthcare workers that we turn to for healing. But these same healthcare workers are being assaulted in their own workplaces. Though healthcare workers typically support each other as they work under difficult circumstances, some are also impacted by lateral violence from their colleagues according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Please click here for a recent blog by Chief Nurse Anne Dabrow Woods, DNP, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC, AGACNP-BC, FAAN at the Lippincott Nursing Center on promoting a culture of safety and well-being everywhere healthcare professionals work.

Broward College again named a Top 150 U.S. Community College by The Aspen Institute

Once again, The Aspen Institute has named Consortium member Broward College as one of the 150 institutions eligible to compete for the $1 million Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the nation's signature recognition of high achievement and performance among two-year colleges. In 2023, Broward College achieved noteworthy distinction by securing its place as one of the top 10 finalists among more than 1,000 community and state colleges nationwide. This marked the College’s fifth inclusion in the finalist list during the past decade, underscoring its consistent dedication to excellence in education. The institutions selected for this honor have high and consistently improving levels of student success including for Black and Hispanic students and those from lower-income backgrounds. “Broward College is honored to be counted among the finest higher education institutions in the country and thrilled to be eligible for the 2025 Aspen Prize,” said Broward College President Dr. Barbara J. Bryan.  Please click here to read more.

As gen AI advances, regulators—and risk functions—rush to keep pace

As gen AI advances, regulators—and risk functions—rush to keep pace.  AI and its supercharged breakthrough, generative AI, are all about rapid advancements, and rule makers are under pressure to keep up. As governments and regulators try to define what such a control environment should look like, the developing approaches are fragmented and often misaligned, making it difficult for organizations to navigate and causing substantial uncertainty.  Please click here to read or listen to a new McKinsey & Company report on the history and current state of AI regulation globally.

Older version of ChatGPT misdiagnosed 83% of kids' clinical scenarios

Researchers found that a large language model (LLM)-based chatbot gave the wrong diagnosis for the majority of pediatric cases tested. ChatGPT version 3.5 reached an incorrect diagnosis in 83 out of 100 pediatric case challenges. Among the incorrect diagnoses, 72 were actually incorrect and 11 were clinically related to the correct diagnosis but too broad to be considered correct, reported Joseph Barile, BA, of Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, and colleagues in JAMA Pediatrics. For example, ChatGPT got it wrong in a case of rash and arthralgias in a teenager with autism. The physician diagnosis was "scurvy," and the chatbot diagnosis was "immune thrombocytopenic purpura." Another example where the chatbot diagnosis did not fully capture the diagnosis was in the case of a draining papule on the lateral neck of an infant. The physician diagnosis was "branchio-oto-renal syndrome," and the chatbot diagnosis was "branchial cleft cyst." Despite the high error rate, Barile and colleagues said physicians should continue to investigate the applications of LLMs to medicine because LLMs and chatbots have potential as an administrative tool for physicians, demonstrating proficiency in writing research articles and generating patient instructions. Please click here to read more.

FDA issues warning about Tejocote Root supplements substituted with toxic Yellow Oleander

HHS issues Toolkit to help prevent and respond to human trafficking

January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month, a presidentially designated observance designed to educate the public about human trafficking and the role they can play in preventing and responding to human trafficking. This campaign aims to educate, empower, and provide resources to social service providers, healthcare and behavioral healthcare providers, school-based professionals, and other allied professionals to increase awareness and foster partnerships. A helpful Toolkit is available from The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This Toolkit breaks the month down into focus weeks to ensure clear messaging and resource sharing. Sample social media posts, sample email and newsletter content, and resources are provided to be used and shared throughout the month of January or beyond. Please click here to read more.

Memorial Healthcare System gives Broward high school students perspective on careers in healthcare

Consortium member Memorial Healthcare System, in partnership with the 5,000 Role Models of Excellence project, recently provided nearly 100 young men from five Broward County high schools with an introduction to the many careers and opportunities that exist in the healthcare industry. The students, most of them from underrepresented communities, participated in hands-on demonstrations at Memorial Regional and Joe DiMaggio Children’s hospitals and heard from Memorial Healthcare System physicians and administrators that came from backgrounds similar to theirs. “It’s extremely important and impactful for these young men to see representation at the highest level. To see physicians, surgeons, and executive leadership that look like them and come from their communities,” said Marvin K. Smith, MD, chief of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Memorial Regional Hospital and Memorial Regional Hospital South. “I think it’s important for them to understand they can do whatever they set their mind to, and seeing a representation and example of that can really reinforce those ideas.” Please click here to read more.

Multistate licensures continue to increase for 2024

More states are participating in "multistate compacts" that allow out-of-state physicians, nurses and other health professionals to practice in another state. For physicians, the ability to practice in multiple states has been simplified through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC), a project coordinated in part by the Federation of State Medical Boards. A total of 39 states as well as Guam and the District of Columbia currently participate in the compact, which is an agreement among participating U.S. states and territories to work together to significantly streamline the licensing process for physicians who want to practice in multiple states. Marschall Smith, executive director of the IMLC in Littleton, Colorado, says "We are able to get the physician licensed, on average, in between 7 and 10 days, where the process normally takes anywhere from 3 to 9 months to get a license the traditional way." Smith says nurses and emergency service personnel also have compacts, but theirs -- known as a "privileged practice" compact -- operates a little differently. In that arrangement, "if you are licensed in a state that is part of the compact, you have the privilege to practice in any other [compact] state without obtaining a license to practice there."  Please click here to read more.

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