Human Capital News Roundup: Capping nurses’ overtime, prostate cancer, home births, and more.
Here’s a sampling of recent news coverage of the work of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars and Fellows:
A study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)-funded RN Work Project, reported earlier this week by the RWJF Human Capital blog, is generating media coverage. The study finds that rules capping nurses’ mandatory overtime hours – put in place to avoid errors caused by long hours and insufficient rest between shifts – are having their intended effect. Nurse.com, Healthcare Finance News, the Baltimore Sun and NJ Spotlight are among the outlets to report on the findings.
Monica Peek, MD, MPH, an alumna of the RWJF Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, spoke to the Chicago Tribune about Chicago-area “food deserts” and how the lack of affordable, healthy food affects residents with diabetes.
“There are [African-American] men falling through the cracks” in terms of accessing treatment for prostate cancer, RWJF Clinical Scholars program alumnus Stanley Frencher Jr., MD, MPH, told The Root. “Many hospitals have programs to subsidize highly effective drugs, but doctors have to really go to bat to get patients that type of care. There are multiple layers of barriers to getting the right diagnosis, a specialist and the best treatment.”
Eric Klinenberg, PhD, recipient of an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, continues to receive media coverage for his new book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. The Wall Street Journal Ideas Market blog and Singular magazine reported on his research, and Klinenberg contributed a piece on his findings to Fortune magazine.
Home births have become increasingly popular among women 35 and older and among women with several previous children, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The report was coauthored by Investigator Award winner Eugene Declercq, PhD, who spoke to MSNBC’s Vitals blog and NPR’s Shots blog about the findings.
Allison Aiello, PhD, an alumna of the RWJF Health & Society Scholars program, is co-principal investigator of a study that finds wearing surgical masks and using hand hygiene cuts the spread of flu-like symptoms up to 75 percent, CBS’s Detroit bureau reports.
Jezebel cited a study by Health & Society Scholar Emily Shafer, PhD, that finds “men’s support for traditional gender roles weakens after they have a daughter.” The study did not show similar results for new mothers, though mothers started off with a much lower average level of support for the roles.
RWJF Community Health Leaders alumna Claudia Stravato spoke to KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas, about a new federal ruling that birth control must be covered in employee health insurance plans. Stravato is the former executive director of Planned Parenthood in Amarillo and Canyon, Texas.
Elisabeth Arenales, JD, also a Community Health Leaders alumna, spoke to the Denver Post about a proposal by state health officials to cut costs by raising the fees clients pay for Medicaid and the Child Health Plan Plus. “We absolutely should not be balancing the budget by making it more difficult for sick, low-income people to get necessary medical care,” she said.
