01.01.70

Hiring Extra Temporary Travel Nurses May Save Lives
Mountains Are Only Minor Contributors to Sediment Erosion and Climate Regulation
Black and Hispanic Patients Less Likely to Complete Substance Abuse Treatment
Homelessness and Academic Achievement

 

Hiring Extra Temporary Travel Nurses May Save Lives

To reduce the shortage of available staff nurses, hospitals have hired temporary “travel” nurses without fully knowing the effect on patient outcomes. However, a new study has concluded hiring extra nurses may actually save lives. 

After examining data from more than 1.3 million patients and 40,000 nurses in more than 600 hospitals, researchers from Penn Nursing have concluded that the use of such supplemental nurses “does not appear to have deleterious consequences for patient mortality.”

The study authors concluded that poor patient outcomes thought associated with hospital hiring of temporary nurses are more likely the result of poor working conditions within the hospitals themselves than with the nurses hired to alleviate shortages.

Source: UPENN Almanac

by Andrew Frankenfield

Typically the conversation that follows goes something like, I was in Lancaster and there are a lot of fields plowed out there.  Then I say, “Yes, but they have well drained limestone soils compared the heavier clay soils in our area. They also farm with mules and can’t get their fields tilled as fast as farmers that use tractors.”

This spring there has been a lot more tillage done in March that what we would typically expect to see.  The unseasonably warm weather and extended dry periods have dried the soil allowing for farmers to haul manure, spread fertilizer and do tillage.  But, just because it hasn’t rained for a week doesn’t mean the soil is dry enough to plow.

How do you know if the soil is dry enough for plowing or tilling?  Quite often if the undisturbed soil on the surface of the ground is not dry and crumbly the soil 8” below is not dry enough for tillage.  If the soil is too wet for tillage the tilled ground will not crumble but rather create clods.  Those clods will dry out and become hard and require repeated tillage to break them apart, which will in turn damage the soil structure....

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by Steve Williams

Thurow, the Senior Fellow for Global Agriculture and Food Policy on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, described in his speech the problems facing poor African farmers. His message was one of helping the farmers become self-sustainable instead of continuously reliant on foreign aid. To go along with the theme of the conference, Thurow also said that it would be increased agriculture production from Africa that would be a major solution to possible future food shortages.

Source: Fulbright Global Food Security Seminar -- Part Two — Ag Science ...