Houston, TX, Miami, FL, and Baton Rouge, LA, are three of the many cities battling repercussions from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Most daunting is the perpetuated shortage of healthcare workers as the pandemic continues to ravage the United States.

Half of all healthcare professionals have started using telemedicine in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Patients and providers are trying to adjust to such rapid changes in the provision of health care. Providers want to know how to get reimbursement for telemedicine visits. Society is working together to answer the critical questions about this next wave of health care.

As one of the youngest members of the 2018 freshman congressional class, U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL) has already made quite a name for herself. Eschewing, for the most part in this heightened environment, partisanship and instead concentrating on health and economic issues, the representative champions access and affordability for all Americans.

Seemingly overnight, many patients went from viewing telehealth as an intimidating frontier to embracing it with gusto. Fortunately, health care has prepared for years to put the infrastructure and people in place to support telehealth expansion.

Oncology nurses around the world are seeing the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in their practices. At my facility in South Korea, nurses’ daily routines have changed and institution-wide shifts have affected patients with cancer, too. 

Deployed to provide expert medical advice about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, made media rounds the first week of April 2020. Although the news he shared wasn’t positive, it was a necessary message that the United States needed to hear.

With almost daily public briefings, the White House is taking a more aggressive approach to communicating updates on the COVID-19 coronavirus to the American population.  

Nurses and other healthcare providers on the front lines of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic are facing a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves, face shields, and N95 face masks. But grassroots efforts from citizens and companies are bringing PPE donations or funneling supplies from donors to medical facilities in response to pleas from the healthcare community.  

Promoting a culture of safety is the responsibility of all members of the healthcare team. Nurses and advanced practice providers have a unique role in ensuring patient safety, especially through interventions aimed at reducing the risk of falls and falls with injury. Hundreds of thousands of hospitalized patients fall each year, each costing organizations an average additional $14,000 and resulting in more than six additional hospital days. Up to 30% of falls result in injury, including fractures, decreased mobility, and a loss of independence.

The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) announced on September 29, 2017, it would delay the implementation of USP General Chapter <800> Hazardous Drugs—Handling in Healthcare Settings to coordinate its implementation with chapter <797> Pharmaceutical Compounding—Sterile Preparations.  According to USP, chapter <797> is still undergoing revisions and will be available for public comment in fall 2018. UPS <800> was set for implementation by July 1, 2018, but both chapters are now expected to become official on December 1, 2019.