Cover Story

The World Health Organization (WHO) designated 2020 as “The Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.” This year was chosen to recognize the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, a visionary nurse and leader from the 19th century who is widely regarded as the founder of modern nursing.

Workplace bullying is a common problem in many organizations today and, unfortunately, the health care setting is no exception.

As COVID-19 restrictions have loosened in most parts of the country, elective and non-essential surgeries have been allowed to resume at many hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). While this is obviously good news for patients and health care facilities, the reopening process has been fraught with challenges.

Where do things stand in 2020 with regard to needlestick injuries and sharps safety? Unfortunately, these injuries remain a serious problem in today’s health care environment.

In a perfect world, medical errors would not occur and no one would ever die as a result of them. Unfortunately, the world we live in is far from perfect. According to a study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine that was published in 2016, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, responsible for up to 250,000 deaths each year.