‘Health’ Archives
Minnesota Nurses Strike Settlement Is a Win for Patients
By HARRY LEEDS, RN After intense negotiations, Minnesota nurses at metro and Twin Ports hospitals, including Abbott Northwestern, have reached a settlement that will improve working conditions for nurses and, in turn, benefit the patients they serve. The strike was sparked by nurses' concerns about staffing levels and safety that they said were putting patients at risk. Allina Health, a hospital system at the center of the dispute, initially refused to budge on these issues, leading the nurses to strike for three days in September. They threatened to strike again from December 11th through December 31st. This comes at a time when the “tripledemic” of RSV, influenza, and COVID are filling hospitals to the brim. It seems the threat of losing the skilled, dedicated nurses that staff Minnesota hospitals forced leadership to face the staffing issues that have been harming patients. The agreement includes a commitment from most hospitals to work with nurses to improve [...]
PEACE HOUSE COMMUNITY: Finding Peace
By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby With one day before the deadline for this article, I can’t think of anything to write about. So, I ask one of Peace House Community’s members what topic I should tackle. “How do you find peace?” he responds. Philosophers, sages, mystics, and self-help gurus have been pondering that question for centuries, and I’m supposed to cover it in 500 words?! It’s a good question though. Peace, tranquility, stillness … whatever word you want to use, it is an elusive but vitally important quality. We all need to experience it at some point to stay healthy. Many of us need a lot of it, while others seek it out only when they have a migraine, but either way, it is indispensable. I think humanity has spent so much time thinking about peace, in part, because finding peace is such an individual endeavor. Each person has to discover their own ways of settling themselves. More than that though, each person has to develop new ways as their situations [...]
Hunger Crisis in East Africa: What can we do?
By BRUCE MANGUSON According to the World Food Program, there is a huge crisis of hunger in Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world. For one example, we might look at Somalia. In Somalia, a September report on reliefweb.int states that 6.7 million people across the country were expected to face "high levels of acute food insecurity" from September to December of 2022. Of those, 2.2 million were projected to be in "Emergency" and 300,000 people in "Catastrophe." Many of those are children.* There are apparently a couple reasons for this awful situation. One is that there have not been good rains in areas of Somalia for about four years. If this situation were to happen in Minnesota, maybe we could get our food from Illinois or Ohio, for example. The federal government would likely help out. It would be devastating, but probably most people would survive. However, in a situation such as Somalia's there may be lack of infrastructure to transport food, and food may [...]
