Impending physician shortages in the United States will necessitate greater reliance on physician assistants and nurse practitioners, particularly in primary care. But how willing are Americans to accept that change? This study examines provider preferences from patients' perspective, using data from the Association of American Medical Colleges' Consumer Survey. We found that about half of the ...

CRITICALCARENURSE Vol 27, No. 2, APRIL 2007 41 Allison C. Widlitz was a physician assistant at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Pulmonary Hypertension Center in New York, NY, when this article was written. She is currently Associate Director of Medical Affairs for Encysive Pharmaceuticals. Susanne McDevitt was a nurse practitioner at the University of Michigan Pulmonar...

We report here the crystal structure of the minimal ligand-binding segment of the Staphylococcus aureus MSCRAMM, clumping factor A. This fibrinogen-binding segment contains two similarly folded domains. The fold observed is a new variant of the immunoglobulin motif that we have called DE-variant or the DEv-IgG fold. This subgroup includes the ligand-binding domain of the collagen-binding S.aure...

PURPOSE Recent studies have concluded that there is a lack of "patient-centered" care in nursing homes and subsequently a need for nursing home culture change. As a result, a variety of new, promising initiatives have been introduced, with most of these incorporating the use of "empowered" employees. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of empowered work teams--a work design sp...

This issue of the Journal includes a study by Lerner et al seeking to identify any correlations between survey deficiencies and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and Registered Nurse or Licensed Practical Nurse turnover in nursing homes.1 The study selected Online Survey, Certification and Reporting deficiencies from the Quality of Care, Quality of Life and Resident Behavior categories, which w...

Judith Shamian, RN, PhD, LLD (hon), D.Sci (hon), FAAN, is the president of the International Council of Nurses (ICN). Previous positions include immediate past president and CEO of the Victorian Order of Nurses, immediate past President of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), executive director of the Office of Nursing Policy at Health Canada and vice-president of nursing at Mount Sinai Hospi...

The Go Wish card game is an advance care planning tool developed by Coda Alliance to help people have conversations about end-of-life care. Initially, this tool was designed as an easy, entertaining exercise for low-functioning assisted-living facility residents, their family members, and their CNA/nursing assistants (many of whom have limited English language skills.) Use of the tool can be pr...

We are grateful to Arias Wan whose undergraduate thesis started us on this project and to Claudia Olivetti, Daniele Paserman and participants in seminars and workshops at Boston University, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, American Institutes for Research, CNA, Abt Associates and the US Census for helpful comments. The usual caveat applies. The views expressed herein are those of the authors an...

Background: The Cyber Preparedness Continuum CNA’s Safety and Security Division conducted a Cyber Preparedness Workshop on April 25, 2013, at CNA’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The workshop brought together emergency management and cybersecurity stakeholders, drawn from both the public and private sectors, to discuss cyber preparedness. Discussions during the workshop centered around t...

We probe the hypothesis of corresponding states, according to which homologues from mesophilic and thermophilic organisms are in corresponding states of similar rigidity and flexibility at their respective optimal temperatures. For this, the local distribution of flexible and rigid regions in 19 pairs of homologous proteins from meso- and thermophilic organisms is analyzed and related to activi...