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Telling horror stories of long hours and stressed, overtired nurses caring for patients on the verge of death, lawmakers and nurse advocates on Thursday called for a state law establishing mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios and prohibiting mandatory overtime. Nurses around the country say they’re frequently asked to work double shifts to cover staffing shortages. Several nurses from the five state-run psychiatric hospitals, for example, told the State Journal earlier this month they're worked to the point of exhaustion because of excessive mandatory overtime. (Hinkley, 10/17)

As Dean Cole's dementia worsened, he began wandering at night. He'd even forgotten how to drink water. His wife, Virginia, could no longer manage him at home. So after much agonizing, his family checked him into a Minnesota nursing home. "Within a little over two weeks he'd lost 20 pounds and went into a coma," says Mark Kosieradzki, who was the Cole family's attorney. Dean Cole was rushed to the hospital, says Kosieradzki, "and what was discovered was that he'd become totally dehydrated. They did get his fluid level up, but he was never, ever able to recover from it and died within the month." (Jaffe, 10/19)

Like all healthcare disciplines, the Georgia’s home health industry is rife with hot topics. If you ask Mark Oshnock, president and CEO of Visiting Nurse Health System, the need for clinicians sits high atop the list. “Probably the most significant topic in the Atlanta market area is the shortage of skilled registered nurses” he said. “For the 35 years I’ve been in health care, we’ve always talked about the shortage of nurses. But it has never been more acute as it is today in Atlanta.” (Waterhouse, 10/19)

A Florida-based health care company is apologizing to the Haitian community after it posted what many are calling a discriminatory job ad in upstate New York. Interim Healthcare, which has its corporate office in Sunrise, offers health care services across the country through 300 different franchises. In an Oct. 15 ad looking for nurses in Rockland County, N.Y., it explicitly states “no Haitians" should apply. (Green, 10/19)

A national home health company apologized Monday for a job ad it called "offensive," but offered no explanation about how the discriminatory notice made it into a local New York newspaper. Interim HealthCare Inc. published a "help wanted" ad last week in a Rockland County, N.Y., Pennysaver, saying it was looking for a nurse and that "no Haitians" need apply for the position. ... Democratic State Sen. David Carlucci said the ad represented a "blatant form of employment discrimination" and called on an investigation by the New York State Department of Labor and the federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. (Corbin, 10/19)