Feds Eye Viagra-Blindness Reports
Number Of Viagra Users Going Blind
CBS 2 New York
WASHINGTON -- Federal health investigators are looking into reports that some men who used Viagra may have suffered a new and very serious side effect -- blindness. The Food and Drug Administration has 43 reports of varying degrees of vision loss, including blindness, among users of the drugs: 38 among Viagra users, four among Cialis users and one among Levitra users.

Army Nurses Sharpen Skills
Poughkeepsie Journal, NY
It's not exactly the battlefield, but in St. Francis Hospital's emergency and critical-care units, Army nurses are honing their medical skills — just in case they're deployed to a war zone. At St. Francis, Capt. Evan Nonaka, an Army nurse, saw six traumas in one 12-hour shift this month. At West Point's Keller Army Community Hospital, there is a trauma every other week. Maybe.

'Gender-Bending' Chemicals Found To 'Feminise' Boys
NewScientist.com
“Gender-bending” chemicals mimicking the female hormone oestrogen can disrupt the development of baby boys, suggests the first evidence linking certain chemicals in everyday plastics to effects in humans. The chemicals implicated are phthalates, which make plastics more pliable in many cosmetics, toys, baby-feeding bottles and paints and can leak into water and food. The incriminating findings came from a study of 85 baby boys born to women exposed to everyday levels of phthalates during pregnancy.

What is YOUR Community Doing to
Help Ease the Nursing Shortage?
About.com Guide to Nursing
My local county board of supervisors recently partnered with the local hospitals to contribute funds to our local state university campus to form a 4-year nursing program. They also allocated $750,000 from the county's funds from tobacco settlements to establish a loan forgiveness program for nursing students in 2-year and 4-year nursing programs in our county.

Nurses Long On Hours
Roanoke Times, VA
In Virginia, there are no legal limits on how long a nursing home or hospital can work a nurse. There is tension stemming from how many hours hospitals and nursing homes need their nurses to work and how many hours the nurses feel they can safely work and desire to work - not in every hospital and nursing home, but in those coping least well with a nationwide shortage of nurses. In Virginia, a shortfall of 7,500 nurses today is expected to rise to 22,600 in 2020, or 32 percent of the total needed, according to the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia.

Governor Gets Bill Waiving Nurses' Test
Bloomington Pantagraph, IL
SPRINGFIELD -- An initiative of Gov. Rod Blagojevich to ease testing standards on foreign nurses was approved Tuesday, but it also brought accusations of racism on the Illinois House floor. The measure, which the House approved 95-14, is headed to the governor's desk. It would eliminate a test -- the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools Exam -- that the governor's office says is redundant and slows the process of licensing nurses because it is offered only four times per year.

Immigrant Visa Options For Nurses
ILW.com, NY
The immigrant visa is normally the only option for nurses because most of the non-immigrant visa classifications are not available to the typical registered nurse seeking employment in the United States. What are the basic requirements for a worker to qualify for a green card? Employment-based immigrant visas typically involve three main steps. First, the employer files a Labor Certification application with the U.S. Department of Labor. The purpose of the application is to test the employer's local labor market for available workers. If no qualified and available workers are located, the position is certified as open for a foreign worker.

ADHD Costs U.S. Nearly $77 Billion Each Year
News-Medical.Net
U.S. household income losses due to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) total nearly $77 billion each year, according to a new analysis of the national large-scale survey, "Capturing America's Attention," presented today at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual meeting in Atlanta.

CDC Backs New Meningitis Shot for Kids
ABC News
CHICAGO -- Meningitis can strike out of the blue and kill within hours. Leslie Meigs knows because she almost died of it six years ago, when she 8. That's why she wants kids to get the new shot. Federal officials and doctors agree wholeheartedly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics on Thursday recommended that more than 8 million U.S. children 11- to 12-year-olds, students entering high school and college freshmen headed for dorm life get the vaccination.

FDA Warnings About Mexican Cheese
KFOX 14 El Paso
The FDA has a health warning out about a popular Mexican cheese that can put pregnant women and their unborn children in danger. The Food and Drug Administration says the public, but especially pregnant women, need to be careful when eating queso fresco. The cheese made from raw unpasturized milk is linked to various outbreaks of listeriosis and other bacterial diseases.

Congress Examines Nonprofit Hospitals
San Francisco Chronicle
Congress should review tax exemptions for nonprofit hospitals to determine whether the community benefit justifies the expense, the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee said Thursday.

Judge Sides With Nurses On Patient Ratio
KESQ
SACRAMENTO -- In a setback to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a superior court judge issued a tentative ruling today requiring hospitals to provide staffing ratios sought by nurses. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Judy Holzer Hersher shot down an emergency order issued by the administration that sought to delay implementation of new nurse-to-patient ratios.