Critics have raised concerns around the NCLEX test and the rate at which students are passing the exam, but chief nursing officers told Becker's there are reasons for the improved scores.

More than 207,000 syphilis cases were reported in the U.S. in 2022, the greatest number of cases since 1950 and an 80% jump since 2018, the CDC said in its annual report on sexually transmitted infection trends. 

Newman Regional Health in Emporia, Kan., has launched a real-time notification system that alerts clinicians across the state, providing them with critical information about patients transferring in who may have multidrug-resistant organisms diagnoses, The Emporia Gazette reported Jan. 31.

The Patient Safety Movement Foundation, a non-profit based in Irvine, Calif., made up of patient safety experts and clinicians, announced five key focuses for 2024 as the organization works to create a "zero preventable harm" environment throughout the healthcare sector.

Santa Clara County in Northern California saw a 19% increase in tuberculosis cases between 2022 and 2023. It's a trend that is also happening statewide, The Mercury News reported Jan. 30.

Washington health officials are investigating the state's first known outbreak of Candida auris after at least five cases were confirmed among patients at Kindred Hospital Seattle-First Hill. 

The most common elective surgical procedure for older adults was major joint surgery, according to a recent study.

As U.S. syphilis rates reach the highest levels since the 1950s, HHS deemed the public health issue as a "surging epidemic" and rolled out resources to stop the sexually transmitted infection's decadeslong upward trend. 

The CDC says it found "multiple lapses" in proper infection control and prevention procedures at a Florida outpatient cosmetic surgery clinic linked to 15 cases of infection with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), according to a report released Jan. 25.

In his Jan. 24 "State of the Clinic" address, Cleveland Clinic's president and CEO mentioned that the system confiscated 30,000 weapons from patients and visitors in 2023. 

Over the past five years, hospitals received fewer citations among a dozen categories, while two became more popular, according to CMS data obtained by Becker's. 

Theodore Christopher, MD, the head of emergency medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, has been disciplined after he reportedly left a first-year resident unattended so he could go to a different area of the hospital for a diagnostic procedure he needed. During the procedure, he was put under anesthesia, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Jan. 30.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics in Madison formed a "Strike Team" to create oversight and determine the possible cause of surgical site infections that occurred after colorectal surgery.

Elon Musk's neurotechnology company, Neuralink, has implanted a chip into a human brain for the first time.

Researchers in the U.K. may have uncovered evidence that Alzheimer's disease can be transmitted via some medical procedures. 

Dog bites led to more than 48,600 emergency room visits by California residents in 2022, KFF Health News reported Jan. 26. It's a trend that doesn't show any signs of easing anytime soon.

A vehicle crashed through the doors of the emergency department in the early hours of Jan. 29 at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in College Station, Texas, a spokesperson for the health system confirmed to Becker's.

Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital has performed 100 more transplants than any other pediatric hospital in the U.S. in the last decade. And 2023 was the seventh consecutive year the hospital has led in organ transplants.

A shortage of N95 masks in 2020 led the CDC to craft guidelines for healthcare workers who needed to reuse them for multiple shifts, but a new study, published Jan. 26 in JAMA, has found reuse of these masks can hurt their efficacy.

An epidemiologist in Washington, D.C., called the World Health Organization's new COVID-19 guideline "droplet dogma," and other experts said it promotes disproven ideas, CIDRAP reported Jan. 26.