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Nurse Watch is compiled in conjunction with the AHA’s American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) and highlights articles of interest to nurse leaders, nursing professionals and other health care leaders. For more about AONE, visit .

Emergency department nurses at Kansas hospital respond to combat human trafficking

The nurse director of a Kansas emergency department (ED) trained her team to use education, coalition building and a personal safety screening tool to spot human trafficking and domestic violence in her hospital, the . Renea Wilson, director of the ED at Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka, spearheaded the program that focuses on being receptive to patients and making them feel safe, as well as spotting red flags. 

For information about how to combat human trafficking in your hospital, see online resources from the AHA’s Hospitals Against Violence initiative.

Survivor of childhood cancer becomes nurse at hospital that saved her

Philadelphia’s Jennifer Toth became a nurse because she was inspired by the nurses who helped her overcome a cancerous tumor in her liver when she was a child, Fox News reports. 

“Thinking about the nurses whom I had known made the decision to become a nurse, and hopefully someday a nurse practitioner, an easy one,” Toth said.

Toth has gone on to fulfill that decision at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the same hospital where she was treated as a child.

Study: Simulation can increase nurse empathy

Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses displayed increased empathy after participating in an educational intervention designed by patient and family advisors, according to a small study published in the December issue of the Journal of Nursing Administration.

The intervention — which consisted of a four-hour class using simulated-based role playing, a video developed in collaboration with patients and families, and an evidence-based presentation on empathy — was designed to increase empathy conveyed by nurses to patients and families. The 30 ICU nurses who participated saw their scores on the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire increase.

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