UVM Medical Center ER swamped with patients |
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WCAX
The UVM Medical Center says their ER is packed and the hospital is urging patients with non-emergency needs to seek treatment at urgent care centers or elsewhere.
The hospital says its ER on Friday was experiencing high numbers of patient visits. It comes as the hospital says a regional bed shortage has prompted some organizations to restrict or temporarily stop accepting medical transfers to inpatient care units.
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Central Vermont Medical Center helps nursing students learn on the job |
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WCAX
Vermont has been facing a nursing shortage for years, especially as the pandemic continues, but one program that began right before the pandemic is working to retain nurses who are studying at the same time.
The Central Vermont Medical Center said they generally have 100 nursing openings to make it easier on the organization at any time.
CVMC partnered with the Community College of Vermont and Vermont Techincal College in 2019 to give an opportunity for students to become licensed practical nurses while working at CVMC at the same time.
Madison Crown says she’s always wanted to be a nurse.
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Repeat ER visits due to overdose on rise in Vermont |
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Valley News
From 2018 through 2021, 237 Vermonters were treated in an emergency room at least twice for an opioid overdose, according to a new state report — and nearly a quarter of repeat ER trips occurred within 30 days of the person’s first visit.
The rate of overdose-related repeat visits to an ER within a 30-day period increased from 2% of all overdose emergency visits in 2019 to 4% in 2021.
The report, released Wednesday, marks the first time the Vermont Department of Health has analyzed patterns of repeat emergency room visits due to an opioid overdose. It comes as the state is seeing a sustained increase in both fatal and nonfatal opioid overdoses, since the coronavirus pandemic started in 2020.
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Meth Use Is Growing Around Burlington — and Could Portend More Problems for Vermont |
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Seven Days
Several years ago, Jess Kirby noticed that a number of her clients at Burlington's Safe Recovery were suddenly acting differently. They worried that they were being watched and that people were conspiring against them.
"People I've known for years, out of the blue, experiencing paranoia," Kirby said. "Saying things like, 'I don't know who to trust. Something is going on with me.'"
Some clients even grew wary of her, a former confidante. Others revealed what she was beginning to suspect. They had started using a new drug: meth.
Kirby was surprised. Vermont had largely managed to avoid the scourge of methamphetamine during the 1990s and early 2000s, even as it ravaged communities throughout the western U.S. In recovery herself, Kirby had rarely even seen meth. "I just thought we were somehow insulated from it," she said.
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Vermont Covid levels remain ‘low,’ but hospitalizations have increased in recent weeks |
VTDigger
Covid-19 levels in Vermont remain “low,” according to the latest weekly surveillance report from the state Department of Health.
The state rating is based on Covid case counts and hospital admissions, both of which have ticked downward slightly from the previous week.
It’s also based on the percent of hospital beds occupied by Covid patients, which rose from about 3.7% to 4.5%, but remains below the high of over 5% reported during the BA.2 subvariant surge in May.
Multiple wastewater treatment facilities in Vermont have reported high and rising concentrations of the coronavirus, according to data from the health department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Vermont's COVID booster uptake is outpacing national average |
VPR
State officials say Vermonters are choosing to get the updated COVID booster shot at a rate that far exceeds the national average.
To date, 16% of eligible Vermonters over the age of 12 have gotten the new vaccine.
The bivalent booster, which was made available last month by both Pfizer and Moderna, is formulated to both boost protection that has waned from previous vaccines and counter the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants, which are the most common strains currently circulating.
Nationally, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows just 4% of eligible Americans have gotten the new booster.
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Windham Regional Career Center offers nursing program for adults |
Bennington Banner
As the school day ends, the Windham Regional Career Center shifts gears for the adult students who come in to learn very particular sets of skills.
The licensed nurse assistant program at the center has just begun a new eight-week adult program to help fill the growing need for LNAs. In the first of three semesters to be held throughout the year, eight adult students, ages 20 to 30, enter the intense program so they can test for LNA certification.
The program emerged as its own version of another like it Vermont Technical College, its co-founder said.
“Maribeth Cornell, the adult education coordinator for the Career Center, and I worked together on developing this program that I had started at VTC for adults a number of years ago ... [it’s] pretty successful,” said Becky Steele, the health sciences instructor.
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UVMHN joins national gun safety movement, guns are leading cause of death in kids |
Vermont Business Magazine
Guns are the leading cause(link is external) of death for children in the United States. Thirteen children(link is external) die from guns every day. To encourage parents, grandparents, families and community members to take action by asking about gun safety, the University of Vermont Health Network and University of Vermont Children’s Hospital join thousands of hospitals, health systems, American Hospital Association, Children’s Hospital Association and The Catholic Health Association of the U.S. in a nationwide public awareness and education campaign that encourages parents to ask if there are unsecured guns in the houses of their children’s friends.
By asking about safe gun storage, the campaign is meant to help parents and families feel empowered to ask other parents about access to guns.
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