What are nurse practitioners and can they fix Ontario’s health-care crisis?

As of 2021, Canada had 22.5 nurse practitioners for every 100,000 people, compared to a ratio of 61.1 per 100,000 in the United States.

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Ontario is grappling with a worsening primary care crisis — 2.2 million residents and counting are without a family doctor — and nurse practitioners have entered the spotlight.

The provincial government has announced $110 million in funding to expand primary-care teams, many of them led by or including nurse practitioners. Critics say that while welcome, that amount is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people without primary care.

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The Worst Mental Health Advice And Treatments

What is the worst mental health advice/treatment you ever received from a mental health professional? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Dr. Abbie Maroño, PhD in Psychology and Behavior Analysis, on Quora:

When we turn to mental health professionals, it is often during our most vulnerable moments, seeking support and guidance to navigate through challenging times. These practitioners play a crucial role in nurturing our wellbeing and aiding in our recovery process. The field of mental health is of paramount importance, and it’s worth noting that the vast majority of professionals within this industry are not only well-trained but are exceptional in their dedication to supporting the mental and emotional health of their clients. Their expertise and compassionate care are invaluable to individuals and communities alike. However, as in any profession, there can be instances where the standard of care does not meet expectations, leading to outcomes that can be detrimental.

An example of such a situation involves a person with a complex psychological profile, including a history of extreme violent behavior, delusions of grandeur, a clinically recognized deficit in empathy, and a disregard for personal life. This individual also exhibited signs of diverting responsibility for actions due to external influences, such as tarot readings, and had a history of obsessive behavior and non-consensual aggressive advances. These characteristics are indicative of a person who poses a significant risk to themselves and others, particularly in the context of forming new personal relationships.

In this case, the clinician’s advice for the individual to seek out a romantic partner as part of their journey through PTSD was profoundly misguided. This recommendation overlooked the potential danger to others and the

Should Health Information Services Stock High Tide Inc (HITI) Be in Your Portfolio Wednesday?

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024 12:05 PM | InvestorsObserver Analysts

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Should Health Information Services Stock High Tide Inc (HITI) Be in Your Portfolio Wednesday?

The 58 rating InvestorsObserver gives to High Tide Inc (HITI) stock puts it near the top of the Health Information Services industry. In addition to scoring higher than 90 percent of stocks in the Health Information Services industry, HITI’s 58 overall rating means the stock scores better than 58 percent of all stocks.

Overall Score - 58
HITI has an Overall Score of 58. Find out what this means to you and get the rest of the rankings on HITI!

What do These Ratings Mean?

Analyzing stocks can be hard. There are tons of numbers and ratios, and it can be hard to remember what they all mean and what counts as “good” for a given value. InvestorsObserver ranks stocks on eight different metrics. We percentile rank most of our scores to make it easy for investors to understand. A score of 58 means the stock is more attractive than 58 percent of stocks.

These scores are not only easy to understand, but it is easy to compare stocks to each other. You can find the best stock in an industry, or look for the sector that has the highest average score. The overall score is a combination of technical and fundamental factors that serves as a good starting point when analyzing a stock. Traders and investors with different goals may have different goals and will want to consider other factors than just the headline number before making any investment decisions.

What’s Happening With High Tide Inc Stock Today?

High Tide Inc (HITI) stock is trading at $1.77 as of 11:49 AM on Wednesday, Mar 20, a rise of $0.07, or 4.12% from the previous closing price of $1.70. The stock has traded between $1.70 and $1.78 so far

French lawmakers approve bill penalizing fast fashion



Reuters
 — 

France’s lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill seeking penalties on ultra-fast fashion products, sold by companies like China’s Shein, aimed at helping to offset their environmental impact.

The bill calls for gradually increasing penalties of up to 10 euros ($11) per individual item of clothing by 2030, as well for a ban on advertising for such products.

All voting lawmakers unanimously approved the bill, which will head to the senate before it can become law.

The popularity of fashion retailers Shein and Temu — which scale up orders based on demand thanks to ultra-flexible supply chains — have disrupted the retail sector while established players like Zara and H&M continue to largely rely on predicting shoppers’ preferences.

“This evolution of the apparel sector towards ephemeral fashion, combining increased volumes and low prices, is influencing consumer buying habits by creating buying impulses and a constant need for renewal, which is not without environmental, social and economic consequences,” the bill said.

sustainable fashion

Related video: 5 ways you can change your fashion habits to help the planet

Shein said in a statement to Reuters that the clothes it produces meet an existing demand, which allows its rate of unsold garments to remain consistently in low single digits, whereas traditional players can have up to 40% waste.

It added that the only impact of the bill would be to “worsen the purchasing power of French consumers, at a time when they are already feeling the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.”

Writing on X, France’s environment minister, Christophe Béchu, described the bill as a “major step forward,” adding: “A big step has been taken to reduce the textile sector’s environmental footprint.”

Workers make clothes at a garment factory that supplies Shein in China's southern Guangdong province in July 2022.

The bill comes as the French environmental ministry said it would propose a European Union ban on exports of used

AHS staff face job terminations and transfer offers in midst of health-care overhaul

Health-care staff are now being shifted from Alberta Health Services to the provincial health department as the province forges ahead with its controversial and sweeping restructuring plans.

The Alberta government announced its intention late last year to hive off health-care provision into four key organizations, and reduce AHS to the role of a hospital care provider.

So far, 126 AHS staff have been terminated but have been presented with “equivalent” job offers within Alberta Health, according to the province.

A government spokesperson has confirmed the impacted staff are from the departments of capital planning, system planning, continuing care and procurement.

The press secretary to Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said most of them have taken the offers and have begun their Government of Alberta jobs.

“It’s very unsettling,” said Sandra Azocar, vice-president with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE).

“What we have been seeing is memos sent to front-line workers telling them that they have a couple of weeks to make a decision whether or not to stay with the government or take the layoff and recall. And so not very much … consultation is actually happening.”

According to Azocar, the union is aware so far of 39 affected members, most of them general support staff working in administrative roles.

Sandra Azocar has short dark brown hair. She's standing on a sidewalk
Sandra Azocar is vice-president with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. She calls the process ‘very unsettling.’ (Trevor Wilson/CBC)

‘Self-inflicted wounds’

A former AHS executive is worried the upheaval is leading to more anxiety among health-care staff at a time when the health system is already under intense pressure. He believes it will further disrupt Alberta’s ability to recruit and retain much needed workers — ranging from front-line staff and support workers to higher level decision-makers.

“We’re experiencing a lot of self-inflicted wounds right now and we don’t need to

Emergency rooms are a safety net. But they no longer feel safe

Opinion: As medical students who will soon be responsible for patient care in B.C.’s emergency departments, we are alarmed by unsafe conditions

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A lethal combination of overcrowding, understaffing and violence is leading to suffering in hospital emergency departments across British Columbia. Some people are worse affected than others, widening health disparities.

As medical students who will soon be responsible for patient care in these emergency departments, we are alarmed. That’s why we’re calling on the provincial government to act swiftly to address the unsafe conditions.

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Bad medical advice should not count as free speech

In what will surely be considered good news for COVID-19 deniers, horse- dewormer enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists, a groundbreaking lawsuit was filed in federal court earlier this month.

The plaintiffs say it’s in defense of free speech, but it’s really about science vs. baloney. And it seems those who filed the legal action know as much about the law as they do medicine and biology.

Former NBA star John Stockton joined forces with presidential candidate and vaccine opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a group of doctors to go after the Washington Attorney General and the Washington Medical Commission.

The complaint claims the Washington Medical Commission has unfairly targeted about 60 physicians who “speak out against the so-called ‘mainstream COVID narrative.’”

“There is no place for the government, under the guise of regulating physicians and protecting the public, to censure, restrict or sanction the content and viewpoint of the publicly expressed views of physicians on COVID or any other subject, just because the government does not like the message or thinks it is wrong,” the plaintiffs wrote.

A bit of background:

Since the nation’s first COVID outbreak in early 2020, two divergent responses emerged. One embraced public health research and touted masks and vaccines. The other downplayed the risks and focused on miracle cures. Former President Donald Trump was a proponent of the latter, hawking the magical properties of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug with no known impact on COVID.

And then came ivermectin, which is most commonly used to deworm horses and has limited benefits for humans.

No evidence has been found that the drug is effective in preventing or treating COVID.

Despite alerts and advice against ivermectin for COVID, a few Washington doctors persisted in prescribing the drug. That got the attention of the Washington Medical Commission, which monitors

At a glance: data protection and management of health data in South Korea

Data protection and management

Definition of ‘health data’

What constitutes ‘health data’? Is there a definition of ‘anonymised’ health data?

No law specifically defines ‘health data’ per se, but ‘health information’ is categorised as a type of sensitive information under article 23 of the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). According to the Guidelines for Use of Health-Medical Data co-published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and PIPA in September 2020, ‘health information’ includes but is not limited to the following:

  • medical records and electronic medical records under the Medical Service Act (MSA), and other records produced in hospitals that indicate or easily enable the indication of medical treatment details (eg, hospital receipts containing medical treatment details);
  • data for insurance claims collected by the National Health Insurance Service, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, and other private insurance companies, data related to health, illness, injury, etc, used in the subscription design and ancillary data;
  • health examination data, health examination result data;
  • health status information diagnosed by a physician, measured by medical devices, or identified or estimated through estimation of insurance claim records, other algorithms, etc; and
  • information collected through medical devices to measure health status or health habits (eg, number of steps, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood sugar, blood pressure and electrocardiogram).

 

In particular, if information that is normally not considered health information is used for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention or management of diseases, such information will also be viewed as health information (eg, a voice recording is not health information under normal circumstances, but if the risk of disease is predicted using a voice recording, that voice recording file will be considered health information). Meanwhile, pseudonymised information refers to personal information that has been processed, such as deletion or replacement of certain parts, so that a specific

French lawmakers vote to slow down fast fashion with penalties

France’s parliament on Thursday backed a string of measures making low-cost fast fashion, especially from Chinese mass producers, less attractive to buyers.

Issued on:

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The vote makes France the first country in the world “legislating to limit the excesses of ultra fast fashion”, said Christophe Bechu, minister for the ecological transition.

Key measures include a ban on advertising for the cheapest textiles, and an environmental charge slapped on low-cost items.

The French clothes market has been flooded with cheap imported clothes, while several homegrown brands have declared bankruptcy.

But the main arguments put forward by Horizons—the party allied to President Emmanuel Macron submitting the draft law—were environmental.

“Textile is the most polluting industry,” said Horizons deputy Anne-Cecile Violland, saying the sector accounted for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and was a major polluter of water.

She singled out Chinese company Shein and its “7,200 new clothing items per day” as a prime example of intensive fashion production.

Read moreFrance’s fast-fashion ‘kill bill’: Green move or penalty for the poor?

France will apply criteria such as volumes of clothes produced and turnover speed of new collections in determining what constitutes fast fashion, according to the law.

Once the law comes into force—which still requires a vote in the Senate—precise criteria will be published in a decree.

Fast fashion producers will be forced to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their output.

A surcharge linked to fast fashion’s ecological footprint of five euros ($5.45) per item is planned from next year, rising to 10 euros by 2030. The charge cannot, however, exceed 50 percent of an item’s price tag.

Violland said the proceeds from the charge would be used to subsidise producers of sustainable clothes, allowing them to compete more easily.

A measure to

Prince Rupert emergency department closed for 3rd night in a row – BC

For the third night in a row, the emergency department at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital was closed on Tuesday.

Those needing emergency health services in the coastal B.C. city had to wait until 8 a.m. Wednesday for the reopening, or travel two hours to Terrace.

The sudden closure at the emergency room happened at 3 p.m., with North Health issuing a closure alert at 3:03 p.m. on its Facebook page.

Northern Health said the closure was due to “challenges with physician coverage.”

“The timing of interruptions is subject to change, as we are continually working to ensure physician and nursing staff coverage for emergency department services,” Northern Health said in a social media post.


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Emergency rooms in Masset, Prince Rupert, Hazelton and Kitimat have all had to temporarily close their doors several times recently due to shortages of either nurses or physicians.

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A rural health-care advocate told Global News there needs to be better contingency plans to prevent emergency room closures.

Paul Adams, with BC Rural Health Network, said closures are a symptom of a larger systemic issue that impacts all British Columbians.

“We actually have these challenges where people have to go super long distances to seek care,” he said.

“That puts additional strain on emergency services for ambulance supply. Then we see a lack of ambulances for those who dial 911. That has a trickle-down effect.

“These patients make their way to emergency departments in these larger centres.

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