Money Management

Tuition for college and advanced education has increased significantly over the past several years. Any student or family who has or had student loans is well aware of this. For many there may be some relief coming to make repaying the student loans less burdensome. However, the situation may be different for students studying in medical, dental, and doctoral nursing schools.

With rising healthcare costs and longer waiting room delays, a visit to the doctor is becoming increasingly expensive, inconvenient, and unpleasant. Pair this trend with the fact that 70% of doctor visits are informational and many patients may begin to wonder if there isn’t a better, easier, way to receive medical care.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new report -- Hidden Costs of Health Care: Why Americans are Paying More but Getting Less. The report documents the rising cost of deductibles, co-payments and out-of-pocket expenses that are making it more difficult for families with insurance to receive the health care they need, and is available at www.HealthReform.gov.

Victoria Horsley is like most teenaged girls looking forward to their senior year of high school. Though for her, learning the intricacies of the human heart as part of the Cardiology Summer Academy (CSA) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute will rank high along with going to prom as one of her favorite senior-year milestones. Horsley is one of 16 returning seniors, from the Young Women’s Leadership Academy Charter School of Chicago, selected for the inaugural program’s week-long camp.

The Washington department Health Systems Quality Assurance Office works with boards, commissions, and advisory committees to set licensing standards for more than 70 health care professions (e.g., medical doctors, nurses, counselors).

The downturn in the U.S. economy has lowered the demand for nurses easing the nursing shortage, while the nursing degree programs are full. On site and online nursing degree programs continue to turn away approximately 30,000 or more quality applicants each year.

Two new TV shows highlight the growing importance of nurses at a moment when the Obama administration is preparing to reform the nation’s health care system, but the shows also run the risk of further marginalizing the often overlooked contributions of nursing, says a Duke University nursing professor.

Showtime's new program, “Nurse Jackie,” stars Edie Falco, and TNT's new program, “HawthoRNe,” stars Jada Pinkett Smith.

The vast majority of medical graduates trained in Britain work in the NHS for many years, refuting claims that doctors are increasingly leaving the NHS because they are disenchanted with it, according to a study published on bmj.com today. A second study also published today shows that direct discrimination is no longer a barrier to the career progression of women doctors in the NHS. The findings doctor career path are based on regular surveys of doctors who qualified from UK medical schools over the last 30 years.

Although it is a relatively widespread phenomenon, the experts have still not been able to come up with an all-encompassing and precise definition of workplace abuse or bullying. Basing their work on previous literature, David González, of the High Court of Justice of Madrid and José Luís Graña, of the Faculty of Psychology at the Complutense University, have defined it in their study as a "process of systematic and repeated aggression by a person or group towards a workmate, subordinate or superior". Their research has been published in the latest issue of Psicothema.

Most victims of family bankruptcy are middle class, well-educated and have health insurance. In 2007, before the current economic downturn, an American family filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of illness every 90 seconds; three-quarters of them were insured. Over 60% of all bankruptcies in the United States in 2007 were driven by medical incidents.