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Apr 29

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Attention to detail


“Your great attention to detail is both a blessing and a curse”  – Chinese proverb

This message, found in a fortune cookie, inspired the folks at Oxford University Press (the Pencil and question markpublishers of the AMA Manual of Style, used by ANS), to start a blog!  The blog is the AMA Style Insider, and I highly recommend it – even for those who are not blessed with great attention to detail!  It is free of charge and anyone can visit the blog — I recommend that you subscribe to stay informed of many important issues facing writers, editors and publishers.  As they note in the announcement that circulated about the new blog, even though the AMA Manual of Style is over 1000 pages long, there are endless issues and questions that come up for writers every day.  And, the issues they address are not limited to any one approach to “style” – in fact they refer to other style manuals and traditions besides their own.

So far there are only a handful of posts on the blog, but every one of them is interesting!  They deal with topics ranging from recent FAQ’s from users of the AMA Manual of Style, to word usage (heathy vs healthful for example), placement of an apostrophe, the dangers of duplicate e-publication, and much more!  And, the information addresses not just the “facts” of how to handle problems of style, spelling, grammar, usage, and so forth, but the issues surrounding the problems and various points of view about how to deal with the issue in your own work.

Apr 28

New paper in Journal of Healthcare Risk Management


Just had my latest paper published in the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management:

Cox, T. (2011), Exposing the true risks of capitation financed healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, 30: 34–41. doi: 10.1002/jhrm.20066

The key points:

Small insurers are inefficient insurers: They have lower probabilities of achieving modest profit goals, higher probabilities of incurring operating losses, and higher probabilities of Insurance "not allowed"insolvency than larger insurers when both randomly select policyholders from the same populations.

Small insurers also have to cut benefits to match larger insurer’s probabilities of achieving modest profit goals, avoiding operating losses, and avoiding insolvency.

Despite this, and the obvious impact it has on service quality and quantity, almost every proposal for trimming health care costs assumes Read more

Apr 17

The Importance of Letters to the Editor


Letters to the Editor are vital in achieving a primary purpose established early in the history of Advances in Nursing Science.  The current issue (Vol. 34:1) contains two letters in response to the article titled “The Politics of Nursing Knowledge and LettersEducation: Critical Pedagogy in the Face of the Militarization of Nursing in the War on Terror.” (Vol. 33:3).  The letters in response to this article are free downloads from the ANS web site.

These letters prompted lively discussion at our annual Advisory Board meeting (November, 2010), and the Board recommended that we invite external reviews of the issues that were raised in the Read more

Apr 8

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Disaster preparedness


The Washington Post had a story yesterday that should raise some concerns, for a day or two:  “US Health Care System Unprepared for Major Nuclear Emergency, Officials Say”Disaster Relief

As I suggested in another post, it is difficult, if not impossible to be prepared for a catastrophe when our health care facilities are barely handling routine loads.

Disaster preparedness requires tremendous redundancies: Extra staff, extra supplies, extra equipment, extra medications, extra food, and alternative energy sources. Read more

Apr 7

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The “Cs” of Scholarship


Several years ago I created a kind of template to use in talking about some of the mysteries of good scholarship.  The handout I used made its way around the world and with some regularity I received requests for copies of the handout!  So in mythe letter C Editorial in ANS Vol 22, No 2, I published a version of this handout.  With permission of our publisher, I am presenting this once again here, along with yet another pair of “C’s”!

The “C’s” in this list represent contrasting traits that we seek in the best of scholarship.  Some of the pairs seem like contradictions, but in fact, they have a Read more

Mar 26

Regulating Medical Loss Ratios


I was just thinking about a new paper in the American Journal of Managed Care:

—————————————————————————————————————————————————
Regulating the Medical Loss Ratio: Implications for the Individual Market
Jean M. Abraham, PhD; and Pinar Karaca-Mandic, PhD
(Am J Manag Care. 2011;17(3):211-218)

“Results:In 2009, using a PPACA-adjusted MLR definition, we estimated that 29% of insurer-state observations in the individual market would have MLRs below the 80% minimum, corresponding to 32% of total enrollment. Nine states would have at least one-half of their health insurers below the threshold. If insurers below the MLR threshold exit the market, major coverage disruption could occur for those in poor health; we estimated the range to be between 104,624 and 158,736 member-years.”Conclusion: The introduction of MLR regulation as part of the PPACA has the potential to significantly affect the functioning of the individual market for health insurance.”————————————————————————————————————————

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation thought enough of it to post it on their website and I did a post over there

http://www.rwjf.org/coverage/product.jsp?id=72089&cid=XEM_910232#disqus_thread

but sometimes they don’t like them, so I’ll edit it and redo it here because I think Read more

Mar 24

Follow Featured Articles – free downloads!


Every couple of weeks, we feature one or two articles on the ANS Web Site, and while they are featured, you can download them for free. The featured articles are from the latest issue of the journal, so check the web site often and follow the very latest!

Mar 23

8 Comments

Thoughts on: “Bringing Values Back Into Evidence-Based Nursing: The Role of Patients in Resisting Empiricism” by Porter, O’Halloran, and Morrow.


Was just reading: “Bringing Values Back Into Evidence-Based Nursing: The Role of Patients in Resisting Empiricism” by Porter, O’Halloran, and Morrow.

What a great article. Nails a number of things that I have been tangentially interested in. Without in any way suggesting a deficit it was interesting to me that little attention seemed to be given to “how” and “why” we got here: How and why we have slipped up and where we must go to get out of the hole so many of us feel we are in.

So here are some additional thoughts on their article. Read more

Mar 21

Social Media for Researchers


Here’s a well-kept secret — there are actually many nurses using all forms of social media for a host of different purposes!  And, I am aware that the “internet” in general has become a very useful tool for nurse researchers.  But have we tuned in to what social media can really offer?  I am actually not sure!  This resource – “Social Media for Researchers” came to my attention today on Twitter!  Check it out …. even if you do not consider yourself a “researcher” (yet), this is a resource you will not want to pass up.  Check it out – http://bit.ly/ekgWfS

Mar 17

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Welcome to the ANS Blog!


We are launching this blog as a place to post comments on articles in ANS, to discuss issues related to in ANS content. Visit often to add your ideas and comments!

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