Nurse News: Nurse Draft Explained, Nurse Dolly’s Kid Health Show, WI Staffing Bill Push, Alzheimer’s Blood Test Breakthrough, Epic AI Cuts Charting, Travel Nurse Pay Lawsuit, and HIV-Linked Insulin Vial Firing

Nurse.org and major league sports teams are honoring nurses with discounted game tickets and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. From throwing the first pitch to riding the Zamboni to on-court recognition, join the fun. Visit nurse.org/nursenight to find a nurse appreciation event near you and grab your discounted tickets today.

Welcome to Club Nurse. I'm Colton Lord, your host. By you being here today, it shows me that you are someone who wants to learn, Grow, laugh, connect, and just let your emotions flow. We are here to share real stories and hear real life experiences from real people. You are not alone in this, and Club Nurse is here to show you that. Don't forget to follow the show and share today's episode with someone you love. Now let's dive into today's conversation.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Club Nurse Podcast. My name is Colton Lord, your host. Uh, it has been a while. It's been like 3 to 4 weeks, uh, since we've done an episode here on Club Nurse. Had a lot of life changes. I just moved cities, so it's been a little bit. Had some of the staff that works on the podcast out of town, so just took a little break. And we are back here to talk to you about some nursing news. If you've never listened to the Club Nurse podcast, we cover a lot of news, breaking news in healthcare and nursing, and bring you the most up-to-date information as accurately as we possibly can. It's really important to me to make sure that the information that you are hearing is accurate and that, you know, remains non-biased as much as we possibly can. I know it's not always possible, just given, you know, life experience and circumstance. And that is just what we hope to uphold here at nurse.org and with the Club Nurse podcast so that you can rely on us to give you this information. So I just wanted to kind of start off by saying you can go to nurse.org/news. That's where you get all these articles that you can read more in depth on the things that I am covering, the stories that I'm talking to you about, the breaking If you'd like to read more about it, there's more links that are involved. Nurse.org/news. All the articles will be there. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram at Club Nurse. And yeah, again, my name's Colton. Let's dive into it. So let's just start this off. We've covered this before, but I just wanted to touch base on this again about could nurses ever be drafted and what the U.S. law says as global tensions rise. I think this is something that is important to talk about. I know that it can be. A scary thing for nurses and just for people in general to think about. But given the heightened tension in the Middle East and the situation that's going on, let's just talk about it. So there is not an active draft. That is not something that happens at this moment in time. I think we all know, as in the times we live in, nothing is for certain. But there is currently no military draft in effect in the United States. And it's also important to note there has been a recent policy change under the fiscal year of 2026 NDAA, men ages 18 to 25 will be automatically registered with the Selective Service using federal databases rather than registering themselves. So that is allegedly supposed to take place this year in 2026 in December. But for nurses and other healthcare professionals, there's always that question of like, can we be medically, you know, can medical workers be drafted? The United States does have a contingency framework known as the Healthcare Personnel Delivery System that was designed decades ago as a potential way to mobilize physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals in a national emergency if military medical staffing was insufficient. However, the healthcare personnel delivery system is currently inactive and has never been used. Um, for it to be implemented, Congress would first need to pass legislation authorizing healthcare draft, and the president would need to approve its activation. So as of right now, with the global conflicts and things going on, U.S. nurses are currently not being drafted, and there's no draft that currently exists. Again, I understand the worry behind this and that things are ever-changing and nothing really shocks us anymore in 2026 in the world. But as of right now, there's no worry for any kind of draft. Oh, I also want to highlight this really amazing nurse who is turning songs and storytelling into a YouTube for health lessons for kids, which I think is amazing. It seems like a very Miss Rachel-esque approach. If you don't, I'm sure you know who Miss Rachel is. I don't have kids or nieces or nephews, and I know who Miss Rachel is, so I'm sure that you do. But let's highlight this Georgian nurse who created a YouTube character, Nurse Dolly, to teach kids about health hygiene and doctor visits. And the mini med school series uses songs, stuffed animals, toy cars, medical tools, and storytelling to make healthcare less scary. We all know if you work in peds or if you have kids and you take them to the doctor, it's the last place they want to go. I am certain that as a kid, I had many meltdowns over getting shots and going to the doctor and those kinds of things because it's scary and it's painful and it's awkward and it's uncomfortable. So to make anything less scary and more normal for kids. I think it's amazing if we can start when they're that little, when their, their little brains are so moldable. I don't think that's a word. When you're, when your brain is, you know, developing. And I think it's a great, great age to kind of catch these things at. I love this Nurse Dolly. I do not want to butcher your name, but I'm going to try. Emery Etta Tawo, making healthcare approachable and fun for families online. I love this. So make sure you go check her out on YouTube, uh, Nurse Dolly. And yeah, the channel has already Earned nearly 300,000 views since launching in 2025. So that's huge. I love that YouTube is not easy to break through on. So good job, Nurse Dolly. All right, on to the next thing. Let's chat about Wisconsin reintroducing Nurse Staffing and Patient Protection Act, which, and this is what nurses should know. So the bill in Wisconsin sets unit-specific and minimum ratios, 1 to 1 OR, 1 to 6 psych, requires staffing committees led by direct care RNs, and bans mandatory overtime. Supporters like the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses cite burnout driving 71% of RNs to consider leaving. Hospitals oppose it as overly rigid. Of course they do. Nurses can help advance the bill by contacting co-sponsors like Senators Larson and Ratcliffe through the Wisconsin Legislature site. Yeah, I think all states need to do stuff like this. The— what the bill would do, the Nursing— the Nurse Staffing and Patient Protection Act would introduce several changes to how hospitals Staff nursing units. They would establish minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. The bill would create unit-specific staffing ratios in Wisconsin. For example, 1:1 ratio in operating rooms, up to 1:6 in psychiatric units, um, which I remember nursing school, girl, those nurses had way more in those psychiatric units than just 6. They need less. These standards would serve as minimum staffing levels to ensure nurses are not responsible for unsafe patient loads. Yes, we are here for that. Always require hospital staffing plans. Hospitals would be required to submit an annual staffing plan to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Each facility must also establish a nurse staffing committee with a majority of members being non-supervisory direct care registered nurses. These committees would help determine staffing plans based on patient acuity, support staff levels, and unit needs. And lastly, ban over mandatory overtime for nurses. Girl, I've never been mandated for overtime. Nobody should be. This is limiting man. shifts to 12 hours in a 24-hour period, allowing nurses to refuse assignments that could compromise patient safety or their license, and protecting nurses from retaliation when exercising those rights. Love this. I'm here for this. Thank you, Wisconsin. We will hear more on this as this continues to progress and see what the legislation comes up with.

Hey nurses, looking for exclusive discounts? Nurse.org has you covered with deals on everything. Save big on the essentials you need to excel in your career. Don't miss out. Visit nurse.org/discounts for the latest discounts made just for you.

I love this. A new blood test that can estimate when Alzheimer's symptoms will begin, a new study finds. Alzheimer's disease affects roughly 7 million individuals over the age of 65 in the US. Researchers out of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that measuring a protein fragment in the blood can help estimate how long it will take for symptoms to appear. Creating a clock model, researchers utilized this protein This protein fragment to map disease progression and predict the timing of symptom onset, which is fascinating. I think that any—I just any kind—I mean, anyone here listening loves medical advancement, loves breakthrough in in medicine and things that can improve outcome and just patient awareness. I think having this kind of knowledge and knowing these things is super helpful and just gives people time to figure things out, get things in order, and just know you know kind of what to look out for. I think. I think that's huge and I would love to kind of keep watching this and see these studies kind of progress, which is, I just think it's amazing. For instance, a 60-year-old with elevated protein fragment may not experience memory loss until about 20 years later, while an 80-year-old with the same biomarker level might develop symptoms about 11 years later. So it's amazing. Love this new information coming for Alzheimer's. Oh yes, let's talk about Epic's new AI tools that go live in 2023. Staying to slash nurse charting by 85%. We've covered this before. We've talked about this quite a bit, actually. I did a whole episode with Mary Presti on the Microsoft Copilot and that, you know, that kind of ambient nursing documentation. But this is Epic announcing its new AI assistants are Emmy and Penny. Again, we've covered this before on the Club Nurse podcast. Early pilot programs are starting to reveal how the technology may impact nurse workflows. Initial results from the hospitals using ART, the clinician-focused AI assistant, suggests it could significantly reduce end-of-shift documentation while improving the quality of handoff notes. At Mercy, which is one of the 15 largest health systems in the US, average end-of-shift documentation dropped from 3.5 minutes per note to about 32 seconds when nurses use ART to draft care plan summaries, which is great. Again, I'm not too keen on this because I'm mostly from the ER. We don't really do end-of-shift notes, I'd say, but I love it. I mean, I have worked inpatient before and And I'm trying to think. Yeah, I never had to do like full— I don't remember doing like full end of shift notes. Maybe when I worked in the ICU, but not when I worked on the med-surg units, I don't think. Oh my God, am I forgetting how my documentation went? Either way, I'm here for it. I'm here. I know AI is big and scary and there's a lot of, you know, negativity around AI. I think this is great for a great use of AI. Help the nurses cut down that charting time. Girl, we chart way too much. It's insane. I really appreciate that anyway. Okay, a couple more things just to chat about. We have a lot to cover since we've been out for a few weeks, um, but I'm trying to give you like the most recent, uh, news and things that I'm finding to be most interesting and that you would find the most interesting or useful. I think this is an important one to talk about, that there was a New York City strike travel nurse who sued a staffing firm for alleged wage violations. So basically they were like, they, they reported that they had worked 100.75 hours and they were, they were only paid for 85.25 hours. So they also Failed to reimburse per diem travel as NYLL wages. So for example, Tropia reported 100.75 hours with 60.75 overtime for the week of January 11th, which, oh my God, that's a lot of hours, and was only paid for 85.25, 45.25 overtime. The plaintiff is pursuing nationwide FLSA collective and New York class action alleging willful wage hour violations worth over $5 million. Greater than 40 nurses since December 1st of 2025. So I think this is important to note because when you're travel nursing, always know what's in your contract. Know the laws of where you're going. I know it's like you know I've been travel nurse before. I didn't know the laws of where I was going and the wage laws and and everything. But know your contract and speak up for yourself. I've definitely had pay discrepancies in the past with contracts that I've done, and you have to speak up and you you have to get the money that you signed for. I think that that's something huge to just note when you travel nurse. There's a lot of things to it. I do recommend getting in touch with, you know, some kind of accountant or tax professional or somebody that can keep an eye on these things for you because it can become a pretty big deal. And so I'm kind of interested to see what the outcome— not kind of, I am very interested to see what the outcome of this will be. The complaint characterizes this as shaving reported time from pay records. And yeah, girl, get your money. You worked— especially if you worked 100 hours. Oh my god, it's insane. All right, the last thing I want to touch on: nurse fired after refusing Using HIV-contaminated insulin vial on 12 jail inmates. I mean, first of all, not great, okay? But like, does— even if the patient did not have HIV, this is not great. This is like poor practice. We are— you are not allowed to reuse needles on anything. Um, even to note, if you're a new grad listening to this or any nurse, as soon as that vial hits a line, even if it's like an IV tubing and you, you are connecting that Luer lock to a port that's upstream, upline, no, that is technically part of their bloodstream at that point. You do not use that. Syringe that needle ever again. I mean, this is a big deal, obviously, especially if you know the patient has a has a virus that is contagious. You should not be using needles. No, again, even if the patient did not have HIV or the inmate did not have HIV, this should not be happening at all. So they should be fired for that. Anyway, that is the news I wanted to cover this week. Again, thank you for listening to Club Nurse and Nurse News. We're back. I know it's been quite a while, but I appreciate you guys coming back to listen and. And yeah, just a little note. I know the world is heavy. I know things may be difficult right now and there's a lot of noise and things going on. But you know what, especially as nurses, I'm assuming most people listening to this are nurses. You already have a stressful enough job. Your career takes enough of your energy. Get off of your phone, stop scrolling, stop doom scrolling at the end of the day after you've already— your nervous system's already been out of whack going a million miles an hour all day. Get off your phone, take a deep breath, do things that are self-care for you. And no, laying in your bed and bed rotting with your phone is not self-care. All of you Gen Z or Gen Alpha or whatever's next, it's not, it's not self-care. Get off the phone and just really try to be in your own life and pay attention to, you know, your— what's going on in your world and not everybody else's on your phone and in the whole world. It's important to be informed, but you don't have to immerse yourself fully into all the stressors of what's going on around us every single day, all time of the day. So, that's my little note to end this with you this week because I too struggle with that at times and I have to remind myself even to take a step back and remember that not everything happening in my phone is part of my life. I want to be informed. I want to help where I can. And, I think it's important. But you can't overwhelm yourself with everybody else's problems and the world's problems. So that's what I'll say. We'll see you guys next time here on Club Nurse. Again, nurse.org/news. That's where you can get all your articles. And we will see you guys next time. Bye.

From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to thank you for being here at Club Nurse.

I hope you gained something valuable from today's episode.

And if you did, remember to share this episode with someone that you Love. Follow me on socials at Nurse Daddies or Colton Lord 17, and be sure to follow nurse.org to stay informed with all of the hottest healthcare topics. Until next time, take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else. Love ya. Bye.