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Photo by Hakan Nural on Unsplash The misinformation and disinformation about vaccines has been on the rise, particularly since the COVID pandemic and, more recently, since Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. assumed the position of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump Administration. KFF is a nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization that recently conducted a national poll to look at whether the public has embraced myths about vaccines that are based on this misinformation. HealthCetera producer and host Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, discusses the poll and its findings with Alex Montero, PhD, Senior Survey Analyst for Public Opinion and Survey Research at KFF. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX radio on July 15, 2026. The post Misinformation & Disinformation About Vaccines appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Curology on Unsplash You may know someone who has had a horrible gastrointestinal illness with “explosive diarrhea” with no obvious cause. Well, it may be cyclosporiasis that is spreading throughout the country. HealthCetera producer and host Dr. Diana J. Mason, RN, talks with Dr. Luis Marcos, MD, a Professor of Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Director for the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Stony Brook Medicine about cyclosporiasis, itssymptoms and treatment, and how to prevent it. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on July 15, 2026. The post The Spread of Cyclosporiasis appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Marlon Lara on Unsplash Stigma surrounding substance use disorders (SUD), including addictions, is a major barrier to people seeking treatment. Many healthcare providers can also consciously or unconsciously contribute to the stigma that people with SUDs may feel, including through the language they use, images, and how they treat their patients. Addictions are physiological states, not flaws in one’s character. While we seldom treat people with insulin-dependent diabetes with disdain, we are not as likely to try to rid ourselves of stigmatizing language or behaviors when working with people with SUDs. HealthCetera producer and host, Diana J. Mason, RN, talks with Beth Rutkowski, an Epidemiologist and Director of Training for the UCLA Integrated Substance Use and Addiction Programs, and Co-Director of the Pacific Southwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center, about the evidence confirming that stigma around SUD is prevalent and harmful, as well as how to help clinicians, family members, friends, healthcare providers, and even the people with SUDs themselves to reduce and eliminate stigma. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on July 8, 2026. The post Stigma Surrounding Substance Use Disorders appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Kristine Wook on Unsplash HR.1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Donald Trump signed into law a year ago, cuts Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding substantially and makes changes in the Affordable Care Act's insurance coverage such that an estimated that over 10 million people will become uninsured and millions more becoming food insecure from cuts to or termination of their SNAP benefits. But these cuts affect all of us, as hospitals and other health care organizations will lose revenue that they need to support offering services that communities need. This is such an issue in rural communities that some of these hospitals may close. In response to this concern, Congress created the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) to bring money to health care in rural communities. HealthCetera producer and host, Dr. Diana J. Mason, RN, talked about these cuts with Dr. Leighton Ku, Professor in the Deptment of Health Policy and Management and Director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. He and his colleagues conducted an analysis of what the impact of HR 1 cuts would be on rural communities and whether the RHTP would offset the losses from Medicaid and insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act. The paper is titled “H.R. 1 Funding Cuts Will Overshadow Gains from the New Rural Health Transformation Program” and it was published on June 9, 2026, by The Commonwealth Fund. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on July 8, 2026. The post The Rural Health Transformation Program in Response to Medicaid and SNAP Cuts appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Mockup Graphics on Unsplash Health professionals often think that the public understands that high blood pressure is dangerous for their health. But many people may not even understand what a blood pressure reading represents, let alone the acute and chronic damage it can do to your body. To explore what a blood pressure reading means and the impact of high blood pressure on our health, HealthCetera producer and host, Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, talks with Dawn Aycock, PhD, RN, the Distinguished University Professor and PhD Program Director for Nursing at Georgia State University. Dr. Aycock is an expert in cardiovascular disease prevention. Along with research funding from the National Institutes for Health, she has been a Fellow in the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators that provided support for her to develop an initiative around preventing strokes, particularly among African Americans between the ages of 20-35 years of age. She calls this initiative SCORRE and talks about its success in helping people to be proactive in addressing high blood pressure. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on July 1, 2026. The post Understanding Blood Pressure Readings appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Dominik Lange on Unsplash Being a family caregiver for a loved one who is ill or frail or disabled may come from a place of love but it can also be a very stressful responsibility, sometimes jeopardizing the physical, emotional, and financial health of the caregiver. There are 53 million U.S. family caregivers who provide critical daily unpaid assistance to loved ones, including to the more than 18 million people who have cancer. They often provide what can be quite complex care with little to no support or training from health professionals. Nicholas Odom, PhD, RN, is a registered nurse and nurse scientist who is very concerned about this situation. Dr. Odom is an associate professor of nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is a Fellow in the University of California at Davis's Betty Irene Moore Nurse Innovators and Leaders Fellowship. HealthCetera host Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, talked with Dr. Odom about his research and its implications for family caregivers. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on June 3, 2026. The post Being a Family Caregiver appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Patty Brito on Unsplash The U.S. healthcare system is in crisis. COVID strained health care organizations and stressed healthcare workers; and it seems that we've not yet recovered from that nightmare. We're unlikely to see the system recover in the short term and it may take a lot longer, as the Trump Administration and Congress make cuts to tax credits for health insurance, Medicaid, and other health programs. The leaders of healthcare organizations are focused on the bottom line to survive but some exceptional healthcare administrators are also focused on supporting their staff, particularly nurses who provide the bulk of care. They know that you can't have quality healthcare with good outcomes if you don't address employee satisfaction. But what does this work look like? How do healthcare organizations such as hospitals ensure that nurses and other healthcare workers are provided with the support they need to be able to do their jobs well and feel joy in their practice? The American Nurses Credentialing Center has looked at this for nurses and has an initiative called Pathway to Excellence that focuses on how organizations can create positive practice environments that empower and engage staff, and recognizes the organizations that do create such environments. HealthCetera host Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, talked about this work with Christine Pabico, RN, PhD, FAAN, Senior Director of the Pathway to Excellence Program for the American Nurses Credentialing Center. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on April 29, 2026. The post Providing Nurses & Other Healthcare Workers with Support appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash Artificial intelligence (AI) is already upending our world. It's being used in health care in a variety of ways, including for interpreting x-rays and other imaging, flagging potential concerns that a clinician may overlook, and supporting diagnostic decision-making. There have been suggestions that robots and AI could even replace nurses. Needless to say, there are a lot of concerns within the nursing community about how AI is used in health care. In recognition of these concerns, the American Academy of Nursing issued a position statement on Artificial Intelligence in Health Care. HealthCetera host Diana J. Mason, RN, PhD, FAAN, discussed this position statement with Debra Barksdale, RN, PhD, FAAN, president of the Academy and Dean of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Nursing. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOC Radio on April 15, 2026. The post AI and Healthcare appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Sergiu Vălenaș on Unsplash Wars and other life circumstances can result in children being orphaned and neglected. Around the world, including in our own community, grandparents are becoming caregivers for their grandchildren, but often with little support. Someone who has been studying this issue is Dr. Schola Matovu, a gerontological nurse scientist, Assistant Professor and Director of Global Learning and Engagement at the University of Utah College of Nursing, where she also serves as the Principal Investigator for the Matovu Research Lab. She is a Fellow in the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators. HealthCetera host Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, talked with Dr. Matovu about her work on grandparents as caregivers for their grandchildren. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on April 29, 2026. The post Grandparents Becoming Caregivers appeared first on HealthCetera.
We now know that things like access to affordable housing and healthy food, good jobs that provide a livable income, education, safe environments, and other factors that make up what we call the “social determinants of health” are more powerful in promoting health of individuals and communities than health care itself. Sir Michael Marmot has been a pioneer in advancing this concept and has created what are called Marmot Cities and Towns or Marmot Places. One nurse who has worked with Marmot is Charlotte McArdle, a Global Nurse Consultant, Visiting Professor Ulster University Belfast, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and a former government chief nurse officer in the United Kingdom. On April 22, 2026, HealthCetera producer and host Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, talked with McArdle about Marmot Places and its relevance for people in the United States. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX Radio on April 22, 2026. The post Marmot Places appeared first on HealthCetera.
Photo by Vitalii Pavlyshynets on Unsplash Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., continues to push forward his Make America Healthy Again or MAHA agenda that has been both hailed for its attention to things like nutrition and chemical exposures, and criticized for what some see as its inadequacies in being evidence based and detracting from the importance of protecting the public against infectious diseases. On April 15, 2026, MedPage Today published a commentary on whether Kennedy’s approach to MAHA is more political marketing than evidence-based health guidance. The commentary was written by Adam Brown, MD, Contributing Writer to MedPage Today, a board-certified emergency medicine and lifestyle medicine physician, and founder of ABIG Health that advises healthcare organizations on strategy and innovation. He is a past President of Emergency Medicine at Envision Healthcare and currently a professor at UNC Chapel Hill at Kenan-Flagler Business School and a visiting professor of business at ESCP Business School in London and Paris. HealthCetera producer and host Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, talked with Dr. Brown about his views on MAHA and its promotion by Kennedy. This interview first aired on HealthCetera in the Catskills on April 22, 20026. The post A Commentary on Make America Healthy Again appeared first on HealthCetera.
Are we winning the war on COVID? What of the wounded who have survived the illness but are dealing with lasting impacts? This week we're exploring the other effects of COVID-19, as well as vaccinations and masks, nursing, healthcare, and the pandemic, with Dr. Diana J. Mason, RN, FAAN. This week's episode features Diana J. Mason, Senior Policy Service Professor for the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University School of Nursing. Nurse, Journalist, Writer, Consultant, she is Professor Emerita and Co-Director of the Center for Health, Media, and Policy at Hunter College, City University of New York, where she was the inaugural Rudin Professor of Nursing until 2016. Dr. Mason is the immediate past president of the American Academy of Nursing, former editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Nursing, and co-producer and moderator of a weekly radio program on health care issues since 1985. She is the lead editor of the award-winning book, Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care, now in its 8th edition and the author of over 200 publications. Her scholarship focuses on health policy and what can be learned from nurse-designed models of care.
Nurses Representation in the Media “Nursing, as a profession, has been the most trusted profession by the American public for 18 years in a row.” — Melissa Batchelor In this episode, we talked about the representation of nurses in health news media. Historically, nursing has been underrepresented, but in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, we are speaking up and speaking out more than ever. Our guest for this episode is Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN. Dr. Mason is the Senior Policy Service Professor at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, The George Washington University School of Nursing, and Professor Emerita at Hunter College, where she held the Rudin Endowed Chair and founded the Center for Health, Media & Policy She is a past President of the American Academy of Nursing, Former editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Nursing, and has been the producer and moderator of a community radio program on health and health policy since 1985. Dr. Mason has served as the only health professional on the National Advisory Committee for Kaiser Health News since its inception in 2009. She is the lead editor of the book, Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care (recently releasing the 8th edition) and blogs on policy for HealthCetera and JAMA News Forum. She was the principal investigator on a replication of the 1998 Woodhull Study on Nurses and the Media published in 2018 in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship and an additional analysis of journalists' experiences with using nurses as sources in health news stories, including on policy, published in the American Journal of Nursing. Her other research has focused on nurse practitioners' engagement with managed care organizations. She is the recipient of numerous awards for policy, leadership, dissemination of science, writing, education, public health, media, and advocacy. Dr. Mason received a BSN from West Virginia University, MSN from St. Louis University, and PhD from New York University; and holds an honorary doctorate of science from West Virginia University and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Long Island University. Part One of WoodHull Study: Nurses and the Media The release of the Woodhull study 20 years ago was the first realization that the media doesn't seek nurses as sources for health news stories compared to other professions. In fact, at that time, only 4% of health news stories in leading newspapers used nurses as their source. Nursing’s voice provides a unique perspective in the healthcare arena, yet is missing from the national dialogue. The study was replicated recently, and the result was still abysmal. Nothing had changed, in fact, only 2% of health news stories used nurses as their source. In fact, a significant topic at the time the study was replicated was the Affordable Care Act, and nurses were not used as sources for this health policy topic. Some Reasons Why Nurses Aren’t Used in Health News Media Bias The original and updated Woodhull studies were qualitative studies conducted using ten health journals. Findings revealed that there are real biases about nurses, and women in general, that deter journalists from using nurses as sources. For example, if a journalist wanted to interview a nurse for a non-nursing story, they reported having to justify this choice to their editors; and the response was that editors typically wanted a “rock star physician” rather than a “rock star nurse” as the expert. Invisible Another reason why nurses are not commonly heard in the media is that journalists do not know how to find us. Most hospital websites will prominently list physician providers but finding a nurse practitioner takes a little more digging – and staff nurses are not listed at all. Nurses in leadership roles or in academia are easier to find, but to journalists, this process is unclear and can take up too much time when up against a tight deadline. Gatekeepers Another factor is that when a university or a hospital is contacted seeking an “expert” on a given topic, some public relations gatekeepers would be more likely to recommend a physician over a nurse. Lack of Media Training and Experience Many nurses do not have a background in media training, or the experience needed to build confidence to own our expertise. Nurses Don’t Actively Pursue Journalists Most nurses aren’t naturally inclined to reach out to journalists. Nurses aren’t actively sending press releases about the critical study they just completed, and are not writing as many OpEds, editorials, or letters to the editor. The good news is, we can fix this! “As nurses, we have perspectives on things that nobody else has.” - Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN Prior to #COVID19, nurses were often seen as someone quiet and more behind-the-scenes. But it's time that we stop taking on that moniker. We have deep expertise, and we know things that other people are not aware of. Dr. Mason points out, “Who else is with the patient 24/7? Who else knows about the biological, psychological, emotional, social, and even spiritual state of a patient? Who knows better about the challenges of cutting a hospital budget?” These are reasons journalists should seek out a nurse and nursing’s voice for health news stories. Part Two of WoodHull Study: Nurses and the Media Why nurses may not comment in public forums One of the problems is that nurses are reluctant to speak out for fear of losing their job. We should all know what our specific employer policies are in using social media, but ensuring these policies are current and appropriate also needs to be considered. We also recommend that the Chief Nursing Officers look for opportunities where nurses can speak to journalists and the public about what they are seeing and doing. “It is not about sensationalism, but it's about getting information out to the public.” - Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN Another reason nurses may not speak up is the fear of being criticized. People can be critical; but that may be something anyone has to face when you decide to use your voice. Nurses need to recognize themselves as thought leaders and know what their unique contribution is. Our edge is that we know how to talk to the public. Nurses provide patient education every day, so we are good at breaking information down and tailoring that education to the person that we are talking to. So how can you prepare yourself if you wish to work with the media? Nurses need to seek out media training if they are not comfortable talking with journalists. Media training can give you skills you need to better manage an interview. If you have a public relations officer, work with them, and share your expertise. Let them know your key messages, and they can probably get in touch with people who would be interested in showing your perspective. About Melissa Batchelor PhD I earned my Bachelor of Science in Nursing (‘96) and Master of Science in Nursing (‘00) as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) from the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) School of Nursing (SON). I truly enjoy working with the complex medical needs of older adults. I worked full-time for five years as FNP in geriatric primary care across many long-term care settings (skilled nursing homes, assisted living, home and office visits) then transitioned into academic nursing in 2005, joining the faculty at UNCW SON as a lecturer. I obtained my PhD in Nursing and a post-Master’s Certificate in Nursing Education from the Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing (’11) and then joined the faculty at Duke University School of Nursing as an Assistant Professor. My family moved to northern Virginia in 2015 and led to me joining the faculty at George Washington University (GW) School of Nursing in 2018 as a (tenured) Associate Professor where I am also the Director of the GW Center for Aging, Health and Humanities. Find out more about her work at https://melissabphd.com/.
This podcast aims to inspire nurses working in a palliative and hospice care system to take a leadership role in transforming care in the direction of the Quadruple Aim. Triple Aim includes a focus enhancing patient experience, improving population health, and reducing costs and is widely accepted as a compass to optimize health system performance. Yet nurses and physicians and other members of the healthcare workforce report widespread burnout and dissatisfaction, which are associated with lower patient satisfaction, reduced health outcomes, and possible increased costs.
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