What happens when the nurses sent to care for your medically fragile child have never even touched the equipment keeping him alive? Patient advocate Ashley Youngdale knows firsthand. As the mother of a son with Mobius syndrome who required a trach and ventilator, she became his primary nurse, trainer, and care coordinator when the pediatric home health care system fell short. In this episode, based on her KevinMD article "Pediatric home health care oversight: Why accountability is failing," Ashley reveals how the nursing shortage does more than leave shifts unfilled. It erodes the very accountability structures meant to protect vulnerable patients. You will hear why credentials do not guarantee competence, how blurred boundaries with home care nurses can put families at risk, and why parents must learn to enforce their own standards when oversight systems fail. If you care for a medically complex child or work in home health nursing, this conversation will change how you think about who is truly responsible for patient safety.

Tune into our episode "2026 Cholesterol Guidelines: LDL goals, lipoprotein(a), and coronary calcium scoring," brought to you by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

For the first time in eight years, LDL cholesterol goals have changed, and preventive cardiologist Seth Baum says the new guidelines are a long-overdue course correction. He breaks down the new LDL targets for your highest-risk patients, why the LDL hypothesis should be retired in favor of the LDL fact, why lipoprotein(a) screening finally belongs in every patient's workup, what a coronary calcium score over 300 really means for how aggressively you treat, and how to talk to statin-skeptical patients without losing their trust. Listen now at KevinMD.com/cholesterol.

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