May 29th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion
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I have been in Hamburg, Germany for the past five days. I enjoyed an amazing opportunity to visit one of the world’s most respected heart rhythm labs. Among other things, the main purpose was to learn a new way to ablate atrial fibrillation.
It was an incredible learning experience, one for which I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the kind and generous people of Dr Karl-Heinz Kuck’s EP lab. Though these people are famous, they treated me as a respected colleague.
Details of all that I learned regarding this newly-approved ablation technique is a matter for future posts. Suffice it to say, I already feel like a better AF doctor.
For now, may I highlight a few of the more striking differences between Europe and the States, as noted by a Kentuckian on his first trip across the Atlantic? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
May 22nd, 2011 by Happy Hospitalist in Health Tips, News
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Here’s how we used to find a difficult vein. If a floor nurse could not get an IV in, they asked one of their colleagues to try. If their colleague could not find the impossible-to-locate vein, they contacted an ICU nurse. If the ICU nurse couldn’t get one, sometimes an ER nurse or a flight nurse would try. If they still couldn’t get an IV, then I would be paged to ask if they could get an order for an anesthesiologist to try. And if the anesthesiologist couldn’t figure out how to find a difficult vein, we got a PICC line with the PICC nurse or with the radiologist or I placed a central line if the patient could not wait for a PICC line.
That’s how we used to find a difficult IV.
How do we find one now? If you’re on the floor, you use one of these cheaper vein lights to find the difficult vein and place your IV. However, if you work in Happy’s ER, now you have a $6,000 Star Trek looking vein finder for those dehydrated nursing home patients and cracked out meth heads. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
May 15th, 2011 by Emergiblog in True Stories
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Right now, I have the perfect ER job. So, admitting that I can no longer physically handle working night shift or thinking that I have reached the end of my career in emergency nursing feels like failure.
But, I need to take care of myself, right?
So it’s time to be proactive and take the next step, right?
Time to take a breath, take stock of my skills, brush up that CV/resume and go forward! After all, I have 32 years of strong nursing experience behind me (including a stint as a shift charge nurse), that wonderful BSN I’m so proud of (and an MSN program pending), stunning communication skills (if I say so myself) and gosh darn it, anyone would be lucky to have me!
Yes?
Uh, no.
*****
I applied for jobs outside of acute care.
You know how new grads can’t find jobs because they all want experience, but they can’t get experience because they can’t get jobs? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*
May 12th, 2011 by DrWes in True Stories
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It was interesting lunchtime conversation. A lone doctor listening to some highly experienced and capable nurses, reflecting on their work:
“If the patient’s nice, it’s a lot easier to want to go back in that room with them. Their reputation travels at the nurses station. But if they’re mean, well, it’s not as easy to go back in there, so I might not stop by as often.”
“I agree, it’s easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar.”
Words to live by.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
May 11th, 2011 by PhilBaumannRN in Opinion
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My son has always loved books. They were among his first objects his eyes fascinated and focused on. He’s learning to read right now and his love of books remains as strong as it was in his infancy.
It’s clear that books – the traditional kind: made of paper and ink and labor – are being replaced by digital media. The Kindle and the iPad and other tablets are making it easier to acquire and consume material once only available on books.
For children today, the iPad is very intuitive. In fact, some parents have reported that their children have become so used to the iPad screen, that they “pinch” pages in books – expecting them to zoom-out.
Perhaps some parents believe we can let books go and just let our kids skip them in favor of digital media without any cost. They *may* be right. Or they may not.
As for me, books are still a critical foundation for civilization.
Neurons are amazing things: the more they’re used, the better they get (generally). So as a child grows, the more exposure they get to different kinds of learning and feeling and experiences, the healthier their brains grow. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Phil Baumann*
I have been in Hamburg, Germany for the past five days. I enjoyed an amazing opportunity to visit one of the world’s most respected heart rhythm labs. Among other things, the main purpose was to learn a new way to ablate atrial fibrillation.
