September 10th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Allied Healthcare Workers, Barrier To Patient Care, Compromising Patient Care, Doctor-Nurse Relationship, Doctor-Nurse Team, General Medicine, Influencing Patient Care, Medical Staff, Medicine Is A Team Sport, Nurse-Doctor Communication, Successful Patient Care, Team-Based Patient Care, Teamwork In Medicine
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Some patients struggle to communicate effectively with their doctors and some doctors and nurses find it difficult to communicate and collaborate with each other.
Historically, the dynamic symbiotic relationship between doctors and nurses has been a little shaky, evidenced by the lack of engagement and respect for one another.
Hospitals are chaotic and stressful. Working in such an environment can lead to frustration and it can take a toll on the staff. Instead of a good working relationship (which may never have been fostered to its full potential from the start), doctors and nurses become a fractured team. As a result, the fractured team will not effectively communicate and patient care may suffer devastating consequences. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
September 10th, 2010 by DavedeBronkart in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: E-Patients, e-Patients.net, ePatient Dave, General Medicine, Medical Error Reduction, Medical Mistakes, Open Discussion, Open School of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Paticipatory Medicine, Patient-Caregiver Partnership, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Patients Injured From Medical Errors, Prefection In Medical Practice
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The “Running A Hospital” blog has another discussion of dealing with medical error. This time, the hospital has opened up an error of its own (a “wrong side” surgery) for examination by the Open School of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
Sample comments:
— From IHI’s Jim Conway: “Our systems are too complex to expect merely extraordinary people to perform perfectly 100 percent of the time. We as leaders must put in place systems that support great practice by people who suffer from being human and will make mistakes.”
— From a patient who had two surgical errors in ten months: “After years of suffering through our incredibly brutal tort(ure) system I finally had the chance to talk to the surgeon. The most meaningful words he spoke were the descriptions of how badly he suffered also from the event we shared in that OR. Finally I was not alone!”
As we’ve often said, participatory medicine brings a new kind of partnership between patient and caregiver. Neither denial nor a Wall of Silence (famous book) has any place in a healthy relationship. It breaks my heart to think of the good lives that are ruined by our cultural inability to deal with honest errors in complex situations.
Yes, as Linda Kenney of MITSS mentions in a comment, some employees (in any industry) are reckless and must be weeded out. That too can be a denial issue. But first, we need open discussion.
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
September 10th, 2010 by DrRich in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: American College of Cardiology, Athlete's Health, Athletic Screening Program, Dr. Douglas Zipes, ECG, Echocardiography, Electrocardiogram, Exercise-Induced Sudden Death, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Premature Death, Preventable Death, Preventive Medicine, Routine Cardiac Screening, Sports Medicine, Sudden Cardiac Death, The New York Times, Young Athletes
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It’s the dog days of what seems to have been an unusually hot summer (though DrRich does not know whether it has been sufficiently warm to affect the global cooling trend we’ve been in for the past decade), and as is all too common at this time of year, we are seeing extraordinarily heartbreaking stories (like this one) about healthy, robust young athletes dying suddenly on the practice fields.
Most of these tragic sudden deaths are due to a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy often does not produce any symptoms prior to causing sudden death. But it can be easily diagnosed, before exercise-induced sudden death occurs, by screening young athletes with electocardiograms (ECGs) and echocardiography.
A couple of summers ago, the New York Times wrote about such an athletic screening program at the University of Tennessee. Based on the U of T’s results, “cardiologists and other heart experts say that the screenings could help save the lives of the 125 American athletes younger than 35 who die each year of sudden cardiac death.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Covert Rationing Blog*
September 10th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Death Of A Loved One, Dr. Rob Lamberts, Emotional Health, Grief, Grieving, How To Grieve, Musings of a Distractible Mind, Pain and Loss
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She looked down toward her feet at the end of her visit. “I’ve got one more question, doctor,” she said, hesitating. I turned toward her and waited for her, letting her ask on her own time. Clearly this was something difficult for her to ask.
“When will I get over the death of my husband? It’s been ten years, and I still wake up each morning thinking he’s there. I still come home wanting him to be there. Am I crazy?”
Her face showed the shame that was so clear in her words. I had been along with her during the death of her husband, and she handled that period with much grace and strength. Now the silence at home is deafening. People around her, on the other hand, are far too quick to tell her how to grieve. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
September 9th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Doctors' Pay, Family Medicine, Female Physicians, Gender Barrier In Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Nurse Practitioner, Physician Salaries, Primary Care, Women In Life Sciences, Women In Medical School
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It’s only a matter of time before female physicians outnumber men, say medical school heads who are seeing more women in their programs. Although women have broken the gender barrier in medicine, they may want to keep going into nursing, because nurse practitioner salaries grew faster than primary care physicians’ pay — nearly 5 percent compared to nearly 3 percent.
Physicians can take some comfort that their average pay is more — $191,000 compared to more than $85,000 — unless they’re women, who among all the life sciences average $13,000 less than their male counterparts in comparable positions and with similar experience. (WCSC TV, Fierce Practice Management, Academic Medicine)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*