Mechai Viravaidya has been fighting poverty and disease in Southeast Asia through innovative promotions of safe sex practices. In this TED talk, he gives an amusing overview of how Thailand went from seven children per family to 1.5 in less than four decades and a 90 percent reduction in HIV infection rates from 1991 to 2003.
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
Nurses and doctors depend on coffee to perform their jobs the most of any profession, reports a survey.
Nurses ranked first and doctors second when asked if they needed coffee to get through their day. The rest of the coffee-fueled careers were a mixed bag of white collar and blue collar positions. Among other findings:
— 48 percent of those in the Northeast said they were less productive without coffee, compared to 34 percent of Midwesterners.
— 40 percent of those aged 18 to 24 said they can’t concentrate as well without coffee.
— 37 percent said they drink two or more cups a day.
NOTE: The study was funded by CareerBuilder and Dunkin’ Donuts.
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
The Kaiser Family Foundation has produced an informative and entertaining short animated movie that explains the problems with the current health care system, the changes that are happening now, and the big changes coming in 2014.
Narrated by newscaster Cokie Roberts (a member of Kaiser’s Board of Trustees), the nine-minute animation explains plainly how health care hadn’t worked in the past, addresses the controversies surrounding its passage, and outlines what will happen in the near future and in 2014.
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
Finally, the answer to the obesity epidemic. [According to the LA Times], it’s a virus:
New evidence indicates that children who are exposed to a virus called adenovirus-36 are more likely to be obese than those who are not exposed to it, and to be heavier than other obese kids who were not exposed to it, researchers said this week. The virus…is one of 10 bacteria and viruses that have been associated with a propensity for putting on plural poundage.
Maybe this explains why I and two of my sisters all became fat in the same year. Well, that — combined with the fact that we had just moved to a new neighborhood where there were no kids we knew to play outside with, and we started taking a bus to school instead of walking, and “Dark Shadows” had just started, leading us to spend every afternoon after school snacking in front of the TV. But I like to think it was a virus.
*This blog post was originally published at tbtam*
So who hasn’t heard about The Policeman vs. Nurse? A nurse was pulled over for speeding, told the policeman that she hoped he would never end up as her patient, and was subsequently fired when the policeman complained to the hospital she worked at.
Really? I have the utmost respect for the police of course, but put on some big boy undies and get over it. Should the nurse have made that comment? No. Not in front of him, at least. That was pretty dumb. But being fired for saying it is ridiculous in my opinion. Does that cop go complain to the pimp when the hooker he’s arresting makes a sassy comment? Nurse and Lawyer had a pretty good discussion about the whole situation.
Next up: Rapid Response Teams Sign of Poor Bed Management. Really? I think GruntDoc summed it up best in his tweet about it. The article states that rapid response teams (RRTs) are utilized due to overcrowding because sometimes patients aren’t placed in a unit that is appropriate for their needs. Therefore, their condition worsens and they need help. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
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