August 12th, 2011 by Emergiblog in Opinion
Tags: Bodily Fluids, Documentation, Emergency Room, ER, Nursing, Nursing School, Nursing Science, Patient Interaction, Registered Nurse, Regulations, RN, Sore
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You want to be a registered nurse?
Let’s cut through the B.S. and get real about it.
Put a hold on all this soft-focus “I live to care!” or “It gives my life meaning…”
Here’s the reality.
***
You will study your butt off.
Nursing science is based on biology, chemistry, microbiology, anatomy, physiology, psychology, sociology and philosophy. Yeah, every single one of them. You will incorporate those into every decision you make in your practice. It’s called critical thinking. You master it and become a professional, or you don’t and you become a robotic technician.
Bottom line.
Your choice.
Oh, and the studying doesn’t stop after you graduate. Nursing school is just the warm-up.
***
The work is physically exhausting and emotionally demanding. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*
August 11th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: ACGME, College of Graduate Medical Education, Continuous Work, Doctors, Emergency Medicine, Family, Fatigue, Hours, Medical Education, Medical Mistakes, Overtime, Parenting, Physicians, Public Health, Residency, Residents, Rest, Restricted Work Hours, Tired, Work
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The American College of Graduate Medical Education has enacted further restrictions on resident work hours. No more than 80 hours per week of work for resident physicians, averaged over one month. And no more than 16 hours of continuous work for first year residents (24 after that), which includes patient care, academic lectures, etc.
Whenever they do this sort of thing, everyone seems excited that it will make everyone safer. After all, residents won’t be working as much, so they’ll be more rested and make much better decisions. It’s all ‘win-win,’ as physicians in training and patients alike are safer.
I guess. The problem of course is that after training, work hours aren’t restricted. There is no set limit on the amount of work a physician can be expected to do, especially in small solo practices, or practices in busy community hospitals.
I understand the imperative to let them rest. I understand that fatigue leads to mistakes. I get it! But does the ACGME get it? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
August 11th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: Better Medical Care, C3N, Chronic Collaborative Care Network, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Collaborative Network, Crohn's Disease, Doctor-Patient Visits, Dr. Richard Colletti, Gastroenterology, Improved Care Now, Inc., Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Michael Seid, Patient Involvement, Pediatrics, Peter Margolis, Population Management, Pre-Visit Planning, Registry, Team Performance, Texas Children's Hospital, Ulcerative Colitis, University of Vermont
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I never thought I’d change the way I practice medicine. But I recently enrolled as a provider in the Improved Care Now (ICN) collaborative network and I’m already working differently.
ICN is an alliance of gastroenterologists and patients working in a new model of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease care based on the analysis of thousands of doctor–patient visits as well as the latest studies and treatments. Doctors and patients apply this information, experiences are tracked in an open registry, the results are then shared and refined to improve care. I can see what I’m doing well and where I’m falling short relative to other clinics and pediatric gastroenterologists.
ICN is under the direction of Dr. Richard Colletti of the University of Vermont. ICN is supported by the Chronic Collaborative Care Network (C3N), the brainchild of Cincinnati Children’s qualitymeisters, Peter Margolis and Michael Seid. I flew to Cincinnati earlier this week to catch up on C3N and what appears to be a first step into medicine’s future. More on the specifics later. But suffice it to say that I’m stoked about where this is all headed.
A couple of thoughts after enrolling my first few patients: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
August 11th, 2011 by IsisTheScientist in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Barbituates, Death Penalty, Drug Manufacturers, Epilepsy Treatment, Hospira, Jail, Lethal Injection, Lundbeck, Nembutal, Paralytic, Potassium Chloride, Press Release, Prison, Sodium Pentothal, Treatment Centers
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A friend sent me a press release a few days ago and I still find myself thinking about it. Here in the United States capital punishment is still legal in many states and is performed, frequently, by lethal injection. Prisoners sentenced to death have an IV placed in their arm which is then infused with the following three solutions:
- A barbiturate like Sodium Pentothal or Nembutal, used to induce anesthesia
- A paralytic like pancuronium bromide or succinylcholine chloride, used to stop respiration
- Potassium chloride used to stop electrical conduction in the heart
I remember a few years ago drug manufacturer Hospira, the producer of Sodium Pentothal, issued a statement that it disapproved of its drug being used in capital punishment. But, that was as far as their opposition went and, although Sodium Pentothal is in short supply, they have not to my knowledge formally discontinued supplying Sodium Pentothal to doctors who might use the drug in lethal injection. In 2010, the supply of Sodium Pentothal became limited and several states made the switch to Nembutal.
In response, Lundbeck, the producer of Nembutal, has issued a statement saying that they will no longer provide Nembutal to prisons in states where lethal injection is legal. In this press release Lundbeck announces its new distribution system, saying: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess*
August 11th, 2011 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Announcements, Opinion
Tags: Annual Course, Gary Schwitzer, Health Journalism, Health Media, Medicine in the Media, National Institutes of Health, NIH, Office of Medical Applications of Research, OMAR, Press Release
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The NIH is doing it’s best to get science writers on the right track when it comes to responsible health reporting by holding an annual course on Medicine in the Media.
The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR) presents a free annual training opportunity to help develop journalists’ and editors’ ability to evaluate and report on medical research. The course curriculum builds on the best of prior years’ offerings to create an intensive learning experience with hands-on application.
When I read about the course on Gary Schwitzer’s tweet stream, I got really excited and started scouring the NIH course site to listen to some of the fabulous speakers in the 2011 course, which just finished in July. I was disappointed to discover Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog That Ate Manhattan*
