May 15th, 2011 by KerriSparling in True Stories
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September will mark 25 years for me with type 1 diabetes, but I still haven’t learned that an afternoon of lazy 200+ mg/dl’s that won’t budge, even after multiple boluses (and one really solid rage bolus where I actually grunted “You. Frigging. Diabetes.” as my fingers mashed the buttons), after repeated tests that showed climbing numbers … wouldn’t you think I’d inspect that infusion set? Maybe just give it a peek? See how things are doing there, on the back of my hip, where that 6 mm cannula is resting (hopefully) comfortably?
Oh, you mean I shouldn’t have waited until I smelled that distinct scent? The one that smells like a cross between bandaids and the dentist’s office? And then, when I dabbed at the gauze patch around my site and felt the dampness, I still didn’t really hone in on it because I was so high that everything was on like a 20 minute delay? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
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 14th, 2011 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in News, Opinion
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Recently, the Wall Street Journal did a great piece on how mobile technology is being used in medicine. They looked at the major avenues of use — from the hospital to personal to emergency care settings.
They gave an example of how a cardiologist has stopped carrying a stethoscope, and now just uses mobile ultrasound, a modality we have highlighted numerous times in the past.
Dr. Topol, a cardiologist in San Diego, carries with him instead a portable ultrasound device roughly the size of a cellphone. When he puts it to a patient’s chest, the device allows him to peer directly into the heart. The patient looks, too; together, they check out the muscle, the valves, the rhythm, the blood flow.
“Why would I listen to ‘lub dub’ when I can see everything?” Dr. Topol says. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
May 14th, 2011 by Mary Knudson in Opinion
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I’ve been working for a couple of months on an in-depth article on personal defibrillators that are implanted beneath the skin of a person’s chest to shock a heart that starts shaking, thereby restoring its normal beating and preventing sudden death. Discussing these defibrillators is extremely complex, which is why I am spending so much time on researching and writing the article intended to help patients and their families make an informed decision by learning the truth about the devices known as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) — the good and the bad, your life saved vs nothing happening or the accompanying risks and harm you may receive. So when I heard that a new study would be presented at the annual scientific meeting this week of the Heart Rhythm Society, a professional organization of cardiologists and electrophysiologists who use cardiac devices in their patients, I made sure to get an advance copy of what would be presented and interview the lead author.
Potentially such a study would be of interest to physicians and to patients considering getting an ICD because it looked at all shocks the defibrillators gave the heart in patients who took part in the clinical trial, including those sent for life-threatening rhythms and in error. For several reasons, I felt the study is not ready to report to the public. It is only an abstract. The full study has not yet been written, let alone published in a peer-reviewed journal or even accepted for publication. Patients with defibrillators who received shocks were matched to only one other patient who was not shocked, but the two patients were not matched for what other illnesses or poor quality of health they had. Yet they were matched to see who lived the longest and the study looked at death for all causes, not just heart-related. One critical question the study sought to answer was this: Do the shocks themselves cause a shortened life (even if they temporarily save it) or is a shortened life the result of the types of heart rhythms a person experiences? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HeartSense*
May 14th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in News
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A recent audit of nine NYC’s Health and Hospitals Corporation found City Comptroller Liu described as dangerous delays in women’s health care. It takes too long for women to get screening and diagnostic mammograms.
The 2009 audit found women at Elmhurst Hospital had the longest waits – 50 working days (that would be 10 weeks, i.e. 2.5 months) for diagnostic mammograms, on average. You can find more details here.
According to the Times’ coverage:
Ana Marengo, a spokeswoman for the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the public health system, said that the comptroller’s data was outdated…
At Elmhurst, she said, the wait as of December 2010 was 20 days for screening and 23 days for a general diagnostic test, as opposed to an urgent one. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
