May 4th, 2009 by Emergiblog in Better Health Network
2 Comments »
That’s Edie Falco.
You remember. She played Carmella Soprano.
Great actress; I love her.
Too bad I won’t be watching her new character on Showtime.
*****
“Nurse Jackie” is a new series.
I received an email from Showtime asking me if I would curate a selection of nursing experiences for an upcoming “Nurse Stories” web site that would coincide with the debut of Nurse Week and “Nurse Jackie”.
Whoa.
I don’t get email from Showtime every day, so this sounded pretty interesting.
I went to the website to check out the show before responding.
I made it through one video.
*****
Nurse Jackie is a competent, hard-as-nails, take-no-prisoners ER nurse.
With a heart, of course.
One minute she’s telling a doctor he’s full of it, the next minute she tells a patient to get out of her ER (classic!).
Edie Falco is perfect as the title character.
You’ve all worked with her.
Hell, you might even be her!
*****
My first reaction?
Oh..my..god, they did it!
They made a show with a strong nurse protagonist, and damn! if they didn’t get the ER environment down!
I had goosebumps, literally.
I was ready to (a) start getting Showtime, (b) spread the word far and wide and (c) take the job.
But then…
*****
They started grabbing her chest.
I think in a the short video I watched (five minutes?) Nurse Jackie had her breasts fondled by three men.
Oh great.
My first thought?
Here we go again with the nurse-as-sex-object stereotype.
(Actually, my first thought is that I must be working in the wrong hospitals.)
But it got worse.
*****
Nurse Jackie is a drug addict.
Has back pain.
Snorts crushed up Percocets.
Oh no they didn’t………
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Oh yes.
They did.
Now, would somebody please tell me why, why? they had to portray this nurse as a drug addict?
Did they not see that they had the potential for one hell of a nurse character here?
Did they not see that they could break the mold of media stereotypes in nursing and pave new ground?
Did they not see that there is enough material to build a nurse character out of what happens in the ER alone without adding the oh-so-subtle touch of drug addiction?
*****
If you’re an nurse who spends a lot of time with other people fondling you, you might like this show.
If you’re an RN and addicted to drugs, you might like this show.
In fact, why don’t you go check out the website for yourself.
Watch the video, get a feel for the character.
Tell me what you think.
Tell Showtime what you think.
And if you are really pissed, write to The Truth About Nursing.
I already did.
*****
As for me?
I (a) am not subscribing to Showtime, (b) will not promote the show to anyone outside this blog post and (c) did not take the job.
I am so sick, and so tired, of stupid media portrayals of nurses.
Didn’t watch “ER”. No “Grey’s Anatomy”. Won’t watch “House”.
Here goes trying to explain to my patients, again, that “no, I don’t watch that show because of the portrayal of nursing.”
*****
You blew it, Showtime.
Of course, it’s not too late to rectify the issues, the show has not debuted yet.
But know this:
No matter how funny, how dramatic or how well written “Nurse Jackie” is, you are doing nothing to advance or promote the nursing profession. But then I guess the goal is ratings and nothing defines a “hit” like sex and drugs.
*****
“Nurse Jackie” is described as “Saint! Sinner!”.
Saint.
Sinner.
Sound familiar?
Yeah.
Sigh.
May 3rd, 2009 by admin in Better Health Network
2 Comments »
I have said it before and I will say it again. Diet pills do not work and can be dangerous. For proof of the dangerous part, check out the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notice of the recall of Hydroxycut.
In all, there are 14 products that have been recalled including:
- Hydroxycut Regular Rapid Release Caplets
- Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Rapid Release Caplets
- Hydroxycut Hardcore Liquid Caplets
- Hydroxycut Max Liquid Caplets
- Hydroxycut Regular Drink Packets
- Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Drink Packets
- Hydroxycut Hardcore Drink Packets (Ignition Stix)
- Hydroxycut Max Drink Packets
- Hydroxycut Liquid Shots
- Hydroxycut Hardcore RTDs (Ready-to-Drink)
- Hydroxycut Max Aqua Shed
- Hydroxycut 24
- Hydroxycut Carb Control
- Hydroxycut Natural
Why the recall?
The FDA says there have been 23 reports of liver damage, elevated liver enzymes, or liver damage requiring transplant. Other reported problems include seizures, muscle damage, and cardiovascular problems. One death of a 19 year old man is also thought to be associated with using Hydroxycut.
If you are using Hydroxycut currently, throw it away or return them to where you purchased them. There are numerous ingredients in the 14 different products recalled and right now it is not clear which ingredients are thought to be the most dangerous and cause problems.
Diet and exercise
I know you are tired of hearing it, but I am not tired of saying it. 🙂
Reducing calories and increasing calorie burn by moving more are the best way to lose weight. Many dietary supplements on the market are safe. But some can have dangerous consequences. use caution and when in doubt, don’t use something you think may be dangerous.
*This post, Hydroxycut Recall, was originally published on Healthline.com by Tara Gidus, MS, RD.*
May 3rd, 2009 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, True Stories
2 Comments »
My younger brother is an executive producer of the show “Nip/Tuck” and an executive producer of soon-to-air Fox show “Glee.“ Last year, he almost died.
It started when he woke up one day with numbness on one side of his body.
His doctor ordered an MRI. It found bad news: a tumor in his spinal cord, high up in his neck. He was referred to a neurosurgeon.
The plan was straightforward, but dangerous. First, radiation. Then, his spinal cord would be carefully cut open to remove the tumor. He was told he could end up paralyzed, or dead. Concerned, he called me, and we started a case at Best Doctors.
One of our nurses took a history, and we collected his records. Two internists spent hours reviewing them. The records noted our family history of a kind of malformed blood vessel. Our grandfather had hundreds of them in his brain when he died at 101, and our father has dozens of them in his. I have one in my brain, too. This was in my brother’s charts, but none of his doctors had mentioned it.
An expert in these malformations told us a special imaging study should be done to rule this out as a cause of the problem. Best Doctors gave that advice to my brother and his doctors. They agreed.
The test showed this was precisely what he had.
Quickly, the plan changed. He still needed surgery — if the malformation bled, it could also paralyze or kill him. But there would be no radiation, which might have caused the very bleeding we feared. Even if that didn’t happen, the surgeons were prepared to operate on a tumor. They would have been surprised to find a delicate malformation there instead.
In the end, his surgery went well. He is having a good recovery and is busy with his new show. But his case is a constant reminder of how important it is to have the right diagnosis, and how easy it is for things to go wrong.
Even in Hollywood.
May 3rd, 2009 by KevinMD in Better Health Network
2 Comments »
Bolstered by the stimulus, there’s no doubt that there’s a significant push for doctors and hospitals to adopt digital medical records.
I’ve written before how we’re essentially throwing money at Windows 95 technology, but now, as an article from BusinessWeek points out, there’s a real danger in moving too fast.
Somewhat under-publicized were the incompatibilities with older systems in the Geisinger Health System, which after spending $35 million on software, noticed a spike medication errors that required another $2 million to fix.
Or what happened at the University of Pennsylvania, which found medication errors stemming from software designed to prevent mistakes.
Worse, there is no national database tracking the errors that are caused from electronic medical records. Because most of the programs are not open-source, confidentiality agreements meant to protect proprietary technology also serve to hide mistakes.
Ideally, these issues need to be resolved before throwing more money into bad technology. But, because of the intuitive notion that technology automatically improves health care, no one seems to be advocating a more cautious route which may, in actuality, better serve patients.
***
Better Health Editor’s Note: Please read this post for more in-depth coverage of how difficult it is to transfer health records electronically.
May 2nd, 2009 by Jon LaPook, M.D. in Better Health Network, Video
2 Comments »
Yesterday I visited the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and was taken inside the command center, where almost 100 staffers have been working around the clock to monitor and stem the current outbreak of flu.
I first spoke to Toby Crafton, the manager of the command center, who oversees the day-to-day operations. He and his team have been preparing for a possible pandemic of flu or another infectious illness for years. I also spoke to Michael Shaw, PhD, who heads up the virology labs that are studying the H1N1 virus causing the current outbreak. He’s spent a career learning the laboratory techniques that are so urgently needed right now. The third person I spoke to was Dr. Richard Besser, Acting Director of the CDC, who has been working at the agency for 13 years and is an extensively published expert in infectious diseases.
I mentioned that last week I had received an email notification from the New York City Department of Health (NYCDOH) about how I should be managing my patients with flu-like symptoms. The advice was actually not intuitively obvious to me. For example, the Department of Health said that for patients with mild illness, treatment with anti-viral meds like Tamiflu and Relenza was only recommended for patients who also had underlying conditions that increased their risk for complications due to influenza. Dr. Besser pointed out that it was especially important right now for physicians to stay up to date with the recommendations being made by public health officials. Doctors can contact their local department of health and sign up for the same type of email notification that I received.
This brings us to the main point of today’s blog post. Many of us – patients and physicians alike – have been thinking about the influenza virus for about a week. Public health officials like the teams at the CDC and the NYCDOH have been thinking about it for years. Physicians, me included, are used to practicing medicine based on “clinical judgment.” We understand that medicine is an art and not a science, that there are many different ways to approach a problem, that there’s often no clear “right” or “wrong.” We are also used to doing things “our way”, whatever that way is. But this is not a time for doing things “our way” if it’s at significant odds with strong recommendations being made by public health officials. There are recommendations that may seem logical – like prescribing medication for somebody with mild flu symptoms “just in case” that nevertheless go against the judgment of people who have trained for years to think about how to deal with an epidemic.
What if you’re a physician who strongly disagrees with a suggestion of public officials? Then challenge that recommendation publicly. Bring the discussion to light; maybe you’re right. While this is no time to go rogue, doctors have an obligation to think carefully and independently and to challenge recommendations that seem illogical. But don’t silently do things your own way.
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