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Does Having An Advanced Degree Make A Better Nurse?

Here is Clara Barton, posing with a new class of graduate nurses who received their nursing education through a correspondence course offered by the Chautauqua School of Nursing. Did you know that some of Clara Barton’s contemporaries did not view her as a legitimate nursing leader because she supported alternative ways of getting a nursing education? It’s kind of ironic that many nursing leaders back then didn’t view the founder of the American Red Cross as an equal. Some things never change.

It’s an old discussion. Are nurses with an advanced degree better nurses? Do they make better leaders and does getting a degree elevate the profession? My blog mother, Kim McAllister, from Emergiblog brought my attention to an article that appears at HealthLeadersMedia.com. The article contains Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*

Many Women Remain Unaware Of A Non-Surgical Treatment For Uterine Fibroids

[image:  iStockphoto]

Ladies imagine planning your daily events based around the timing of you menstrual cycle.

Some women suffering from uterine fibroids have a menstrual flow so heavy that it can impede their life.

“Everything must be planned around their menstrual, and it can be very draining physically (from the anemia of blood loss), as well as, mentally from the resulting stress this creates,” says Dr. John Lipman, Director of Interventional Radiology & Center For Image-Guided Medicine, Emory-Adventist Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.  “This can imprison women such that their entire life is tied to the menstrual cycle. They may not work or even be able to leave the house for several days each month. Even if they can work, the frequent interruptions throughout the day often makes this time very unproductive,” he adds.

“Uterine fibroids are the most common non-cancerous tumors in women of childbearing age. Fibroids are made of muscle cells and other tissues that grow in and around the wall of the uterus, or womb. The cause of fibroids is unknown. Risk factors include being African-American or being overweight.”

According to The National Women’s Health Information Center – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, about 20 percent to 80 percent of women develop fibroids by the time they reach age 50.

Dr. Lipman writes: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*

Better Health Covers HIMSS, Day 3

Nick Genes and Mike Sevilla and I had a fascinating series of interviews with key exhibitors at HIMSS yesterday. I hope you enjoyed them on UStream. We will edit them a bit and offer them up on the blog soon. Please join us from 8am-6pm today for more HIMSS coverage. Here is our interview schedule (all meetings will be held in the Better Health conference room, located behind the Information Desk in the lobby of Building B (near HIMSS Central):

himssagendaday3

Better Health Covers HIMSS 2010: Day 2

Our first day of social media coverage at HIMSS was a lot of fun. We had hundreds of people join in our UStream interviews and I spoke at the “Meet The Bloggers” panel with some very cool peers. Today we’ll be conducting more interviews at the Better Health media center, located in the lobby of Building B, just behind the information desk. I hope you’ll join us for live coverage. Simply follow along by clicking here. Here’s who Dr. Mike Sevilla, Dr. Nick Genes, and I will be interviewing:

himssagendaday2

Dr. Val Gives ABC News A Sneak Preview Of The Largest Health IT Convention Of The Year: HIMSS In Atlanta

This year, the Better Health team will be offering live coverage of healthcare’s largest tech conference: HIMSS in Atlanta, March 1-4. Three medical bloggers, Dr. Val Jones, Dr. Mike Sevilla, and Dr. Nick Genes will interview over 40 different exhibitors and stream their interviews live via UStream. You can ask questions of the interviewees by submitting questions to @drval during the event. Dr. Val Jones will report to ABC News, DC via Skype from the convention floor on Wednesday, March 3rd at 10:50am. Here’s a sneak preview of HIMSS:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v96kje6mCRU

Stay tuned to the Better Health blog for more information about HIMSS coverage… Or meet Dr. Val at HIMSS during her “Meet The Bloggers” panel discussion. Read more »

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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