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Are you feeling stressed all the time? You may have Complex PTSD
Victoria Fann Mental HealthcareMost of us have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is associated with a traumatic event that often gets triggered by some experience that brings up the intense emotions associated with that trauma. Symptoms include agitation, anxiety, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, and obsessive thinking. But what if there is ongoing or chronic stress? It may be what is called Complex PTSD. Complex PTSD typically arises when the trauma has happened over a significant period of time.
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When clinicians become politicians
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareIt’s often been said that if you don’t have a seat at the table, you'll end up on the menu, and this could not be more accurate when speaking of nurses, doctors, and other clinicians vis-á-vis local, state, or federal government. So, what happens when healthcare workers run for public office, and who benefits in the end?
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New ways to communicate better with your critical care team
Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare AdministrationAs a healthcare administrator, you value the incredible skill and work ethic of your critical care physicians and nurses — but do they know that? A study from the American College of Chest Physicians found that up to 71% of critical care doctors and 86% of critical care nurses experience some form of work-related burnout. When a healthcare organization communicates appreciation for the physical and emotional health of their best and brightest through concrete and helpful strategies, it can make a huge difference in terms of bringing those numbers down.
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Common myths about employee handbooks
Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementEmployers are not required to have a handbook. That is true. State and federal regulations do, however, require employers to provide a variety of information to their employees. The easiest way to do this is often via some sort of handbook. Yet, for those organizations without a handbook, it can be easy to find excuses not to create one. Here are a few myths about handbooks and the corresponding reasons why it is a good idea for every employer to have one.
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A group of modern-day Nightingales strive to improve healthcare with SONSIEL
Amanda Ghosh Medical & Allied HealthcareRebecca Love, a nurse entrepreneur and TEDx speaker, reminded us by mentioning of the work of Florence Nightingale that it was nurses who transformed the "dark ages" of medicine, and nurses who will likely do so again. Love is the first nurse to be featured on the main TED.com platform, and her argument was noteworthy. Nurses who feel called to improve healthcare with transformational ideas will be interested in the organization that she, along with other notable "rockstars" — as she calls them — have founded: SONSIEL.
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Nutritional screening for wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Tiffany Hamm and Jeff Mize Medical & Allied HealthcareOne of the keys to a successful patient outcome is assessing nutritional status. If the patient is malnourished, there is insufficient nutritional substrate from which to build new tissue to heal a wound. One out of three patients treated at hyperbaric services can be at risk of malnutrition. The definition of a nutritional assessment in the National Coverage Determination NCD 20.29 for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is vague. Although an assessment of nutritional status should be routinely performed on all patients seen in the outpatient wound clinic, the protocol is not well-defined. Many times, the patient’s nutritional evaluation and management is directed back to the primary care or referring physician.
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Infographic: Why employee satisfaction drives company performance
Raunak Pandey Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementStatistics show that employees’ happiness is greatly dependent upon their levels of engagement and contentment in the workplace. Friendly interaction and teamwork are signs of a positive workplace with minimal absenteeism, which ultimately results in a thriving organization. On the other hand, a negative workplace shows signs of little or no communication between people, lack of passion, and high levels of absenteeism. To improve workplace morale, a company should go the extra mile towards increasing employees’ satisfaction.
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Researchers develop turmeric drug delivery system to inhibit cancer cell…
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareThe American Cancer Society estimates 3,500 new cases of bone and joint cancer in 2019 and expects 1,660 deaths. Clinical trials for bone cancers are ongoing, with some looking into ways to combine surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, and drugs known as targeted therapy to treat these cancers. A Washington State University research team has recently developed a drug delivery system using curcumin, the main ingredient in the spice turmeric that inhibits bone cancer cells and promotes growth of healthy bone cells.
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How staff debriefing can improve patient outcomes
Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare AdministrationAs a healthcare administrator, you know the importance of psychological debriefing for your doctors and nurses after an adverse event. Still, are you making sure staff debriefing is being used as expansively and effectively as it can be? Research shows that targeted debriefing can improve many diverse aspects of your staff's efficiency. As a result, your patients do better. Employ these science-driven strategies to help meet your most important objectives.
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Aging: What you don’t know can hurt you
Patrick Gleeson Civil & GovernmentI don't recall legislation outlawing the discussion of aging, do you? Yet, it’s a topic often avoided in the public sphere, almost as if talking about it were illegal. Yet, despite the uniform silence on the subject in the current presidential campaigns, there's little doubt that there are so many urgent issues related to aging as to constitute a national crisis. How so? First consider this: by 2020, more than 20% of the population in every industrialized society will be over 65 and in each following year the percentage will rise. In contrast, the percentage of persons under 20 remains nearly flat and will remain so for years to come. There are many implications related to these two statistics, none of them good.
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