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Nurses’ personal growth: A parallel focus
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareBecoming a nurse is a meaningful act with far-reaching impact. Nurses are the connective tissue of healthcare, and a nursing career can take an earnest individual down many roads, from the ICU and home health to academia, research, and entrepreneurship. If a nurse maintains an open mind and an eye for opportunity, the world is truly that nurse’s oyster. Meanwhile, the stoking of the fire of personal growth is essential to ultimate satisfaction and work-life balance.
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Use these strategies to improve communication with your patients
Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare AdministrationEven the most experienced physicians may find that relating to their patients constructively and positively can be a challenge. Maybe you're a doctor whose greatest strengths are academic, so you feel uncomfortable making small talk; maybe patients have told you that they have a hard time clearly understanding how you give diagnostic and treatment information. No worries: it's surprisingly easy to rethink the way you communicate with your patients, improve your clarity and strengthen your interpersonal skill set.
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New study: AFib and noise may be linked
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareAtrial fibrillation (AFib) is the most common type of heart arrhythmia. About 2.7 to 6.1 million people in the United States have AFib, and with the aging population, this number is expected to increase. AFib can occur because the heart's electrical system has been damaged, typically from other conditions that affect the heart, such as hypertension and coronary heart disease. Interestingly, in a recent study, scientists discovered that noise may throw the heart out of rhythm.
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Nurse coaches are essential to healing the healthcare industry
Nicole Vienneau Healthcare AdministrationI love being a nurse — it is my calling. I feel passion, connection, joy and dedication towards my craft, my colleagues, and myself, but, mostly towards my patients. This was not always so. I was once a burned-out critical care nurse disillusioned and frustrated with my job. My patients became sicker and sicker, as the healthcare system became more convoluted and technology-driven. But I felt stuck. What else would I do? Did I tell you that I love being a nurse?
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Help your residents cope better with long shifts
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareNight float, overnight calls and 28-hour days have become the norm for today's medical residents — they're a necessary evil in terms of the immersive learning young doctors need. Yet the residents you supervise are human, and the easier they can get through a tough shift, the better their results, their productivity, and the safety of your patients will be. Employ these research-proven tips to help your residents stay on their toes for the long haul.
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Stigmatizing language in medical records might affect a patient’s…
Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied HealthcareClinicians who use stigmatizing language in their patients’ medical records might be affecting the future care those patients receive, according to a new study. Healthcare disparities can prevent patients from getting the diagnostic and treatment services they need. Clinician bias plays a role in these healthcare disparities. When practitioners review notes and descriptions entered on previous visits, the language used in those notes might play a role in the treatment of that patient. Stigmatizing language may even affect how aggressively doctors manage that patient’s pain on subsequent encounters.
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Do oncologists have enough knowledge to prescribe medical marijuana?
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareAlthough 30 states and the District of Columbia now allow marijuana use for medical purposes, physicians are expected to guide patients through areas where most have little or no training. A recent study revealed that although most oncologists do not feel informed enough about medical marijuana’s use to make clinical recommendations, at least half still recommend the drug to their patients.
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What are copay accumulator programs?
Jason Poquette PharmaceuticalRetail pharmacists and specialty pharmacists working in the trenches may have heard whispers about something called "copay accumulator programs." But with long lines at the register, phones ringing off the hook, 30 more flu shots to give and a jammed printer…I can understand why you haven’t had time to read up on them. I’m a front-line pharmacist myself, and I understand your dilemma. Let me take a moment to explain this issue.
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How to retain the indefatigable nurse
Keith Carlson Healthcare AdministrationWhen we use the word "indefatigable" in conjunction with the word "nurse," it is an almost perfect pairing of noun and adjective. Indefatigable can be defined as industrious, tireless or unflagging, and that is a powerfully accurate description of the majority of hard-working nurses who serve as the very mitochondria of healthcare. If healthcare employers want these nurse mitochondria to be their most effective, they need to double down on their nurses and put some skin in the game when it comes to retention.
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Shootings propel new look at an old objective: Preparing youth for the…
Bill Becken EducationThe decades-long rise of gun-related violence in U.S. schools reached a zenith of sorts with the shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida. Seemingly, they have also led to a new interest in educating students about death as a part of life. And why shouldn’t death be proactively prepared for? After all, it comes for everyone, including for one’s friends and loved ones; for great leaders and scholars; for everyone and anyone, all of the time.
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