Patient, Nurse, and Technology Advocate.
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Sally Okun, who is vice president of patient advocacy, policy and patient safety for PatientsLikeMe, was the very first nurse to speak at TEDMED. She used this opportunity at the 2013 event to focus on how nurses could, and should, play a bigger role in healthcare.
Those who want to study medicine will see the highest price for their degree with the average American medical school’s tuition coming in at nearly two hundred thousand dollars for all four years, not including fees or room and board. Medical schools in the Caribbean are typically much cheaper with some of them being under one hundred thousand dollars, which is one of the biggest reasons many medical students decide to study abroad. They’re also much more accepting of applicants, meaning that someone who was previously declined acceptance into an American medical school might still be able to get their degree in the Caribbean.
The demonstration of clinical competence is required by anyone in the medical field who is going to provide patient care. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers are required to be clinically competent before they can start taking care of patients.
So, it turns out all of these were right, but I have had a little helping hand with that last one. On the first day of my 4th year I received a shiny new iPhone 4s from my medical school, and using it as an ‘educational tool’ was the last thing on my mind. I had been part of the Blackberry club for some time, watching in envy as people talked to their phones and actually had it answer them back (believe me, I have now experienced hours of fun with Siri.)
We were encouraged to download an app called Dr Companion because my university had bought a licence to it along with some books we could download.
If you or someone you love has to deal with renewable prescriptions, you know how frustrating this seemingly simple procedure can be. You’ll find that the drugs simply aren’t available, or the doctor has not called the prescription in, or something else has happened where you cannot get the medicine that you require in a timely fashion. When you are sick and tired of waiting for your prescription, make sure that you consider these steps:
The results are in and the ‘”Most Wired” Hospitals for 2012 have been revealed.
Many of these facilities are using advancing technologies and innovations in healthcare records to meet the needs of their organizations and pay particular focus to maintaining patient’s privacy.
The poll consisted of 1,570 hospitals and was conducted by Hospitals & Health Networks.
It would seem that if you are performing surgery specifically to remove a brain tumor, and when you get inside there is no brain tumor, you’d stop, right?
You wouldn’t dig around for your own satisfaction. You already knew it wasn’t cancerous, so you don’t need to look for anything else.
He extra time in my head lead to the CSF leak which made for the most miserable 7 days of my life.
I had to have a lumbar drain inserted to relieve the pressure of the CSF. If I wanted to lift my head off the bed at all I had to call a nurse to clamp the drain or else my brain my squeeze through the holes in my skull. (And that lovely gem came straight from the mouth of one of my nurses to another nurse… that really comforted me. Let me tell ya)
This is a great opportunity for you creative nurses out there.
Fibers is having their 3rd Annual Nurses Week Humerus T-Shirt Design Contest.There are several others that exactly play nice with other professionals. No need to put others down to bring your own self up. So if you plan to submit a design, play nice. None of this “Nurses rule and doctors drool” is needed. So be professional and kind… and classy. There are so not so classy ones up as well. I’ll leave you to find those on your own.
Technology continually improves healthcare and our daily lives.
The video below is a fantastic example of technology saving lives by providing improved access to trauma surgeons in areas that don’t have them on staff. Trauma surgeon Rafael Grossmann MD(@ZGJR) reached out to me on twitter and shared with me the video. In it, he discusses iPod Teletrauma: the $229 130 million sq. ft. Trauma Room.
It’s clear that being and advocate automatically makes you a target, but does it make you un-hirable? Nurse K at Crass Pollination gives an interesting and valid perspective about the Amanda Trujillo case and advocacy. In her opinion, and likely many others, what Amanda has done by advocating for her patient, herself, and all nurses is tantamount to career suicide. She also discusses what happens when nurses within an organization speak up and the measures administration often go through to oil the squeaky wheel.
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