WARNING: the following post is pretty dark. It contains a link to a video of several people being shot in Iraq.
I nearly didn’t post it, but it really bothered me at the time…. and this is what I wrote about it.
I am open to listen to your own opinions if you wish to follow on.
OK, here is the challenge.
Using the letters NURSE as an acronym, explain what it is to be one, or what it is to be looked after by one.
For example:
Never Underestimate the Radius of Spraying Emesis.
or perhaps,
Nothing Uvulates like Really Smelly Excrement
or how about,
Not Unother Really Stupid Excuse.
or one for the male nurses,
Nackered, but Ultimately Requesting Sex Everynight.
Anyhow, you get the idea. I’m sure you can do better than me.
100 points for the best entry.
Bonus 200 points for the best acronym for DOCTOR.
Everyone needs to vent after a bad shift……..
So how is access block and overcrowding impacting on your emergency department?
With hospital bed shortages leading to overcrowding of our emergency departments, waiting times are ballooning, and even the really sick patients are having to queue for inordinately long periods.
Doctors and nurses who work within these emergency departments have been highlighting the resulting dangers for some time now.
But they are not the only ones becoming increasingly frustrated with this struggling system.
Many patients who are referred to the ED by general practitioners (GP’s) have an expectation that they will be fast-tracked into the hospital system. And unfortunately there are a small number of GP’s who reassure their patients that they will be seen as soon as they arrive.
Recently we have had a few instances where patients have told us that their GP’s suggested they lie about their presenting symptoms in order to be seen first.
One doctor allegedly told his patient to tell the triage nurse she had chest pain and back pain, when in fact she had an acute exacerbation of chronic back pain.
Another patient with a mental health issue alleged that a doctor had told her to “play up” in the waiting room so she would be seen faster.
And it is not unknown for the triage nurse to get a letter from a GP advising that this patient must be seen urgently. Usually written in capitals. In red ink.
Most ED waiting rooms ( and corridors) are peppered with patients that must all be seen urgently, and with beds at a premium it falls upon the Triage nurses to sort the whole mess out. Coaching patients to describe or embroider high risk symptoms will only hamper their ability to make valid and safe decisions.
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I have already discussed the potential problems that may arise when sitting still for long periods of time in meditation.
And if that isn’t enough to distract you from your meditation practice, previous research studies have also found that the burning of incense can produce potentially cancer-causing substances, including benzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
Now, a large study published in the journal Cancer has followed the incense usage of 61,320 Singapore Chinese men and women between the ages of 45 and 74.
All these people were cancer free at the outset of the study. During the next 12 years 325 men and women developed cancer of the upper respiratory tract, such as nasal, oral or throat cancer. Another 821 developed lung cancer. Smokers and non-smokers were affected alike.
The study found a statistically significant higher risk of cancers of the upper respiratory tract amongst this group of incense users.
The study leader Dr Jeppe T Friborg of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen commented that “This association is consistent with a large number of studies identifying carcinogens in incense smoke, and given the widespread and sometimes involuntary exposure to smoke from burning incense, these findings carry significant public health implications.”
Further studies are recommended to discover the effect on cancer risk of different incense compounds and the effects of more moderate exposure.
Despite our grasping, the whole of his life pulsed and seeped through our fingers.
From the heart of him. Moving outwards. Finding the floor. Calling out in a thick scattered confusion of dark, red, shoeprints. Moving away from him in clear plastic spirals. Spattering out into a sucking, flaccid bag that, much later, would be thrown hurriedly into a bin.
And as he began to stir from the dream, an awareness of something other pushed in. A hard, great emptiness, coffee creme gold, deep warm release spreading like fresh bed piss.
Firey copper flecks flashing past, tracking out along a tracer line, to a dawn glow of skewed Vasaline perspective.
Strange to be staring up from the bed, beneath this great tree sprung from his youth. Well remembered footholds, damp moss, soft wicker bark. Strange too, he would remember that rusted bent nail that scarred his calf.
The fractured bough that gave beneath his upside-down showoff, now spread as if in welcoming. The sway of shadow branches flick splashes of blinding spring sunshine into his eyes. All about, squinting through the smell of eucalypt promise.
The foot of the bed seems to ease down, and for the first time in a long time his bare feet touch to a deep solid surety.
Arms out like the tree. Way up high, looking out over a sad dizziness of farewell. Cool granite ledge, sun shower shine, toes hooked over, balls in belly, swaying forward with the pulling.
It would make me naked-butt dancingly happy to think a little of the information you discover here at impactednurse.com might be of some use to you, perhaps even stimulating a little professional and (dare I say it) personal development.
But what if you need to dig a little deeper? What if you are looking to answer your clinical questions with the latest evidence based research? What if you need to take it to the next level?
The TRIP Database began in 1997 as a result of the work of the founders (Jon Brassey and Dr Chris Price) with the aim of allowing health professionals to easily find the highest-quality material available on the web - to help support evidence based practice.
It examines a large cache of databases and journals (including NEJM, JAMA, Lancet, BMJ, Annals of Internal Medicine) and alows the user to search for latest content from one portal.
The TRIP Database also has separate sections for medical images and patient information leaflets.
Check it out.
A report from the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association shows an increased hand dexterity and spacial skill amongst laparoscopic surgeons who regularly play video games.
A study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors compared to those who did not play video games…
… A second study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons (82 percent men; 18 percent women) also showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not the play video games first.
Interestingly, a second paper described several studies demonstrating increased hostility and violence amongst high-school and college students who regularly play violent video games.
Just what we need; hostile surgeons who do great work.
