Thankful For Nurses

During Thanksgiving yesterday spent some time reflecting on what I am most thankful for.

I went to visit my elderly grandma at her skilled nursing residence and there were nurses and aides running around, busier than ever.  While most people were relaxing, spending time with their families on Thanksgiving, these nurses were taking care of the ones we love.

For the caring, generous nurses (and aides) who were working at hospitals and homes around the country on Thanksgiving, Thank You!  You are truly appreciated for all of the hard work you put in not only on holidays, but every day.  Thank you!

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About Me: I’m one of the Career Agents at Clear Medical Agency and am also the editor of the Clear Nursing Matters blog.  I work with a lot of great nursing professionals, and find that many interesting topics come up.  This blog will be one way to share my experiences and funny stuff that comes up.  Feel free to email me at  Steve@ClearMedicalSolutions.com and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog.  It will make it easier to keep up on current nursing news and ideas.

For those working today on Thanksgiving

We’re thankful for… 

• Nurses who just brought meds to a hurting patient…
• Respiratory Therapists answering a Code right now…
• Physicians who are on their 20th straight hour of covering the ER…
• Aides serving meals to their residents or patients, instead of their family…
• Surgeons who just left their Thanksgiving meal to scrub into the OR…
• Pharmacists who are watching med orders, not football…
• And, others working today in the medical facilities around the nation.

You who comfort our mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers…or children, instead of being with your family. 

We are thankful for you.

A career of caring for human in their weakest moments is a very personal one.  It is emotional.  It is draining.  Working on Thanksgiving doesn’t make it any easier.

To those serving patients right now instead of serving turkey, Thank You! 

Growing Acceptance of Nurse Practitioners

A recent study in Toronto wanted to gauge the effectiveness and level of acceptance of Nurse Practitioners in a specialty setting.  To do that they looked at 177 patient encounters and found that the nurse practitioner gave exactly the same clinical diagnosis as two orthopedic surgeons 100% of the time. 

They also surveyed the patient afterwards to get their feelings and found that 74% would rather see the nurse practitioner than wait up to a year to see the specialist, and 96 percent were satisfied with her assessment.  Clearly a positive study for advanced practice nurses.

Dr. Yoga Raja Rampersaud said “We believe that our study demonstrates that nurse practitioners can play an effective and efficient role in delivering timely healthcare to patients requiring specific disease management in a specialty setting,”

That could play a huge part in dealing with not only shortages of family practice physicians, but specialties as well.  As more patients enter the American healthcare delivery system, this is bound to be a hot topic in the future.

Are we going to be seeing more acceptance of NP’s in our healthcare delivery system in the future?

Here is the full story at MSNBC’s site.

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About Me:  I’m one of the Career Agents at Clear Medical Agency and am also the editor of the Clear Nursing Matters blog.  I work with a lot of great nursing professionals, and find that many interesting topics come up.  This blog will be one way to share my experiences and funny stuff that comes up.  Feel free to email me at  Steve@ClearMedicalSolutions.com and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog.  It will make it easier to keep up on current nursing news and ideas.

Smartphone Apps for Healthcare

With the wild popularity of phones like the Android, Blackberry, and iPhone, more and more applications (aka Apps) have been developed for these phones.   There are over 100,000 apps for the Android alone!  With all of these apps, there have been some great ones for healthcare.  Here are some of the best free apps I found.

1. Epocrates Rx.  This app is continuously updating its drug database for doctors, nurses and all other healthcare professionals to use.  It has the side effects, photos and database of approximate retail price for around 3,000 drugs.
2. Calculate by QxMD.  This calculator includes; Cardio Calc, Neph Calc, GL Calc, Heme Calc and Pregnancy Wheel .  This calculator helps clinicians determine patient risk factors, diagnose certain conditions, make prognoses and  guide treatment process.
3. Mini Nurse-Lite.  This app is for nursing students that offers medical abbreviations, dosage calculations and other medical facts.  This app might not be as effective for more experienced nurses, but great for a nursing students.

These apps can make the life of a healthcare professional a little easier, with so much information right at your fingertips!

Have you seen anyone in your facility using apps to help them with their work?

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About Me: I’m one of the Career Agents at Clear Medical Agency and am also the editor of the Clear Nursing Matters blog.  I work with a lot of great nursing professionals, and find that many interesting topics come up.  This blog will be one way to share my experiences and funny stuff that comes up.  Feel free to email me at  Steve@ClearMedicalSolutions.com and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog.  It will make it easier to stay in touch

Energy Drinks and Nursing?

Sometimes on those long 12 hour shifts you need a pick me up to get through the shift.   What do you turn to?

Coffee is sort of the gateway, but I am sure some of us have turned to that Red Bull, Monster, Rockstar, Amp, or some other energy drink to give us that little extra pick-me-up.  Is that really the healthiest thing to turn to when we are running around all day or night?

I know I am guilty of this myself.  Sometimes I feel like I need that extra energy drink to help me stay on task and keep a high level of energy.

But, now the question for me, Is that really what my body needs and is it safe?

John Higgins, M.D., lead author from The University of Texas Medical School in Houston says “One can of an energy beverage during one session of exercise is safe for most healthy individuals,.” Since nurses are running all over the place, helping patients, their body is losing water.  So we need to be careful to return to the body the water it is losing.

An overuse of energy drinks can increase anxiety, give you “the shakes”, and can be harmful to your health.  Most energy drinks contain caffeine, which ranges from 50 milligrams (mg) to 505 mg per 16-ounce serving.  To put those numbers in perspective an average cup of coffee contains 90 mg- 150 mg.

So next time you go to grab that second or third energy drink, just think of what your body really needs.

Do you see excessive use of energy drinks by healthcare professionals?

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About Me: I’m one of the Career Agents at Clear Medical Agency and am also the editor of the Clear Nursing Matters blog.  I work with a lot of great nursing professionals, and find that many interesting topics come up.  This blog will be one way to share my experiences and funny stuff that comes up.  Feel free to email me at  Steve@ClearMedicalSolutions.com and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog.  It will make it easier to stay in touch

 

Eliminating 12 Hour Shifts

I just read an article about the correlation between nursing errors and fatigue related to 12 hour shifts.  I got to thinking, instead of working three straight traditional 12 hour shifts; we might want to consider some alternatives to help reduce errors.

We all know nursing is very stressful and demanding.  12 hour shifts can be exhausting while dealing with families, on your feet the whole time, lifting patients, changing dressings, inserting IV’s and directing patient care.  Oh and then let’s not forget staying late to finish charting.

Now repeat that again the next day…and the day after…

It is no wonder that nurses are so exhausted!

An Idea:  Instead of working three 12 hour shifts in a row, how about limiting it to only two 12 hour shifts back to back, fitting in two eight hour shifts later.  That would still leave three days off.

Another solution would be actually enforce break times and schedule variety into the shift.  Such as, nine hours of patient care, two hours of precepting and monitoring new nurses, and an hour in committee work (just examples).

What are some ideas that you have had or heard of that can help reduce fatigue and decrease the number of errors that occur.

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About Me: I’m one of the Career Agents at Clear Medical Agency and am also the editor of the Clear Nursing Matters blog.  I work with a lot of great nursing professionals, and find that many interesting topics come up.  This blog will be one way to share my experiences and funny stuff that comes up.  Feel free to email me at  Steve@ClearMedicalSolutions.com and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog.  It will make it easier to stay in touch