Instead of asking you to talk about the pain in your foot, or the ache in your chest, health care workers are starting to ask you about...your story. There’s an emerging idea in health care that social and psychological conditions -- like poverty and chronic stress -- change how your body and brain work, and that can have damaging long-term effects on your health. Doctors and nurses from northern California to Camden, N.J., are beginning to see that the first step in treating these patients is often treating the part of the illness that’s not on the surface. Patients like 30-year-old Elizabeth Philkill. |
Showing posts with label Nursing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nursing. Show all posts
Monday, October 14, 2013
When your symptoms don't tell the whole story
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Nurses Prone to Injuries With Heavier Patients
After years of lifting heavy patients and equipment that resulted in a herniated disc, she said she knew her body just couldn't handle the work anymore.
"I'm almost fearful as a nurse of going back to taking care of patients unless I have proper equipment," said Pierce, who worked in organ recovery, the intensive care unit and the emergency room. "It's kind of sad when you have to end your nursing career because you can't physically do the job anymore because your body's so beat up."
Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants suffer more musculoskeletal injuries than people in any other profession – including firefighters, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Registered nurses also edure more of these injuries than the average worker.
Even worse, patients are getting heavier -- especially in the Midwest where Pierce spent her career, she said. She recalled taking a patient to a dock to weigh him because no scale was available in the hospital that could do the job.
Still, she'd never think of saying "no" to helping a fellow nurse move a patient, no matter the toll on her body.
"It's kind of ingrained in you when a colleague asks for help, you go and you help. You don't even think twice because they're in trouble," said Pierce, who works in Nebraska. "We're a team. You don't leave a man down."
The American Nurses Association has been pressing for...
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Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Nurse Practitioners Try New Tack To Expand Foothold In Primary Care
Nurse practitioners say efforts to expand primary care to millions of Americans under the health law are hampered by insurance industry practices that limit or exclude their participation.
Despite laws in 17 states and the District of Columbia allowing them to practice independently, nurses with advanced degrees say some insurers still don’t accept them into their credentialed networks as primary care providers, while others restrict them mainly to rural areas.  Millions of newly insured consumers will need access to primary care, but "this will not happen if private insurers continue to exclude or restrict advanced practice registered nurses from their provider networks," said Karen Daley, president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), in a prepared statement. Nurse advocates want to be able to bill insurers directly for services, which would require them to be credentialed in insurers’ networks. But insurers say a mix of state laws governing nurses’ ability to practice independently complicates such efforts. They say they have taken other steps to expand primary care services, often using nurse practitioners in "medical homes," where doctors, nurses and other... |
Thursday, August 29, 2013
An “F” for Quality
Huge numbers of older persons transition from hospitals to the nursing home. Often, an older hospitalized patient needs skilled nursing care before they are ready to return home. In other cases, a nursing home patient who needed hospitalization is returning to the nursing home. Older patients and their families certainly hope that great communication between the hospital and nursing home would assure a seamless transition in care.
But a rather stunning study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests the quality of communication between the hospital and the nursing home is horrendous. The study was led by researchers from the University of Wisconsin, including nurse researcher, Dr. Barbara King and Geriatrician Dr. Amy Kind.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Health Care Workers Suffer Exposures to Antineoplastic Drugs
A recent study reveals that health care workers may be suffering from occupational exposure to chemotherapy drugs while treating cancer patients.
"Antineoplastic drugs are pharmaceuticals commonly used to treat cancer, which are generally referred to as 'chemotherapy'. Several studies have shown that exposure to antineoplastic drugs can cause toxic effects on reproduction as well as carcinogenic effects. Presence of these drugs in the urine of hospital personnel has been widely studied and dermal exposure has been suggested to be the main route of exposure.
The main focus has been on handling the concentrated drug during preparation and administration of antineoplastic drugs and several approaches have been proposed on how to control those. Handling patient excreta has been considered to be potentially harmful to nurses working with cancer patients, since antineoplastic drugs are known to be present in patient excreta (e.g. urine, saliva, sweat, faeces, vomit), but this has not been studied in great detail in occupational exposure studies.
The identification of occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs in sectors outside the hospital environment (i.e. veterinary medicine, home care, nursing homes and industrial laundries) showed that the number of workers potentially exposed to antineoplastic drugs is larger than previously estimated. "
Click here to read the series of articles in The Annals of Occupational Hygiene
Exposure to Antineoplastic Drugs in Two UK Hospital Pharmacy Units
H. J. Mason, S. Blair, C. Sams, K. Jones, S. J. Garfitt, M. J. Cuschieri, and P. J. Baxter
A Pooled Analysis to Study Trends in Exposure to Antineoplastic Drugs among Nurses
Wouter Fransman, Susan Peelen, Simone Hilhorst, Nel Roeleveld, Dick Heederik, and Hans Kromhout
Occupational Dermal Exposure to Cyclophosphamide in Dutch Hospitals: A Pilot Study
Wouter Fransman, Roel Vermeulen, And Hans Kromhout
Postulating a dermal pathway for exposure to anti-neoplastic drugs among hospital workers
Hans Kromhout, Fred Hoek, Ruud Uitterhoeve, Roel Huijbers, Roderik F. Overmars, Rob Anzion, and Roel Vermeulen
Occupational Exposure Limits for Therapeutic Substances
Raymond Agius
Read more about "occupational exposures" and workers' compensation:
Exposure to Antineoplastic Drugs in Two UK Hospital Pharmacy Units
H. J. Mason, S. Blair, C. Sams, K. Jones, S. J. Garfitt, M. J. Cuschieri, and P. J. Baxter
A Pooled Analysis to Study Trends in Exposure to Antineoplastic Drugs among Nurses
Wouter Fransman, Susan Peelen, Simone Hilhorst, Nel Roeleveld, Dick Heederik, and Hans Kromhout
Occupational Dermal Exposure to Cyclophosphamide in Dutch Hospitals: A Pilot Study
Wouter Fransman, Roel Vermeulen, And Hans Kromhout
Postulating a dermal pathway for exposure to anti-neoplastic drugs among hospital workers
Hans Kromhout, Fred Hoek, Ruud Uitterhoeve, Roel Huijbers, Roderik F. Overmars, Rob Anzion, and Roel Vermeulen
Occupational Exposure Limits for Therapeutic Substances
Raymond Agius
Read more about "occupational exposures" and workers' compensation:
Jul 12, 2013
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a new National Emphasis Program to protect workers from the serious health effects from occupational exposure to isocyanates. OSHA develops national ...
Jun 03, 2013
Chemical exposure in the workplace can have an insidious--yet devasating--effect on a worker. In a wide-ranging article, the New York Times presented an in-depth view of chemical exposure at furniture factories in North ...
Jul 19, 2013
Workers' compensation claims result from heat stress and exposure. As the Mid-West and Northeast heatwave is now soaring to records temperatures, workers should protect themselves from heat exposure. Today's post was ...
Saturday, July 20, 2013
OSHA announces outreach campaign to protect health care workers from hazards causing musculoskeletal disorders
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a campaign to raise awareness about the hazards likely to cause musculoskeletal disorders among health care workers responsible for patient care. These disorders include sprains, strains, soft tissue and back injuries.
"The best control for MSDs is an effective prevention program," said MaryAnn Garrahan, OSHA regional administrator in Philadelphia. "Our goal is to assist nursing homes and long-term care facilities in promoting effective processes to prevent injuries."
As part of the campaign, OSHA is providing 2,500 employers, unions and associations in the health care industry in Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the District of Columbia with information about methods used to control hazards, such as lifting excessive weight during patient transfers and handling. OSHA is also providing information about how employers can include a zero-lift program, which minimizes direct patient lifting by using specialized lifting equipment and transfer tools.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Home Hospitalization
With the soaring cost of workers' compensation payments now exceeding 50% of payments, new and innovative approaches are being advanced.
Click here to read more: Some Patients Can Choose To Be Hospitalized At Home
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