For those interested in health issues around the world, Reader's Digest offers a fascinating look at global obesity in its February 2010 issue. Based on the magazine's own worldwide poll, the information presented by writer Joe Kita compares dietary and fitness concerns, efforts, challenges and mindsets the world over. ''Obesity and overweight ...

Haiti Nursing Foundation (HNF) uses a French phrase on their opening Web page: ''Nous Sommes La Difference.'' It means, literally, ''We are the difference.'' And what a difference the young nursing students at HNF's FSIL School of Nursing in Leogane, Haiti, made during these weeks following the January earthquake. Despite ...

We're heading back to India, through the eyes of our guest blogger Malene Nielsen Flagga, an information specialist and science journalist at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She shares her recent experience with international nurses, many from the African nation of Ghana, and other healthcare providers as they gathered in Tamil ...

AIDS seemed to be a hot topic Wednesday at the National Black Nurses Association Convention in Toronto. The last full day of the conference commenced with a spirited skit that raised awareness about how nurses can best encourage testing and navigate sensitive issues in caring for patients with recently diagnosed with AIDS. The topic came up again ...

Mwen se infimye ou (''I am your nurse,'' Haitian Creole) Canadian Kyra Abbott, BScN, RN, grew up in the small town of Perth, Ontario, and now makes her home in the city of Ottawa. And while this Magna CumLaude graduate of the University of Ottawa could have opted for any number of relatively comfortable nursing opportunities, she chose to spend ...

How can anyone view the Minnesota parents who are refusing medical treatment for their son with lymphoma as anything but neglectful? If you haven't been following the case, Daniel Hauser, 13, was diagnosed with second-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma in January. Since he received an initial round of chemotherapy in early February, his parents Colleen ...

The article starts out promising good PR for nurse practitioners: ''Peggy O'Donnell, a Lynbrook nurse practitioner, knows a thing or two about picking a good primary care physician.'' This is O'Donnell's opportunity to explain that an NP often can be your primary care provider — and even better, that there are studies that show that NP care is ...

  Yesterday morning my spouse's high school friend, John, had prostate cancer. By afternoon he didn't — at least we hope the prostatectomy did the trick. John found out he might have something to worry about when he got his PSA level checked last fall at a booth at the Texas state fair. He didn't think he needed the test (he's only 38), ...

Follow nurse practitioner Lois Wessel's lead and make national policy briefings your second job. Wessel wrote a touching and informative article for Tuesday's Washington Post, explaining her position at a mobile health clinic in Silver Spring, Md., and the barriers to care the U.S. health system throws up before her mostly immigrant patients. ...

Have you all been watching AMC's Mad Men, the TV series about a Madison Avenue advertising firm in 1960? The premise explores the lofty question of how we create truth — and sell falsehood. We follow the power of sex, ethnicity and money through each episode. The women wear bullet bras, and the men swill bourbon from bottles kept in their desks. ...