It is hard to imagine living in a country where the unemployment rate is 60%, the illiteracy rate is 55%, and a large portion of the population lacks electricity and clean running water. It is even more difficult to imagine providing adequate health care in a place where there is an infant mortality rate of 74 per 1,000 live births, a death rate ...

It is interesting how one's life can go from ''normal'' to a crises in an instant. One moment I am wrapped up in a pharmacology class, the next moment I am sitting in the hospital with my husband whose brain cancer has returned. Mark was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) 2 yrs ago and was doing really well with his ...

Technology is currently booming within the field of medicine. We practice in the age of electronic medical records, ''live'' data, computerized images and hand-held devices. Informatics has become a specialty in nursing, and we often pride ourselves on how much we can accomplish using some state-of-the-art device. Not to mention the importance ...

This is not a comfortable place to be. Although considering my audience, I am sure that you know the feeling all too well. Our work is wrought with struggles between wanting to do what is best for our patients, doing what is required within our scope of practice, and accommodating the beguiling patient or caregiver who can't understand why you ...

We've all gotten the phone calls.  Regardless of whether we specialize in adult acute care, home services, pediatric chronic illness, or community healthcare, someone we know develops a strange rash or some other medical anomaly and our phones start to ring. In fact, it doesn't even necessarily have to be someone we know directly.  It ...

Remembering the amount of patients my preceptor and I saw the day before Christmas last year, I attempted to prepare in advance for the onslaught this year. When I arrived at the office, a private pediatric practice where I work as part of my clinical experience as an NP student, I joked that I wanted to pre-write a bunch of prescriptions for ...

While sitting in class this week listening to a PharmD give a lecture, I was reminded of a memorable conversation I had with a friend. Although regarding two completely different topics, both exchanges were essentially about the same thing.  That is, how much does a provider's personal style influence the decisions they make regarding patient ...

  As an NP student approaching graduation next month, I am feeling the time crunch. No one said that fitting in a complete health history, social history, screenings, physical exam, anticipatory guidance, instructions and referrals, as well as documenting the entire visit in a 15 to 30 minute time period would be easy, but somehow we're ...