According to a recent Harris Interactive poll titled ''Millions Believe Personal Medical Information Has Been Lost or Stolen,'' four percent of respondents believed they or a family member had had their medical records lost or stolen. As a percentage of the U.S. population, this would be about 9 million people. Respondents also indicated they ...

After being exposed to it for a while you begin to think ''medical English'' is your actual language, whereby everything you learned in school becomes a second language that you have to use with patients. This really gives ''English as a second language'' new meaning. I recently saw a license plate that read ''HCT436,'' and immediately saw it as ...

Working in the ER, I see a lot of life altering events. I frequently realize any one of these could happen to me or my family. I try hard not to bring my work home with me, but sometimes the feelings are hard to leave behind. I can see my family members in the faces of visitors or the eyes of the patient. When I call home just ...

I once saw an ad on TV showing a postoperative patient returning from surgery and being told ''the surgery went well, but you have cancer'' by her physician, who promptly leaves the patient in the hallway.  As nurses, part of your job will be to dispel any misconceptions patients are left with after their encounters with their physicians. ...

June 27th was National HIV Testing Day and the first day our clinic offered free HIV screening. We weren't really sure how the response would be, but it turned out to be fantastic. We saw 25 people between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. We had a real broad range of people walk through our door. Asians, African Americans Latinos, Whites; men and women from as ...

During my education in school as a PTA we did not use any books authored by PTAs. Why not? There weren't any available. But the athletic trainer book was more acceptable than one written by a therapist. Imagine that.  I am sure there are PTAs who enjoy writing, just look at ADVANCE magazine and there are articles written by assistants. ...

A couple of free resources that have recently become available are worth mentioning: First is PNP SOURCE, offered by the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). It is an online learning system and continuing education library that is free to members, with content specifically developed for the pediatric NPs. All ...

Last week we looked at how natural learning is interrupted in puppies and in children. When a puppy is taken away from its littermates too soon, it won't learn all of its social behavior, which can lead to behavior problems in the adult dog. A parent's strong protective instinct often leads to short circuiting the learning process in ...

Attached at the bottom of this post is a letter from the Pennsylvania Child Death Review Team about safe sleep for infants. The PCDRT is working to distribute this letter to all NPs, because many NPs care for infants. Click on the link below to read the letter, which urges practitioners to promote safe sleep practices, such as never allowing an ...

A task force of representatives from medical groups, universities, the military and government agencies is basically recommending who lives and who dies after a major disaster like pandemic flu or terrorist attack. In essence, the group recommends the very elderly, severely injured trauma patients, severely burned older patients and people with ...