Well, it's almost time to start classes again this next week. I sure have enjoyed relaxing and taking it easy. I took a break from typing as you can tell because my wrist was killing me from so much time on the computer doing papers. I'm taking two social work classes to fill in this semester because there was nothing offered for the nurse practitioner online program. Family Violence which is pretty self explanatory, and Human Sexuality. Wonder if I will learn anything new?
I did get a chance to attend a wedding in the Don Cesar resort. Ooo Laa Laa! Ritzy place! I would like to go there for my husband and myself sometime in the future. I also read three books for pleasure!!! Yeah!!! I so love to read and it's nice to read because I want to and not just for school.
On the medical front, I had a MRI done of my brain and cervical spine to rule out Multiple Sclerosis because I had been having vague symptoms of muscle weakness, pain and thought it was fibromyalgia. Turned out negative for MS.. What a relief! But now I'm back to the fibromyalgia symptoms. I did find that the "dowager's hump" I thought was from poor posture is a HUGE bone spur compressing my spinal cord. Alternatives include physical therapy, pain control (yeah right, one Percocet and I'm higher than Cheech and Chong ever thought of being!) and last resort surgery. No one will be cutting on me unless there is a drastic change that's for sure! So, now I have a lifting restriction for life of no more than 25 pounds. Work will not appreciate that but I will not injure myself so close to the completion of my NP program ( 1 1/2 years).. Anyway... Gotta run to bed for now...
Friday, August 26, 2005
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Very good article from NurseWeek on nurse blogging!
Kudos to all who were mentioned in the article. They helped pave the way for us to be recognized in other arenas.
I'm changing my links page
Don't panic if you don't see your link on my page! I'm making some changes.. Hang in there for more updates!!
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Hospital Acquired Infections Report or Not?
I recently read an article by Gail Guterl. She is a consulting editor for Advance for Nurses magazine. She questioned the need for public disclosure of hospital acquired infections. There are 6 six states, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia who require this information be public. The author wondered if this was viewed as a public shaming in order to force hospitals to lower the rates of infection.
This could also bring a higher incidence of lawsuits as well. Her question to the readers of the article was "Do we have a solution?"
After a bit of thought, I still think that public disclosure is a good idea. If you try to hide information that could be potentially important to patients, it could be perceived as suspicious. I would like to have as much information about a facility before I am admitted in order to make a more informed choice. If I know that there is a higher rate of post-surgical infection, you can better believe I won't be having surgery there. This information should not be used to punish facilities, but to help them to investigate why the increased infection rates are occurring.
Another thought on the subject of "hospital acquired infections"?? How many times have you instructed family members when a patient is on contact isolation with MRSA, VRE and C-diff about the importance of using the proper precautions? Multiple times I have explained this and find families respond with "I live with so and so. If I was going to be infected, I would already have it." These people pick up the infection and pass them to others. They come into the hospital and culture out with MRSA, C-diff and so on. The hospital is then charged with giving this patient a "hospital acquired infection" since they had none prior. Well, duh! It's a "community acquired infection" and a "hospital acquired infection" together because the families chose not to follow precautions. If I see another child crawling around on the floor of a patient's room at the hospital, I will just scream!!! I have herded out 7 children from a room visiting a patient with C-diff last week. The precautions were posted and the wife was a CNA at another facility. When I approached her and reminded in a nice way about the infection, she just shrugged her shoulders. I told the children to leave the room and visibly dared her to say anything about it. ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!
If a person wants to infect themselves and take a serious health risk, whatever.. But don't expose your children who are too young to understand the risks.
The solution? Put the visitation restrictions back in place regarding 12 and younger children. No babies allowed in the hospitals. Period. You don't follow precautions before entering a patient's room, you don't get to enter. Period. Watch the number of infections drop. Enough said...
clostridium difficile
MRSA
hosptial acquired infections
This could also bring a higher incidence of lawsuits as well. Her question to the readers of the article was "Do we have a solution?"
After a bit of thought, I still think that public disclosure is a good idea. If you try to hide information that could be potentially important to patients, it could be perceived as suspicious. I would like to have as much information about a facility before I am admitted in order to make a more informed choice. If I know that there is a higher rate of post-surgical infection, you can better believe I won't be having surgery there. This information should not be used to punish facilities, but to help them to investigate why the increased infection rates are occurring.
Another thought on the subject of "hospital acquired infections"?? How many times have you instructed family members when a patient is on contact isolation with MRSA, VRE and C-diff about the importance of using the proper precautions? Multiple times I have explained this and find families respond with "I live with so and so. If I was going to be infected, I would already have it." These people pick up the infection and pass them to others. They come into the hospital and culture out with MRSA, C-diff and so on. The hospital is then charged with giving this patient a "hospital acquired infection" since they had none prior. Well, duh! It's a "community acquired infection" and a "hospital acquired infection" together because the families chose not to follow precautions. If I see another child crawling around on the floor of a patient's room at the hospital, I will just scream!!! I have herded out 7 children from a room visiting a patient with C-diff last week. The precautions were posted and the wife was a CNA at another facility. When I approached her and reminded in a nice way about the infection, she just shrugged her shoulders. I told the children to leave the room and visibly dared her to say anything about it. ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!
If a person wants to infect themselves and take a serious health risk, whatever.. But don't expose your children who are too young to understand the risks.
The solution? Put the visitation restrictions back in place regarding 12 and younger children. No babies allowed in the hospitals. Period. You don't follow precautions before entering a patient's room, you don't get to enter. Period. Watch the number of infections drop. Enough said...
clostridium difficile
MRSA
hosptial acquired infections
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Nurse Practitioner semester finals
Hello all! I just finished my nurse practitioner semester finals and found out that I made an A in all three classes! Whew!! Now I can take a few weeks to recuperate. I found two classes that I can take for the Fall after begging and pleading with Social Work department. One is onine (Family Violence) and the other is in Gainesville for three weekends (Human Sexuality. That keeps my loans in place for the Fall and the online classes will be back on track for the Master's NP. Thank goodness, because I was getting a little fried about the program being in a constant state of flux.
Now I am going out of town for a few days to my husband's cousin's wedding. It will be nice to have grandma babysit for a few days and get away for some hubby time!
I will be doing some painting and pleasure reading which I have been neglecting. Can't wait!!!!
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