About 5 years ago, I looked at the rainbow strands of light below and wondered if I was seeing some sort of digital art.
What I was actually seeing was a map of someone’s brain, made with a Siemens Magnetom Allegra 3-Tesla scanner at Massachusetts General Hospital.
By imaging the mobility of water molecules, the brilliant strands here showed nerve pathways – essentially a wiring diagram of a thought…maybe even a feeling. Continue reading “9 People Who Have Turned Medical Imaging Into Art”
It’s true. Even nurses make mistakes sometimes. Studies have shown that errors, accidents, injuries, and infections are to blame for at least 180,000 patients killed every year in American hospitals.¹ No matter the profession, it is critically important to follow rules and guidelines that are aimed at decreasing the number of preventable fatalities. We all make mistakes, but what errors do nurses make the most and how can they be avoided?
Continue reading “Top 7 Nursing Errors — and How to Avoid Them”
If you think you can’t take a travel nursing job because you are married or have kids, you may be surprised. Lots of nurses take their families with them on one or more assignments. Managing a travel assignment and a family may take some planning, flexibility and compromise, but it can be done successfully. There are several things to take into consideration, such as the following: Continue reading “Travel Nursing With Family – Can You Make it Work?”
School nurses play an important role in the safety of students every day, but efforts in treating and preventing sports and recreational injuries such as concussions often go unnoticed. Concussions are a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that can affect the way the brain works. Even when mild and non-life-threatening, they may have serious effects.
Continue reading “School Nurses and Injury Prevention”
Five years ago, patients were just starting to make use of apps and smartphones to better inform themselves about symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment at home and on-the-fly in clinics, hospitals, or wherever symptoms started to occur.
Ten years ago, patients were first starting to use the Internet en-masse to research their conditions, possible treatments, and even perused physician ratings while shopping around for a doctor.
Fifteen years ago, patients had far less access to medical information – Medical professionals were seen as the primary and sometimes sole source of insight for patients. And treatment for a number of common life-threatening ailments was significantly less advanced.
Here’s a look at the types of patients medical professionals encounter, contrasted with how they’ve changed since the 1990s: Continue reading “5 Types of Patients (and How They’ve Changed in the Last 15 Years)”
Ever wonder – between the working conditions, technology, and knowledge of medical science – if there was ever anything good about the ‘good ol’ days’ of nursing?
Despite a lack of regulation, sanitary conditions, and other drawbacks, the early days (and I mean really early days) of nursing might be able to teach us a lesson or two when it comes to the present day.
For example: Continue reading “A Nursing Memo to You …From 1860”