Neuronurse22's Blog

Informatics in School

In nursing schools, I think that the students should be required to take an Informatics class in the Associate program. I really think that this class has opened my eyes to what is out there on the World Wide Web. We need to integrate more of the Elluminate technology into other online classes or even just for additions to classroom directions. I also enjoyed blogging and twitter.com. Teachers could use this their advantage by making classes more fun and interesting. I liked getting to know what other nurses are doing and reading all over the nation.

Hospital Expansion of Technology

Our hospitals need a way for all the healthcare team to be able to communicate instantly and simultaneously. If we could create a live chat or a software in which we all could type little messages to communicate. This would be so beneficial. Currently, the only way we can get a hold of other members of the healthcare team is by phone or pager system. With this system, most of the time when the physician calls the nurses back it can be too late. A live chat would eliminate this problem. We could even set it up to were everyone would be able to receive messages by cell phone. I think that the physicians would appreciate this idea.

Sparking Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness

The Alzheimer’s Disease is a brain disease, that was first described by a German, physician named Alois Alzheimer in 1906. This disease destroys brain cells, causing memory loss and problems with cognition. It also causes severe behavioral and mood changes. It massively affects the person and their activities of daily life. In addition, it eats away at their personal relationships with the people who love them.

This disease gets progressively worst over time and there is no cure. We have found out that it gets worse as we age and that it is caused by harm to the neurons in the brain. There is an increase effort in research to find a better way to treat these patients. Scientists are also working to try to delay the onset or even to prevent it from developing entirely. Only time will tell if we can beat this horrible disease.

The reason that I picked this topic was because my Great Grandma died a few years ago of this disease. I want to gain as much information about Alzheimer’s as I can. I know that my mother, grandma, and even myself have a risk of getting this genetic disease. I am praying that they find a cure for this disease before any more of my family is affected by it. I have seen first hand what it can do. I personally think that it is one of worst diseases, because it kills the personality of the person that you know and love.

The different websites where chosen based on their information and interest level that they sparked. All of these sites have great information about this disease. It just depends on what you want to learn and how much time you have, when choosing a site. I hope that everyone can learn something new about this disease.

Alzheimer’s Association

What is Alzheimer’s?

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_what_is_alzheimers.asp

This website gives a brief review of Alzheimer’s Disease. It is quite easy to read and contains additional links, that you can click on to learn more about a certain topic. This site also tells about how to donate to their organization.

U.S. National Institutes of Health; National Institute on Aging

Alzheimer’s Disease Fact Sheet

http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/Publications/adfact.htm

This website gives a more detailed view of Alzheimer’s Disease. It tells about the different stages and what to expect regarding signs and symptoms. It talks about the genetic aspects of the disease and even gives helpful tips for family members and caregivers.

The Mayo Clinic

Alzheimer’s Disease

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alzheimers-disease/DS00161

This site is straight forward and gives specific information. It talks about signs and symptoms, causes, treatments, risk factors, diagnostic tests, etc. The site is easy to access, because it has icons that you can click on to the left of the screen, to search the topics listed above.

Wikipedia Encyclopedia

Alzheimer’s Disease

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer’s_disease

This site is quite hard to read because it has a numerous amount of information. It discusses the different stages of this disease. Also, it tells of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of it. It gives additional external links and references.

Alzheimer’s Research Forum

AlzGene Field of Genetic Association Studies and Ad

http://www.alzgene.org/

This site was really cool. It tells all about the research being conducted on Alzheimer’s Disease. You can look at the recent discoveries or news about it. Then you can also follow them on twitter. They also have live discussions.

Alzheimer’s Association

Alzheimer’s Disease; Facts and Figures 2009

http://www.alz.org/national/documents/report_alzfactsfigures2009.pdf

This is a report that shows the healthcare aspects of this disease. It shows how much it costs health care for long term care for these patients. They also say it is the 6th leading cause of deaths in this nation. In addition, it tells the impacts that it has on families and individuals, when it comes to health care insurance.

My personal vision for nursing revolves around technological advances and education. I think that working in Neuro Trauma ICU, we rely on our new equipment all the time. We are constantly calculating gtts, working with monitors, managing ventriculostomies, monitoring ventilators, titrating gtts on pumps, etc. At St. John’s, we also have EPIC now, our new computerized charting system. There are many things that are helping us to take care of our patient more efficiently. I don’t know where we would be if we didn’t have these new advances in technology. In this progression, we as nurses will need external support for these upcoming advancements. A large amount of research and testing is done on equipment or a products before it is released to the hospital. We have some much to look forward to and achieve in the future in this area. I think that there are some many innovations and goals awaiting to be met around the corner.

Another vision, that I have for nursing in general would be education. I am preceptor for our unit, so I think that educating our new nurses is very important. I believe that the attitude in the way you present yourself is almost as pertinent as the the information that they are learning. We all know those nurses that are down right mean, for no explained reason. The new nurses are even scared to ask questions, because of the poor compassion that they have been shown in the past. It is our job not to only to educate, but also to encourage and uplift our nurses, when they have questions or need our help. I know that most of the time that we are quite busy, but we have to take the time to teach. It is not important that you know everything, but that you know who or where to find that information, when you need it. My goal would be to work on our attitudes and teaching for our new nurses. I think that we all can do some work in this area. As nurses we know that without education we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Health Care Informatics is the technological software that we use everyday to collect patient information. This technology is so important that we base the information that we obtain on treating patient’s diseases and illnesses. The main component of this is the Electronic Health Record (EHR). This record contains all of the patient’s lab results, allergies, comorbids, care plans, order entry, etc.  All of this data in one system helps the healthcare team to treat the patient and obtain the goals for a successful outcome.

The person that owns the EHR is the patients. They are the ones who have the say of when they want to obtain their information and when they want it to be transferred to another facility. In the past, when a patient wanted to transfer their records. They kept a copy with them at home and took them with them to the new hospital. The Health Insurance Portability  and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996, protects the patient’s health information and grants the rights of that information to that individual. This sets the national standards for the security of electronic protected health information.

Health Information Privacy. Retrieved March 8, 2010, http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/.

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!