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Here you'll find our latest blog entries. Scroll down for older entries or click on the category list at the right. You can also use the search box to find specific topics and guests. Have something to say yourself? We're always looking for passionate guest bloggers. Contact pattie@nursetalksite.com

Coming Up on Nurse Talk: Dropping Acid. Vital Signs. Robin Hood.

May 17th, 2012 by Pattie Lockard

Coming Up on Nurse Talk

Alison Whitaker

Alison Whitaker in Vital Signs

Casey and Shayne check in with RN and playwright RN Alison Whitaker. Some of you may remember Alison was on the show last year introducing her one-woman play called, Vital Signs. It’s a great show and she opens in June at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco. And if you are paying attention you can win two VIP tickets to Vital Signs simply by emailing us at pattie@nursetalksite.com or calling 800-977-1863.

And we talk with one of our favorite guests RN and Co-President of National Nurses United, Jean Ross. Jean will tell us about the upcoming Nurses Assembly in Chicago next week where over 1200 nurses will gather to talk about everything from healthcare to Medicare and beyond. The nurses will also hit the streets of Chicago in a peaceful demonstration to promote a Wall Street Transaction Tax. Check out this Bill Moyers (PBS) interview with National Nurses United Executive Director Rose Ann Demoro as she talks about the “Robin Hood” tax. Peeps—no matter what your political persuasion—it makes sense!

And then..for you 60’s hippies…let’s talk about Dropping Acid! That’s right…but of course, not the kind you think. Dr. Jamie Koufman will be with us to talk about acid reflux and what you can do to control or cure it by simply changing your diet. Dr. Koufman has written a book called Dropping Acid, The Reflux Diet Cookbook and Cure. According to the book, acid reflux affects 30-50% of the population. You won’t want to miss this.

And of course, the Golden Bed Pan Award, In My Day with Lynn Ruth Miller, Phobia of the Week and more…not sure how much more…but more!

Check out our new strategic partner, iTriage

We recently found the coolest app we’ve ever seen or heard about! We all know what triage means, Nurse Talk brings you iTriage. iTriage was founded in 2008 by two emergency medicine physicians to empower people to make better healthcare decisions, and improve healthcare delivery. You can now use the online tool all over the world on the web at nursetalksite.com/itriage or on your smart phone to enter symptoms or diseases and get recommendations for treatment and locate the nearest treatment center. You can even find out what the wait times are in emergency situations. It is so user-friendly—even I can use it!

 

“iTriage is simply the best, most comprehensive medical mobile app around. It is so user-friendly and thorough we are recommending it to all of our Nurse Talk listeners and callers. iTriage truly opens a window to wellness for millions and the best part…it goes where you go! Paris, London, New York, Pocatello and beyond.”

–Casey Hobbs and Shayne Mason
RN Co-Hosts for Nurse Talk Radio

CHECK OUT THE NURSE TALK BLOG! We have some amazing bloggers and topics and it changes everyday.

Now go out there and make someone laugh!

Remember, you can listen and laugh every week on Saturdays at 11 am in the Boston area on station WWZN 1510AM or live stream at www.revolutionboston.com and in the San Francisco Bay area on KNEW 960AM or live stream at www.960knew.com. Check out the iHeartRadio app for free and live custom radio. You can also download and listen to any show anytime here at NurseTalkSite.com or on iTunes. Like us on Facebook, and you can listen there too.

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Urgent Call to Action for the Massachusetts Senate to Prohibit Mandatory Overtime

May 16th, 2012 by Nurse Talk
From our friends at the Massachusetts Nurses Association:
May 17, the Massachusetts Senate will be debating a major initiative intended to reduce health care costs. As the debate begins, we need to remind our State Senators that cost savings must be made without harming patients and a key way to do that is to prevent the use of mandatory overtime as a staffing tool
Banning Mandatory Overtime will protect patients and help reduce costs:
  • Nurses working mandatory overtime are three times more likely to make costly medical errors.[i]
  • Stopping mandatory overtime is good for patients. An administrator from the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick said “By not mandating overtime, nurses are better rested, they can think more clearly and patient outcomes improve as a result.”[ii]
  • Overtime for nurses was associated with an increased risk of catheter-related urinary tract infections and bedsores, both preventable medical complications.[iii]
  • Catheter-associated urinary tract infections carry an average cost of $44,043 per hospitalization, and bedsores carry an average cost of $43,180 per hospitalization. [iv]
Please call your State Senator at 617-722-1455 and ask that he/she support Senator Rush’s amendment to ban Mandatory Overtime.  To find out who your senator is you can also go to http://capwiz.com/massnurses
Sample script:

“My name is _______________ and I am calling to urge Senator _______________
to support Senator Rush’s amendment to health care payment reform that will ban the dangerous practice of Mandatory Overtime in hospitals. Requiring nurses to work far beyond their scheduled shifts is not only dangerous for patients, but costly for hospitals. I hope we can count on your support for this amendment. Thank you.

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Other nations see universal health care as necessary. Why don’t we?

May 15th, 2012 by Sylvia Moore

Our public leaders here in United States like to proclaim that we’re number one at everything, despite evidence to the contrary. When it comes to health care, now developing nations are beginning to leave us in the dust. In the article “U.S. lags in global healthcare push,” on last Saturday’s front page of the Los Angeles Times, China, Mexico, Ghana and even formerly war-torn Rwanda have embarked on efforts to expand health coverage to their citizens.

“This is truly a global movement,” said Dr. Julio Frenk, a former health minister in Mexico and dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. “As countries advance, they are realizing that creating universal healthcare systems is a necessity for long-term economic development.”

…

But the international drive to provide healthcare for everyone is increasingly leaving America behind.

“We are really an outlier,” said David De Ferranti, a former World Bank vice president who heads the Results for Development Institute, an international nonprofit based in Washington.

This situation is increasingly becoming an international embarrassment for the U.S., as well as an impediment to our nation’s economic progress. Developing countries know they cannot compete globally with an unhealthy workforce. Yet, the U.S. continues to limp along, wasting resources on an inefficient for-profit healthcare system, and seeing its global economic dominance erode. Americans are throwing their hard-earned money down a health insurance rat-hole, leaving them unable to put that money toward paying off mortgages, financing education, or buying cars or other consumer products.

America’s inability to expand affordable coverage to all really comes down to a toxic combination of political dysfunction, corporate greed and a troubling lack of social solidarity, which fuels appeals to selfishness and bigoted attitudes toward the poor and vulnerable. We have one major political party refusing to extend health care as a right to all Americans, while the other major party will not fight for, let alone consider, the best option to our healthcare crisis – single payer. And we have a Supreme Court that next month could undo programs that provide health care to the poorest Americans. While we’re fighting amongst ourselves over an issue that should bring all Americans together, the rest of the world is passing us by.

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Posted in Blog, Healthcare | 1 Comment »

The Top Ten Things You Should Never Say or Do to a Stroke Patient | The Tales of a Stroke Patient | Joyce Hoffman

May 14th, 2012 by Joyce Hoffman

People are funny, and I don’t mean in a ha-ha sort of way. They could be neurotic, bi-polar, obsessive-compulsive, anxious, or agoraphobic, just to name a few types. Some of the ones who came to visit me had their own type: dysfunctional-when-meeting-a-stroke-patient.

Even though they had good intentions, in all fairness to me, some of them said and did things that were downright insulting, if I took the comments and body language personally. But I didn’t ever, for those people who took the time and came to visit me.

In all fairness to them, how could they know the right responses from the wrong. What it really comes down to is this: How do you speak to a stroke patient whose had her life turned around in a 180-degree spin?

I made a list of the top ten things you should never say or do to a stroke patient, and I, too, have been guilty of most of them before having my stroke when I visited stroke patients. So having set the record straight, here goes.

1. Saying good girl, good boy, good job

Those are phrases you should say to your pets when they are being rewarded with a “Pup-Peroni” or Doritos’ chips. If you say them to me, I am not really being a good “anything.” I’m just sayin’. IT’S SORT OF CONDESCENDING.

2. Talking loudly

People have a habit of speaking loudly to foreigners and the sick. Just because they are from somewhere else, speaking loudly to a foreigner will not help get your point across. There is no hearing problem involved. The same thing applies to me. HOW DOES SHOUTING HELP?

3. Talking slowly

Talking slowly to a foreigner might be an asset. But talking slowly to me makes me feel mentally disabled. How would YOU like it if someone said, “How — are — you — feeling — today?” If I could, (and I wasn’t able to then), I would have talked quickly in response, possibly making them change their way of speaking. I REPEAT–HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT?

4. Making faces at me

Stroke patients are difficult to understand at times, but please don’t squint, or turn your mouth to one side, or wrinkle your nose at me. Just ask me to repeat my statement, and if you still can’t understand, ask the question in a different way. After all, you’re the one with a full brain! SO USE IT!

5. Talking over me

I mostly listen, but when I get up the courage to speak, let me do it. Don’t interrupt me in the middle. In other words, LET ME FINISH!

6. Completing your sentence

Some people find the right word choice instantly, but it takes me a few seconds more. So please stop trying to fill in the blank. WAIT! I’LL GET IT!

7. Giving me lists of things to do

If you give me a list five or more things to do, I’ll may miss one. My brain is going, but the parts that are dead…well, simple died and there’s no hope of getting them back. Did you ever hear that heavy drinkers lose brain cells and the cells won’t be replaced? Same thing. YOU HEAR THAT, HEAVY DRINKERS?

8. Ignoring me as if I’m invisible

Once in a while, at Rehab Y, I would see doctors on the outside. If I’m waiting at a new doctor’s office, for example, staring right at some person who’s in charge, the person invariably stares at my friend to find out what my friend wants, forcing me to shout and look like an idiot–which I am not. I shouted several times in person but even more on the phone. Some of the people just don’t listen and say their “shpiel” regardless if I object.  “FOR CHRISTSAKE, I HAD A F***ING STROKE. GIMME A BREAK!” (Sorry to all in the PC crowd).

9. Saying I’m not moving fast enough

Once in a while, people will say something to the effect, “Could I get by you?” and start moving before they even hear the answer. Their rhetorical question, because that’s what it really is, a few times cost me my balance. WHY ARE PEOPLE IN SUCH A HURRY IN THE NURSING HOME?

10. Hanging up on me

A lot of operators hang up on me. They are nameless and they take advantage of that fact. But it doesn’t help me. WHY WON’T THEY WAIT?

———-

Now that I’ve off-handedly offended most of you, remember–I said or did the same things myself to stroke patients because I never “walked in their shoes.” So now, do you feel better?

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Posted in A Patient's Perspective, The Tales of a Stroke Patient | No Comments »

So What Happened, Exactly | Lymphoblaster | Brandi Chase

May 13th, 2012 by Brandi Chase

This is the first installment of a blog by Brandi Chase called Lymphoblaster. It is an online chronicle through Leukemia. Living in Australia with her husband, film composer Randin Graves, Brandi, grieving the loss of her father 2 months prior, began to feel ill. On a trip home to Utah in the United States to visit family, she went to a hospital to see if she might be anemic. She learned instead that she had cancer. Brandi was admitted the same day. In this video to her family and friends, she talks about how it all began. Sometimes tragic, but always life-affirming, Brandi’s shares candidly her experiences. Filled with a sense of grace and humor throughout, she inspires. You can find new installments here each week.

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Nurses Rally Daly Plaza, Chicago | May 18, 2012

May 12th, 2012 by Nurse Talk

Nurse Talk will be there. Will you?

Robin Hood Joins Nurses’ Campaign to Heal America – Chicago Friday, May 18.

What in the world? The registered nurses of National Nurses United cannot wait to welcome one of the world’s leading defenders of common people to their uncommon May 18th march and rally in Chicago. It’s time for Robin Hood to lend his legendary fame of days gone by to help with the nurses’ campaign to heal the modern-day financial traumas faced by real people at the hands of Wall Street.

It won’t be Sherwood Forest where Robin Hood and the nurses will be marching and rallying but through the streets of downtown Chicago, from the Sheraton Downtown at 11 a.m., to Daley Plaza a little after noon. With a sense of festive political messaging but also with the courageous clarity nurses bring to their advocacy for doing what is best for their patients, their communities and nation, and the world, the eyes of the world will turn to Chicago to learn what a Robin Hood Tax is and why such a tax is the right way to heal so many of the fiscal problems we face.

Posted in Blog, News | No Comments »

In My Day…My Mother Used Vinegar for Everything | Lynn Ruth Miller

May 12th, 2012 by Lynn Ruth Miller

When I was a kid, my mother used vinegar for everything. If I got a bee sting she rubbed vinegar on it and if the kid next door bit me, she poured vingear on him and called his mother. There didn’t seem to be anything vinegar couldn’t fix in those days.

If you got the hiccups you drank a tablespoon of vinegar and they were gone. After your father pounded you on the back and your sister jumped out from behind the couch and screamed “BOO!” It was magic!

If I had a sinus infection, momma put vinegar in a vaporizer and made me inhale it until I started breathing again. She liked to help it along by pounding on my chest and if I turned blue, my sister jumped out from behind the couch and screamed “BOO!” Magic again!

My mom taught me to give my hair a vinegar rinse after I shampooed it to get rid of dandruff and those little bugs I got from the kid next door. Sore throat, gargle with vinegar and then swallow. The germs were gone and so was your appetite.

Vinegar and honey and a little cayenne pepper got rid of my cough, but if you boiled it with water, tomatoes, sour cream and peanut butter, you got soup! We got rid of warts with a mixture of vinegar and glycerine and we stayed away from toads. Vinegar may have kept us healthy, but I wanna tell ya, the whole family smelled like a tossed salad. And this is Lynn Ruth Miller with a box of croutons and another of edition of “In My Day.”

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:55 — 1.8MB)

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Bill Moyers Interviews National Nurses Director RoseAnn DeMoro Sunday, May 13 on Call for Robin Hood Tax

May 11th, 2012 by Nurse Talk

NEW YORK- Moyers & Company, a current affairs program featuring Bill Moyers and airing on PBS stations nationwide, Sunday 6p.m. – most PBS stations will run a segment this Sunday evening with RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in the country, with 170,000 members.

The interview focuses on the union’s call for a Robin Hood Tax, a sales tax on Wall Street speculation that could raise up to $350 billion a year in revenue, with the money available for such basic needs as healthcare, jobs, and education.

“The money generated,” says Moyers in the program note, “could be used for social programs and job creation – ultimately to people who, without a doubt, need it more than the banks do. Though the power and influence of Big Banking is intimidating, DeMoro and her organization have an inspiring history of defeating some of the toughest opponents in government and politics.”

The nurses see the enduring effects of economic hardship on patients and communities across the nation, says DeMoro. The revenue from the Robin Hood Tax is the first step to healing distressed communities and setting the United States on the road to a real recovery. More than 40 countries, including many of the fastest-growing economies, already have such a tax, and it may well be adopted European Union-wide this year.

On Friday, May 18, DeMoro and NNU members and community members, will gather in Chicago to call for the tax, joined by representatives from the UK, Italy, Canada, Guatemala, Germany, and South Korea.

The event, which includes a performance by renowned musician Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman, takes place prior to G-8 meetings at Camp David, Maryland and a meeting of NATO countries in Chicago. It has been endorsed by more than 100 organizations of labor, environmentalists, and consumers.

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