What is Pulmonary Fibrosis? By Brenda Kimble Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a respiratory disease where the lungs slowly lose the ability to function due to scarring. This scarring causes the passageways to become thick and hard, which inhibits the lung’s ability to move oxygen through the walls of the alveoli and into the bloodstream. Patients with pulmonary fibrosis find themselves unable to catch their breath due to improper oxygenation of the blood. Pulmonary fibrosis is treatable, but there is currently no cure for the disease. Treatments that are offered to PF patients will not reverse the damage that has already been done to the lungs, nor will it make the…
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When it Comes to Population Health, the Answer is Motivation
It was no great leap for Austin Regional Clinic to embrace the concept of population health, an approach that aims to improve the health of groups of people, particularly those with more medically complex conditions. Our medical group was founded on those principles back in 1980, when no one ever heard of the term. Over time, we became very good at population health and now we are often asked to present our “best practices.” What’s the secret to our success? The long answer often includes a description of our IT investments. No doubt the advent of electronic medical records has made us better — instead of reacting to illness, we…
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Please Support The National Nurse Act
The National Nurse Act for Public Health (HR 1597 and S 696) are important Identical bills before both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The act would designate an already funded position, the Chief Nurse Officer of the USPHS to be the National Nurse for Public Health, and give nurses a huge voice in public health for all Americans. Nurses are 4 million strong and need a solid voice and strong leadership to educate the public in how to Prevent chronic illnesses and complications which take a huge toll on the health care industry as well as the financial status of all Americans. We face multiple public health crises…
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Creating Confusion with Nursing Jargon
I want to share a funny anecdote to demonstrate the art of communication. Recently a Nurse Manager friend at a nearby agency shared that one of her staff nurses was asking for help with a patient whose loved ones were demanding hydration for their dad who is no longer eating or drinking fluids. He’s terminally ill and hydration is not recommended as it can cause more harm than good in the last days. But the family is in total denial and insisting we try. His veins are shot as well as shriveled from the dehydration, but the attending physician asked for the nurse to try one liter of fluid just…
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Debunking Three Common Travel Nursing Myths
The demand for nurses growing – the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects that employment opportunities for nurses will grow by 15% through 2026; that’s more than 400,000 new nursing jobs. Growing parallel to that demand is the need for travel nurses. Hospitals and facilities across the country are hiring more and more travel nurses to help address staffing shortages and meet their needs for skilled nurses. This bright job outlook may have you considering travel nursing as a career path to increase your skills, move to new cities and experience new assignments. However, you may be hesitant to make the leap into travel nursing because you have concerns about…