Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor, Author at Off the Charts

Bring Back the House Call

But what about those who are not quite frail but are homebound due to less serious health problems? If not for the home visit, the condition of the patient described above would have declined to the point of requiring an ER visit or hospitalization. As the blogger KevinMD points out, “In-home visits could take the place of unnecessary and costly hospital stays and help prevent equally expensive re-admissions to the hospital.” Maybe it's time to bring back the house call.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:21:41-05:00October 16th, 2009|Nursing|2 Comments

Mid-October Rainy Thursday Web Roundup

By Jacob Molyneux, blog editor/senior editor

The nursosphere is thriving and Change of Shift, the always interesting compendium of what’s new on nursing blogs, is up over at Emergiblog.

The health care reform process creeps slowly but surely toward an end someone somewhere can surely envision. One crucial question many are still asking is whether insurance companies might serve consumers a bit more readily and agreeably if they were forced to face a little competition from a public option. After all, isn’t competition supposed to be a good thing?

Most experts don’t expect the H1N1 vaccine to pose any more danger than the seasonal flu vaccine; even so, many Americans (and nurses commenting here, or taking our poll about the mandatory vaccine) continue to be wary, prompting public health officials to engage in especially aggressive surveillance measures in order to quickly detect any possible negative reactions to the vaccine: “Government Keeps Close Eye on Swine Flu Vaccine.”

AJN clinical editor Christine Moffa posted here a while back about how meditation might help cranky or exhausted or overworked nurses stay focused on what matters during the workday. Today the NY Times has a related piece on “doctor burnout” and meditation.

The role of social media in health care is constantly evolving as we all find our way. Its use by hospital workers is at issue in a recent post at Running a Hospital, about one hospital’s decision to ban social media from all its computers. And here’s something else on this: blogger Not Nurse Ratched wonders if social media policies in […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:21:43-05:00October 15th, 2009|health care policy, nursing perspective|1 Comment

AJN Vaccine Poll Results

Update: Oct. 21: Thanks to everyone who took part in the vaccination poll (interestingly, only a fraction of those who visited the poll actually answered the simple yes/no question). The poll is now closed. The results: approximately 170 respondents (nurses?) answered the question “should the H1N1 vaccine be mandated for nurses?” Of these, 77% answered “no” and 23% answered “yes.”

Judging from comments we’ve received in response to other posts (here, here, and here) about the H1N1 vaccine, we surmise that not every nurse who answered no is actually opposed to getting the vaccine. They just don’t want to be told they have to get it. Others, of course (as some of the strongly worded comments left in response to this poll show) are entirely against it, whether it’s mandated or not. And others are wholeheartedly for it, firm believers that decisions made by experts using available evidence usually, if not always, lead to benefits for us all.

But there’s obviously a lot more to say on this topic, and we’ll be posting about it soon.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2009-10-26T12:04:40-04:00October 13th, 2009|nursing perspective|3 Comments

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Maybe We Should Have Listened

The other day I saw a news report from Reuters noting that a study in the journal Science found that a retrovirus linked to prostate cancer may be implicated in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:21:46-05:00October 12th, 2009|nursing perspective|3 Comments

‘I Can Still See the Fear in Her Eyes’: An ICU Nurse Faces a Surprising Reversal of Roles

I can't remember her name, but I can still see her face and the fear in her eyes—and in the eyes of her family every time her cough triggered the alarm or she grimaced in obvious respiratory distress. She was on the ventilator—and much too young to be dying of breast cancer.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:21:48-05:00October 9th, 2009|nursing perspective|0 Comments