Effectiveness comes down to producing desired results. The most successful entrepreneurs have mastered being effective because it makes them work smarter, eliminating unnecessary effort and wasted time. Success cannot happen with any consistency when approached in a lazy, haphazard, hit-or-miss fashion. Continue reading “Improving productivity across global teams”
How to start a business as a college student
Effectiveness comes down to producing desired results. The most successful entrepreneurs have mastered being effective because it makes them work smarter, eliminating unnecessary effort and wasted time. Success cannot happen with any consistency when approached in a lazy, haphazard, hit-or-miss fashion. Continue reading “How to start a business as a college student”
3 Habits of highly effective entrepreneurs
Effectiveness comes down to producing desired results. The most successful entrepreneurs have mastered being effective because it makes them work smarter, eliminating unnecessary effort and wasted time. Success cannot happen with any consistency when approached in a lazy, haphazard, hit-or-miss fashion. Continue reading “3 Habits of highly effective entrepreneurs”
Improving productivity across global teams
Effectiveness comes down to producing desired results. The most successful entrepreneurs have mastered being effective because it makes them work smarter, eliminating unnecessary effort and wasted time. Success cannot happen with any consistency when approached in a lazy, haphazard, hit-or-miss fashion. Continue reading “Improving productivity across global teams”
Why you should carry a Drug Guide on your smartphone
A Johns Hopkins University study conducted in 2016 reveals that medical errors are the third leading cause of deaths in the United States, following heart disease and cancer. Some common examples of medical errors are: incorrect diagnosis, providing multiple drugs that interact negatively, and administering the wrong medication to the wrong patient.
A medical error can happen due to:
- Inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis of a disease/injury
- Error in judgment or patient care
- Poor communication
- Unknown new procedures
- Complex care
- Extremes of age
- Inadequate nurse-to-patient ratios
- Prescribing wrong medicines
- Mix-ups with the dosages or types of medications given to patients
- Powerful drugs
- Systemic defects
- Complicated technologies
- Undiagnosed surgical complications
- Healthcare professional’s burnout
- Variations in healthcare provider training and experience
- Incorrect documentation
- Inadequately skilled staff
- Illegible handwriting
- Spelling errors
- Medical abbreviations and
- Drug names that sound alike and medications that look alike
These types of medical errors are preventable if clinicians and caregivers follow the proper medication processes and protocols with the utmost of care and perfection. To ensure medication safety, healthcare practitioners should follow the “Five Rights of Medication Administration” that are:
- Right Drug
- (to the) Right Patient
- (in the) Right Dose
- (by the) Right Route
- (at the) Right Time
But it is also important to note that human factors and system weaknesses contribute to medical errors. Preventing medical error is, in itself, a Herculean task for both new and experienced healthcare practitioners. The healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is evolving daily due to everyday technological advancements. To keep ahead of the latest research, innovative medical devices, drug updates, and changing healthcare parameters/metrics is a tough mission for the busy healthcare professional.
With the advent of smart devices like the smartphone, the healthcare industry can aim to reduce medical errors caused by human factors. These days, nearly every healthcare professional uses a mobile device during work hours. They can install a drug guide on their smartphone and experience the following:
- Enhanced point-of-care coordination – practitioners can now coordinate better with patients about their diagnosis, medication and follow-up process
- Access anytime, anywhere. No Wi-Fi needed – information is always at their fingertips
- No more heavy books to carry
- Increased diagnostic accuracy by keeping accurate and descriptive notes
- Prevention of medication errors by administering medicines with confidence:
- Confirm whether the drug dosing prescribed is correct for treatment
- Confirm whether the correct drug is administered for Dx/Tx
- Readily available calculators and interactive tools
- Inline dosing calculators to determine dosing tailored to larger/smaller patients/pediatrics (according to patient’s age)
- Quickly search medicines by brand or generic names
- Look-up drug form availability (tablet, capsule, syrup or drops)
- Determine Y site compatibility at the bedside
- Explore lab test considerations
- Understand pregnancy or pediatric considerations
- Check potential drug interactions
- Research side-effects for patient education
- Audio pronunciation of drug – in order to properly pronounce when talking with peers, patient or family
- Pill images – determine medication the patient is taking, if the prescription bottle is not present
- Bookmarks/History – for quick reference to frequently prescribed drugs
- Peace of mind
- Safe drug administration techniques
- Drug monographs with newly approved drugs, drug classifications, drug combinations, medical abbreviations, symbols, units of measurement, nursing diagnoses, immunization schedule, high alert medication indications, adverse drug reactions, dangerous drugs, clinical alerts, and other warnings.
For these and other reasons, a drug guide on a smartphone provides numerous advantages to healthcare professionals. We are fortunate to live in a day and age where with the advent of smart devices like the smartphone, the healthcare industry can aim to reduce medical errors caused by human factors.
Reference Links:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html
http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/ImprovementStories/FiveRightsofMedicationAdministration.aspx
Map that Pap! 19 additional years to protect against HPV!
January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, and with good reason. Each year, almost 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer.[1] But with Pap smears and preventive vaccination, over nine in ten cervical cancers could be stopped in their tracks.[2] In October of 2018, Gardasil-9—the vaccine that prevents cervical cancer—was approved for more patients than ever before.
Continue reading “Map that Pap! 19 additional years to protect against HPV!”
HIV: No longer a death sentence, but not cured
Your Nursing Program Needs Care Too!
Reflect, Refresh, Rejuvenate
In the past few issues of the Fellow Advisory Network, you have explored how to take care of yourself as a nursing educator and how to take care of the students. Have you thought about the nursing program? You may be saying: “What? How can we take care of a nursing program?” or “Why should we take care of our nursing program?” or “The program is already created. You do not need to “care” for it.”
Let’s begin by describing a nursing program. A nursing program involves a structure based upon the institution’s mission, philosophy, and outcomes. The structure of a program consists of the organization of classes, timetable, concepts, and outcomes. Consider the policies and procedures associated with the program such as admission and attendance. These are part of the program as are teaching methodologies and learning management systems. According to the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, taking care means to do whatever needs to be done to meet a need, or to tend, watch, and protect someone or something. Programs have needs. Programs need to be tended and protected. Nursing programs need to be cared for, tended, and protected. You take care of a program through reflecting, refreshing, and rejuvenating.
Reflect
The first step in caring for your program is to reflect on the program. Look at the program. Evaluate the effectiveness of the program in meeting outcomes such as NCLEX pass rates, employer satisfaction, and program completion rates. Determine what is working and what isn’t working. Identify strengths of the program and areas you need to improve. Program reflection should be a routine operation within the nursing unit. Your program stakeholders need to be encouraged to offer feedback and suggestions for improvement. Everyone’s program is unique and reflecting on ways in which your program is or is not effective is the first step in caring for your program.
Refresh
The second step in caring for your program is to refresh the program. This means to update the program using the latest professional trends and research evidence. The program should be treated as a dynamic ever changing entity – not locked up on paper, placed in a binder, or computer drive and dusted off occasionally. You feed it with fresh trends, evidence-based information, new teaching methodologies, and delivery systems. In other words, your program should be growing and constantly changing in response to professional standards. Programs must change to be effective in meeting today’s and tomorrow’s healthcare needs. The program is tested every day by administrators, faculty, staff, and students in some aspect in relation to evolving current events. For example, if a medication commonly used for diabetes has been recalled and is taken off the market, the program will need to be reviewed to ensure the diabetes information is updated. This is a small example of how daily changes in healthcare practice can impact your program. If the program is not refreshed it becomes stagnant and sits in a corner quietly collecting dust and cobwebs.
Rejuvenate
The third step in caring for your program is to rejuvenate the program. Breathe life into the program. Continuously reflecting upon and refreshing your program helps to keep your program rejuvenated; not old and stagnant. Rejuvenating your program ensures your program is following healthcare best practices, is exciting, and dynamic. Changes to your program should be based on data collection and analysis.
Who is responsible for the program? Individual faculty members? Faculty as a whole? Administration? Students? External stakeholders? The answer is yes! Every one of these entities has a responsibility to ensure the program is alive, breathing, and healthy. That being said, caution should be taken to ensure that the program modifications are completed using a planned process so that changes are not haphazard. For example, a faculty member is teaching a course on research and believes quantitative research is the only method that should be used when seeking answers and thus teaches only quantitative research methods. The students experience a gap in their knowledge relating to qualitative research. These types of program changes lead to gaps in the students’ knowledge base which decreases their ability to achieve program outcomes. The faculty member may have an enhanced teaching experience and feel empowered to make program changes, but the student, the program, and the institution outcomes are not met.
Benefits of caring for your program results in:
- graduates who are prepared for current day practice
- a fresh, exciting, on-the-cutting edge program
- increased positive public relations
- student, program and institutional outcome achievement
- role modeling to students related to the need to constantly evaluate and change using effective change principles and processes
- increased faculty, student, administration morale
Neglect of a program may result in:
- less desirable graduates who are only prepared for yesterday’s practice
- a stagnant program that is behind the times and not current
- drifting of program structure and content
- gaps in concepts, knowledge, and practice
Authored by:
Cherie Rebar, PhD, MBA, RN, COI
Nicole Heimgartner, DNP, RN, COI
Carolyn Gersch, PhD, RN, CNE
Protect yourself from influenza: get a flu vaccine!
Why get a flu vaccine?
Continue reading “Protect yourself from influenza: get a flu vaccine!”
Getting to the heart of diabetes
We all know that diabetes affects sugar metabolism. But what many people don’t know is that people with diabetes are at a far higher risk of heart disease. Adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to die from heart disease. At least 68% of people older than 65 with diabetes will die from heart disease.[1] For National Diabetes Month, take a moment to learn about the connection between diabetes and the heart.