The secret life of a nurse

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [The Physician’s Guide to Getting Time Back]( 3 Ways Technology Accelerates Your Workflows. [Read now](. Three million patients worldwide are currently connected to a [remote monitoring device](. This helps doctors catch potential problems earlier and could reduce the number of hospitalizations, improve patient health, and contain health care costs. 90% of physicians use mobile devices to [connect with patients](. How can you make sure your care plan is staying [front of mind]( for patients when they aren’t in front of you? [Survey results]( Virtually every clinician uses a smartphone at work. But what do they use it for? We asked over 300 health care professionals and the results show a mix of applications. [See the results now](. Each extra log-on can add up to thousands of hours of lost time that could be spent with your patients, improving your overall quality of care. [Learn more about EHR integration]( with Imprivata. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Aug 6, 2018 [The s]( life of a nurse]( This is based on a true story. The name and some details of the events have been changed. She was the smarter nurse who floated to ICU, to CVRU, to CCU. She could handle any crisis: balloon pumps, CRRT, open-heart patients, respiratory distress, code blues — anything. Sandy was quiet. She didn’t really have any […] [Physicians don’t just suffer burnout. They suffer moral injuries.]( Physicians on the front lines of health care today are sometimes described as going to battle. It’s an apt metaphor. Physicians, like combat soldiers, often face a profound and unrecognized threat to their well-being: moral injury. Moral injury is frequently mischaracterized. In combat veterans it is diagnosed as post-traumatic stress; among physicians it’s portrayed as […] [Side hustles are the best kind of asset protection]( My oldest girl and I love watching birds. We usually watch the birds right outside our backdoor while they eat from our bird feeder. As we were watching one day, it amazed me how comfortable the birds were jumping from post to post on the feeder or from branch to branch on the trees. Often times […] [How this physician parent teaches his kids about money]( Let’s be honest — what I don’t know about parenting is astounding. I’m a pediatrician and have three kids, and it’s amazing what I still don’t know. Every so often I hear a parenting idea (or come up with one) that seems perfect. Easy to implement and imparts both clear short and long-term lessons. Implementing […] [Nurses are always right. And 28 other tips for new residents.]( This summer, new resident physicians begin their training all across the United States. Today, our future family physicians and pediatricians, neurosurgeons and emergency physicians, plastic surgeons and laser tattoo removal specialists (OK, not really a specialty, just a sideline) will begin learning how to be physicians, having completed four years of expensive college and four […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Conference planners!]( Find vetted, handpicked physician speakers that shine on stage. Now booking for 2019! Physician Speaking by KevinMD: [Your audience deserves the best](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Reflecting after the first year of medical school]( I left the library at 10 p.m. the night before the last exam of my first year of med school. As I hopped on my bike, I took comfort in my typical pre-test refrain: I’m done studying. I did everything I could. Of course, I’m not really done studying: I still have three years of school […] [Persistence is the secret sauce of success]( My daughter had her first track meet this weekend. We showed up to a field house at the local high school and watched as dozens of kids and hundreds of parents took their places. The competitions spanned from high jump to mile run. Fifty-yard dash to shot put. Watching these fourth and fifth graders compete […] [Older adults and the digital divide]( The digital divide used to be about who had internet access and who didn’t, with broad implications for every aspect of life — especially health care. But digital health innovation is growing rapidly, with projections showing a $536.6 billion market by the end of 2025 compared to the $179.6 billion market at the end of […] [Can empathy be taught to physicians?]( We want competent physicians, but we also want compassionate ones. How do we get them? Is it nature or is it nurture? Is it more important to search out more compassionate students, or should we instill compassion somehow in the ones we start along the training pipeline? I think the answer lies in nurturing what […] [The problem with first-person reporting of unproven interventions]( Houston Chronicle reporter Craig Hlavaty recently treated readers to a first-person account of getting an intravenous (IV) vitamin infusion inside a van parked outside his house. The article, “Feeling the drip, drip, drip of the mobile IV craze,” related how a needle was inserted into his arm, “just where a tattooed lightning bolt strikes.” Hlavaty extolled the […] [We should all care when patients get too many Z-paks]( Many people seem to believe that the Z-pak possesses magical qualities. Patients come in requesting it for the common cold, because it worked for them in the past. Not only do many believe it cures the common cold, but they think it can treat any infection. Have a urinary tract infection? Just ask your doctor […] [Doctors should let their patients’ religious beliefs shine]( On one of my first days of medical school, I shuffled into a lecture hall surrounded by professional looking individuals as we had done the days before. This similar routine persisted for a few days as we became oriented to our new school. Leadership had indoctrinated us with professionalism, administrative staff had terrified us to […] [Is debt-free medical school a financial blunder for doctors?]( Education can be expensive. Higher education can be even more costly. Even partial scholarships can be deceptive as one might opt for a more expensive school for the sake of redeeming “free money.” As a student, I had no financial understanding of return on investment when I was considering higher education. All in, I plowed […] [Don’t let physician identity define you]( When I left clinical practice, I thought I was prepared for the change in my identity. Wrong. I was shocked by the degree to which my sense of myself and my value in the world were rocked by leaving the profession. After all, I left practice less than seven years after I could legally write […] [MKSAP: 38-year-old woman with endometrial cancer]( Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 38-year-old woman is evaluated in follow-up after recent surgery for endometrial cancer. Her family history is significant for colon cancer in her sister (diagnosed at age 45 years) and her mother (diagnosed at age 65 years). Her maternal grandfather was […] [A better way to handle patient handoffs from the hospital]( As we all know, the time around discharge from the hospital is a tricky one. In more ways than one can imagine, patients are in a delicate state, judged by those caring for them to no longer be sick enough to need to remain in the hospital, but possibly not quite completely ready to be […] [Growing up with women in emergency medicine]( I come by many things in my life naturally — my stubbornness, my red hair, and my career. I am very fortunate. Unlike many I am the daughter of a female emergency physician. This is something I never really considered while growing up. Yes, my mom was a doctor. Did she save lives? I guess […] [What is it like to lose a patient to suicide?]( We bear the pain in different ways. For me, it feels like you’re a combat medic and you’ve used up all your tourniquets on a wounded soldier that seems to hemorrhaging from everywhere. The blood seeps through the skin, and no matter what you do you cannot stop the soldier from choking to death on […] --------------------------------------------------------------- If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 345 Hudson Street New York NY 10014 USA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](