Imagine being able to self diagnose your symptoms at a drug store Kiosk and then get your medications without a prescription? The FDA is considering a proposal that would do just that.
It sounds like an airport, where you print your boarding pass and then get on the plane. Let's take 2 very different conditions:
As the amount of individuals with smart phones and tablets increases rapidly, technology companies have created applications for our smart devices to help organize and simplify our daily lives. Health care applications make it easy to increase our knowledge of health care practices, check our health status and effectively keep our health goals on track.
Today's Featured Guest Writer is Laura Jones, Communications & Social Media Specialist, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Encourages Student Research Submissions
Most nurse practitioner students are required to complete a research thesis or project in order to achieve their advanced degree. Many of these students do not know that taking a few additional steps after the research and writing could lead to publication in a widely respected academic journal.
If you're planning to become pregnant in 2012, there are 5 things you need to do to prepare:
1. Make a pre-conception visit with your health care provider - They will go over your health history, family history and order any necessary tests to help you be as healthy as possible. You may be surprised to learn that some vaccinations may be recommended and that a careful look at family history may reassure some worries.
2. Start taking a prenatal vitamin - There's lots of evidence that taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid in it 1-3 months before conception decreases the risk of neural tube defects in babies, and now recent evidence indicates that prenatal vitamins also reduce the likelihood of delivering prematurely.
When I think about all the patients that need to be seen or when I peak in at over-flowing waiting rooms, I know that there's a shortage of primary care providers. According to the American Medical News: There's a shortage of MD's, Advanced Practice Nurses and Physician Assistants.
When it's time to renew her son's prescriptions for medicine to treat his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Roxanne Ryan prepares for another wild goose chase.
The Philadelphia mother says she typically has to call around to 10 to 15 different pharmacies to find where the prescriptions can be filled. And when 10-year-old Sergey doesn't get his medication, he's a bundle of uncontained energy.
"It's like having a hundred channels racing through your mind," Ryan says. "He can't sit still. He would interrupt the lesson. He can't complete a thought."
On Christmas Eve, just after I managed to wrap the last gift and stuff the last stocking, I was ready to sit down with a nice glass of eggnog. It was then, at 11:15 pm that the phone rang. I didn't think it was Santa, or Rudolph and took a deep breath, bracing myself for what could possibly be going on. It was my elderly neighbors, who I'd spent most of the afternoon with at the local urgent care center. It seemed that Anna (not her real name) was feeling much worse and could I come over and take a look.
A patient came in the other day with a rare condition that affects the liver. She had heard differing opinions from different doctors about what she should do to follow up on this. One said, don't do anything and another was advocating frequent ultrasounds. She was looking for another opinion. I'm not an expert in liver disorders, so after I did some on-line research, I did the next logical thing, I called up a real expert in the field and asked for a consult for this patient.
Sign up now for Health Perks. It's free when you use Nurse Barb as the code. This is like having access to medical and nursing school without the tuition costs or the pressure.
I recently sat down with Dr. Carolyn Stratz to discuss the importance of obtaining a Family Medical History.
"I read on-line........" This phrase has changed medicine, nursing and the way that we care for patients. Like many of my colleagues, I love it, when patients do their own research, because they are invested and interested in their own health. They're much more likely to make healthier choices and I see their research as an opportunity.
