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Archive for date: September 7th, 2015
Week 3 Update: Assignments due tomorrow!
Hello, folks!
Your websites are looking fabulous! All websites that were submitted to us are now actively linked on the Student Blogs page.
Reminder! The Week 3 assignments are due tomorrow, Tuesday, 4:15pm. As we discussed in class last week, all of your weekly assignments are now due on Tuesday (instead of Thursday).
Some of you have already written your Challenge 1: Digital Footprint Audit post and they’re great. We’re looking forward to digging deeper into this topic on Thursday. Don’t forget to bring your screenshots of any surprising findings to share with the class.
Also, if you are interested in getting text message updates about our class (only 1-2 per week), please follow the simple steps available here: http://univ349.brocansky.cikeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/invite.pdf
See you Thursday!
Michelle & Jill
My first Assignment
Here is the final version of my first assignment.
Digital Footprint
An audit of one’s digital footprint can be quite the eye-opening process. One can easily stand out in the digital realm or can be obscured underneath millions of others. I personally found that I can fall into either one of these categories. During an in depth search with just my first and last names, I found that those who share my name have much more of an online presence than I do because I couldn’t find myself in the first several pages of Google results. When my middle initial was included, however I jumped to the top of the results in a Google search. That discovery came as a relief because I decided a couple of years ago to include my middle initial as a part of my professional name. I decided to make sure that I continue to use my name with the initial and to increase my online presence.
One surprising finding was that pictures of me only appeared on Google Images when my full name was used and that the images that came up were only thumbnails of profile pictures from my social media accounts. I have been very strict on privacy settings when controlling my image on social media, so I was gratified to see that diligence has paid off. On the flip side, there should be more positive and carefully crafted pictures of me out there that can lend a face to my name and that is definitely something that I will be incorporating in the near future.
My social media results on Google painted a mixed picture. I realized that some things, such as URLs and biographical sections needed to be changed because they reflected a version of myself that I no longer want to be associated with. Specifically, I found that my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook handles reflected my high school self and would no longer be conducive to the image that I want for myself. I also found outdated information about myself on accounts that I no longer use. The danger of this is that these reflect little to none of the accomplishments that I am most proud of and put my future at risk. I sought to edit or remove these immediately and hope that they will soon be filtered out of searches so that I can have an online presence that I can be proud of.
That said, not everything that I found made me cringe in embarrassment. I did find that in association with my middle school, a top result that comes up is coverage of an event (shown below) during which I was recognized in my 8th grade year. I had long forgotten this event, and that just goes to show that nothing written about you ever truly goes away even if it has in your mind.
MGH, Professor in Training
LAXceptional Students article
Heart-Healthy Diet
I picked a day when I had my regular meals to evaluate my diet. I like to use Choosemyplate.org website because it provides many options of how to analyze the intake of nutrients and calories. Here is what I had on that day:
Next, I looked at the food groups to see if I had adequate amounts of grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, protein, and oils. This break down also allowed me to see how much sodium and fats were in my meals that day:
FoodGroupsMaryna (click – it’s a link)
This website allowed me to create a nutrient report to see a little bit more detailed report on all the nutrients. I could also see all the minerals and vitamins I consumed. This report provided the information about the status of intake of each category: sufficient, insufficient, or excessive amount.
NutrientsReportMaryna (click – it’s a link)
The most convenient feature of this website is that I can click on each nutrient and see which particular food item contributed to the excessive amount of my sodium, or other mineral/nutrient intake. For instance, when I clicked on sodium, I realized that my mashed potatoes and ham contributed the most to the excessive amount of salt during that day. They also give recommendations about how to reduce the sodium.
SodiumIntake (click – it’s a link)
Next time when I buy ham, I will look at the label and chose a low sodium kind. I will also bake my potatoes and add no salt.
I had too much saturated fat and was able to see that it was the cheese that caused the excessive amount. Next time I will chose reduced fat kind of cheese.
Saturated fat (click – it’s a link)
Choosemyplate.org is a very convenient website that I recommend to all the patients who are struggling with planning their meals. It can be very frustrating and confusing for people to plan their meals. This website is a great resource, which also gives you an option of tracking your activities and see how balanced is your intake and expenditure of the calories. I hope you find it useful, too! Thanks.
First post
This semester I’m excited to be diving into critical care. This is a class I have been looking forward to for a long time. Now, what am I disliking so far? The glitches involved with the technology aspect of this class. It’s not the technology itself, I actually am happy to learn and utilize different tech. It’s the occasional system glitches that arise and delay projects. But once again, looking forward to this semester.
Healthcare and Digital Technology
I think that Nurses will be using technology more and more in the coming years. There are a lot of recent advances in technology that will be used in Nursing. For example the EHR-MU makes it easier to transfer patient records form one facility to another. Also it makes patient medical data more accessible even within the same facility. The federal health mandate around electronic health records have also begun to require that patients have access to their own health information (Linck, 2014).
CPOE is a clinical software application designed specifically for providers to write patient orders electronically rather than on paper. With CPOE, providers produce clearly typed orders, reducing medication errors based on inaccurate transcription (Nursing World, 2014).
There are also ear buds that can measure your heart rate, speed and calories burned per workout while you are listening to music and an iPhone case that turns your phone into an EKG monitor (Linck, 2014).
I think that for me as a nurse it would be beneficial to constantly educate myself about new technology and see if it is something that can help me have better access to information or help my patients. I think that mobile technology can help patients to monitor themselves but it should be recommended with caution as patients may try to self diagnose rather than seek the help of a health care professional.
The pros are that technology help nurses to have better access to information whether it is the EHR, or the internet or looking up medication information. Also with the CPOE this helps to stop medication errors by ensuring accurate transcriptions.
The cons are that new technology can be time consuming to learn and may distract from patient care.
The way that I have seen technology being used for patient education in the hospital is when the nurses can bring up handouts related to patient education that are linked to the patient record based in their current diagnosis. There were many that could be printed out and discussed with the patient like diet suggestions, or warning signs and when to call the doctor.
Reference:
Huston, C., (May 31, 2013) “The Impact of Emerging Technology on Nursing Care: Warp Speed Ahead” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 18, No. 2, Manuscript 1.
Linck, R (2014). , Digital Trends in Nursing : http://digitaltrendsinnursing.blogspot.com
Digital Technology and Healthcare
Digital technology in healthcare is a very exciting idea. Two years ago I had read an article about doctors using cell phones to monitor their cardiac patients. The information was downloaded to the application and transmitted to the doctor in real time to monitor the patient’s heart health. Remote monitoring coupled with Electronic Health Records will provide the health professionals the ability to collaborate with ease and over distance. Nurses and health professionals will half to be computer literate, trained, and kept up to date as changes are made to the platform that the facility is using.
In a journal article written by Sheila M. Gephart, PhD, RN & Judith A. Effken, PhD, RN, FACMI, FAAN, it is indicated that is allows the clinicians to follow their patient when they return home and is cost effective as well. However, they do indicate that as they track and follow their patient’s chronic disease, if the information is not inputted it triggers the need for the clinician to intervene which in most cases in a phone call to remind them to input the data, such as the latest blood sugar. There are concerns about the security of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) as indicated in an article by Seth Foldy (Et al). While they have great things to say about the advancement of information tech as it relates to health care, it also approaches it with the need for serious protections and certification of the protection being used by the facility. They further explain that there are many applications used on cell phones that can give bad information and possibly cause people to delay seeking medical attention when it is needed, as well as making the information that you enter into the app accessible to other third party individuals.
Healthcare technology is growing exponentially and I as well as other nurses will be using and accessing more as time progresses. In many places health assessments done by nurses are a series of questions with check boxes and in some cases you can free-write information. In many respects this is good as it prevents areas from being missed or overlooked, however that being said it is also easy to not elaborate or be as thorough in parts of the assessment. It is up to the nurse to be as thorough as she can and if unable to elaborate in the assessment program she will need to mindful to make a narrative note so that information is not missed. While I am optimistic and excited for the future possibilities that this technology brings, it needs to be approached with caution to insure the protection of the clients information.
References:
Gephart, S. M. (2013). Using Health Information Technology to Engage Patients in their Care. Online Journal Of Nursing Informatics, 17(3), 1-6.
Foldy, S., Grannis, S., Ross, D., & Smith, T. (2014). A Ride in the Time Machine: Information Management Capabilities Health Departments Will Need. American Journal Of Public Health, 104(9), 1592-1600. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.301956
Healthcare and Digital Technology
Technology has definitely brought a change in healthcare and nursing. A cell phone case with the capacity of an EKG monitor, ear buds monitoring your heart beat and the amount of calories you burn are all incredible interventions (Linck, 2014). In 2000 the Food and Drug Administration approved the robotic surgery with the da Vinci Surgical System where more complex and delicate procedures can be performed. It also increase surgery’s to be minimal invasive with the results of a decrease in complications such as infections of the surgical site, decrease in blood loss, faster recovery, and smaller scars (Mayo clinic, 2015). In nursing electronic charting, electronic MAR, and Krames are just a few of the important electronic programs in daily nursing. In nursing school and as a new graduate flexibility in learning different charting programs throughout the different hospitals was essential. Next year at my workplace we will be trained on a new charting program named Epic.
There are pros and cons towards technology and healthcare. The internet is a quick resource for patients to find out regarding their condition in using websites such as WebMD; however self diagnosis is not the best option. Follow up care with the primary care physician or specialist needs to be established. A critical care nurse tried to catch up with the morning medications after the patient had a change in condition and required different procedures. The nurse in a hurry crushed the medication and administered the medications through the NG tube including the “Do not crush” medication warning listed on the electronic medication administration record. A crushed extended-release calcium channel blocker was administered to the patient resulting in the patient’s death (Anderson and Townsend, 2013). Technology is an asset to healthcare and nursing, however it can not replace the human brain.
References
Linck, R. (2014, October 8). Digital trends in nursing. Retrieved September 6, 2015, from http://digitaltrendsinnursing.blogspot.com/
Anderson, P., & Townsend, T. (2013, March). Medication error: Don’t let them happen to you. Retrieved September 6, 2015, from http://www.americannursetoday.com/medication-errors-dont-let-them- happen-to-you.
Mayo Clinic. (2015, July 2). Robotic Surgery. Retrieved September 6, 2015, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/robotic- surgery/basics/definition/prc-20013988
