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Heart Healthy Diet

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Today, only by luck, I consumed a low salt and low fat diet, which is not necessarily normal for me. I love the taste of salt, and prefer it over the flavor of sugar, so I do find myself searching out snacks and foods on the savory-salty side when given a choice. Today I consumed a scrambled egg/tofu/zucchini breakfast with a side of potatoes. In order to check my salt intake first, I used the www.heart.org website to evaluate my breakfast and used their sodium tracker form. The scramble had 105 mg of sodium. If I had used a salt substitute, it would have been 75mg. The potatoes I prepared had four shakes of the salt shaker=40 mg of salt. For lunch I had a salad with salad dressing. The label indicates another 30mg of sodium, plus www.fatsecret.com indicates 16mg of sodium from the salad itself.. For a snack I had 3 cookies at 150mg of sodium each.Since I plan to have the same salad for dinner, my total sodium for the day would be 1787mg of sodium, under the recommended maximum amount of 2,000mg/day. This is fortunate since I try hard to keep my sodium intake as low as possible. I also looked into my fat consumption. The recommended allowance is 78 grams of fat per day. I came in at 55 grams, even including my cookies! If I were to try and reduce these numbers, I would first try to educate myself in finding healthy alternative substitutes. In the past I have enjoyed using different spices and herbs, and for the fat substituting healthy fats (coconut, olive oil) for bad ones. If I were to make cookies, I could also substitute apple sauce for the fat. This option actually tastes good! I think these kinds of adjustments are ok as I like to experiment with ingredients, but if I were to eat out more often or if someone else cooked, I would probably be in trouble. To monitor one’s sodium and fat intake, it takes diligence and awareness to track amounts and to adjust accordingly. At least it looks like I am on the right track, however too bad I like smoked salmon so much. From hereon I will need to be more conscious of how much I consume of it, as it is full of sodium. Maybe preparing smoked salmon myself from fresh salmon and liquid smoke would be better, and eliminate the sodium.

Sodium Content                    Fat Content

Scramble w/coconut oil:                          105mg                                   7g

Potatoes w/coconut oil:                             40mg                                 14g

Salad Dressing (x2):                                   60mg                                   14g

Salad (x2):                                                    32mg                                   n/a

Smoked Salmon (in Salad x2):              1100mg                                  5 g

Cookies:                                                     450mg                                   15 g

TOTAL:                                                      1787mg                                  55g

 

Heart Healthy Diet–Could I Adhere to One?

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Today, being a holiday, I started out my day with a late breakfast after sleeping in until 9:30am. I was in the mood for a pizza for my “brunch,” and had 4 slices of Trader Joe’s Four Cheese pizza at 380 mg of sodium and 1.5 grams of fat. I had water to drink with it.

I skipped lunch because this was quite filling and I was busy all day. For dinner I had a moderately-sized beef meatloaf from Trader Joes with  332mg of sodium and 4.6 grams of fat. I drank a Limonata San Pelligrino, which contained no fat and no sodium.

For dessert, I had 4 Milano Dark Chocolate cookies with 180 calories, 80 grams of those calories coming from fat, and sodium at 60 mg.

My total sodium consumption for the day: 772 mg

My total fat consumption for the day: 146 grams

 

I consulted WebMd, and If I were on a “heart healthy diet,” I would need to have less than 2,000 mg of sodium daily, ideally down to 1,500 mg if possible. I would also need to keep my fat consumption down to 78 grams of fat in a 2,000 calorie diet. Today was rather unusual in that I did not eat that much, and I have to admit, I do enjoy eating “junk food” from time to time. So it would be quite tough for me to keep my fat consumption down if put on a heart healthy diet if today was a “light” eating day for me, seeing as I am way over the recommend grams of fat. My sodium fortunately, was under control today but like I said, I know on other days of week, I would certainly be in violation of the 1,500-2,000mg restrictions if I were to have cardiac problems and need to go on a diet. I enjoy salty, fat-filled chips, cookies, and many nights, I look forward to an ice cream bar after dinner.

It is so easy to be judgmental of patients who are in violation of their diets and who do not adhere to exactly what you want them to do, but with tempting snacks galore, particularly in this society, it helps to take a step back and mentally walk a mile in the patient’s shoes.

 

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Heart-Healthy Diet

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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:

Meals (click – it’s a link)

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

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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

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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

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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

Digital Technology & Healthcare

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Digital technology is fast becoming ‘the norm’ in all aspects of our society, and healthcare is no exception.  From having access to healthcare records with a few key strokes to simple things, such as new hands-free and wireless telephones for healthcare staff, technology is making most healthcare professionals’ jobs easier.  It’s great to have a smart device or computer unhand to look up any desired information at a moments notice.  I am by no means ‘a techie’, but I fully embrace  the technological advances and am willing to learn the newest things that come out.

I think that the new EHR’s and healthcare documentation software are making assessment documentation somewhat easier for nursing staff.  With an increasing number of RN’s coming into the workforce that are tech savvy, it is a time saver. However, in regards to the older nurse population, is has made documentation more difficult, as some are not comfortable with computers in general.  EHR’s also require a multitude of man hours for education in order to teach staff how to use the new systems.

Another downside to mobile technology is that it has driven people to seek healthcare advice from internet resources which may, or may not be reliable sources. People need to realize that digital media is a decent starting point, but if they have questions or concerns about health, their primary care physician is the best source.

I see technology used frequently within the hospital setting for patient education.  The hospital uses printed sources from Krames and other similar sites for medications, patient safety, exercise programs, and disease process education.

Introduction

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Hi my name is Lisa Acquisto and I am a native of Ventura. I have three great kids. Ashlynn is 28 years old, lives in North Carolina, and is a successful beautician. She has recently returned to school to be a dietician. Anicia is 24 years old, has begun classes this fall at CSUCI as a junior studying Business. She works as a waitress at Brophy’s in Ventura and is soon to begin her second job at Farmer Boy’s in Santa Barbara. My youngest, Ben is 22 years old, and is in his final year at USC studying Public Relations in sports. He is interning with USC Athletic Marketing and Pollack PR Marketing Firm, and works for Annenberg Facilities. I also have two little dogs, which are big dogs at heart. Daphne is 8 year old, Chihuahua/Dachshund mix, and Peewee is a three year old Chihuahua/Terrier mix.

Digital Technology & Healthcare

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I think digital technology in the field of healthcare is great. It has allowed researches to gain a lot of insight on health issues such as mental health, academic performance, and behavioral trends. Computers process the information in a clear, organized way and it has saved a tremendous amount of time on the researchers’ part.
Abnormal heart rhythms are another area where technology has come a long way in, specifically atrial fibrillation. Many people have died due to clots resulting from AF. Now we have pacemakers and defibrillators that continuously report data to help diagnose and understand this condition better. According to results from a Canadian randomized clinical trial, patients who wore ambulatory EKG monitors for 30 days had better outcomes because AF was diagnosed five times more frequently in those patients vs. those who underwent conventional 24hr testing.
Technology has improved and saved many lives. It allows us to share information more easily in a matter of seconds. If I’m missing an H&P or if I need orders, I can call the doctor and they can just log on from where they’re at and I’ll get it in a couple minutes. Technology is also wonderful when it comes to patient education. More and more doctors’ offices and hospitals use tablets now in addition to one on one teaching to show patients where they can obtain more info on disease process and other support websites. Technology is here to stay so nurses need to jump on board.