Are Nurses Desensitized to Alarms?

Back on Feb 15, Michele Noris, from NPR's All Things Considered spoke with, Boston Globe reporter, Liz Kowalczyk about her investigative series on how hospital staff can tune out or not react with urgency to patient alarms.

Kowalczyk states, "One of the cases that I wrote about involved an elderly woman at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was in the hospital to get a cardiac catheterization. Her monitor sounded an alarm for about an hour, indicating a weak battery. And then for about 15 minutes, indicating a battery that was about to die. And no one responded to that alarm and she did have a heart attack. And because the alarm - the monitor wasn't working, there was no alarm to alert staff to her heart attack."

Kowalczyk also talks about what hospitals are doing to help the situation. " Well, I think there are some short-term solutions. Hospitals are trying, you know, one is to hire nurses or technicians whose sole job is just to monitor the monitors. Another solution hospitals are looking at is trying to reduce the number of people on monitors. There are a lot of patients on cardiac monitors who probably don't need to be on cardiac monitors."

You can read the entire interview over at Nurses Can Become Desensitized To Hospital Sounds

What are some of your suggestions to help stay in tune with the abundance of alarms?

Office Yoga

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These are 2 Yoga apps that are specifically designed for you to use at work.

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Back on Feb 28th we posted all the benefits of yoga. As nurses, we need to make sure we are practicing what we preach.

These apps make it easy to incorporate yoga into your work day.

Click here for the iphone app

And click here for the Android app

DNA Game- How Fast Are You?

The Double Helix Game over at NobelPrize.com has you assembling DNA as fast as you can.

Once the DNA is assembled you need to guess which animal's DNA you just copied. Remember to look at how many chromosomes were created to help you decide.

ER Schedules

GirlVet from over at Emergency Room Nurse works in an ER where the nurses self schedule. Here she explains how it works.

Syndicated from GirlVet Madness: Tales of an Emergency Room Nurse 3/1/11


"As y'all know I have been a nurse for MANY (many) years, mostly in the ER. Working in the ER is stressful and gets more stressful every day. Zillions of changes, mean patients, you name it.

How, you might ask, how have I lasted this long? Money. However, I would say the major factor in me staying in the ER, other than my innate need to help humanity (!), is FLEXIBILITY. In our ER, we do self scheduling. We decide when we want to work and hand it in to someone who somehow manages to make everyone happy. We do it by work clusters. The person (another staff nurse)who does our schedule works the same hours as me (9a-9P) and so do the people he makes a schedule for. Every work cluster (7a-7P, 3p-11p,etc) does the same thing. Somehow it all works out.

95% of the people in my ER work 12 hour shifts. There are no rotating shifts. Everybody works a straight shift including nights. This allows more days off.

I have come to the conclusion that in order to survive in an ER, you have to have at least 3 days off in a row, if not more, in a month. Most months I end up with 5-6 days off in a row. As I plow through the other part of the month, I look forward to the time off as a way of coping with the job.

After all my years in the ER, I have concluded if you want to last, you have to have these stretches off. 1-2 days doesn't do it. Day 1 of days off is spent recovering from working the last 2-3 days and decompressing from the job. Day 2 is when you start to forget about it, unless you have to go back to work the next day. Then you really never decompressed. I have the kind of job where the day before I am going to work I can feel myself ramping up to go back. So the day before a work day and the day after are sort of lost.

So managers, if you want happy, long term employees I recommend this:
1) Offer 12 hour shifts
2) Offer straight days, nights, evenings with these 12 hour shifts
3) Let your employees self schedule

This might seem like it would be impossible but it works. It has worked for many years in my ER. "

What do you think about the way they do the scheduling in her ER?

NYSNA class: Documentation

NYSNA has a class coming up in Oneida, NY. All of the details are on the NYSNA website.

Documentation: Know Your Professional Rights and Responsibilities


Mar 9, 10 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM Oneida Healthcare Ctr.
Classroom A, 321 Genesee St., Oneida, NY
Open to all Oneida Healthcare Center Rns and LPNs. Mar 2 4.0


Class Summary:

"Are you unaware of your professional rights and responsibilities with regard to medical record documentation? Have you felt unsure about how to record your clinical and professional observations? Have you wondered whether your charting practices could result in disciplinary action or the filing of a lawsuit against you? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then this workshop is for you. Join us in a discussion of proper documentation practices and principles. Learn how to document in a legal, safe and proper manner."

No fee is charged for this workshop.

Attendance is open to NYSNA local bargaining unit members only. Programs are not available to non-represented members without prior approval.

NYSNA reserves the right to cancel this workshop due to low registration or other circumstances beyond our control.

77 Health Benefits to Yoga

Syndicated from NursingDegree.net
Photo by Federico Stevanin



Yoga is an ancient practice that connects the mind, body, and spirit through body poses, controlled breathing, and meditation. The practice of yoga has many health benefits associated with it, so read below to discover 77 benefits of incorporating yoga in to your or your patient’s fitness program.

Health Benefits Within
**From lowering blood pressure to increasing pain tolerance, the following health benefits can all be discovered within the body.

1. Decreases Blood Pressure.
2. Slows Pulse Rate.
3. Improves Circulation.
4. Lowers Respiratory Rate
5. Improves Cardiovascular Endurance.
6. Massages internal Organs
7. Improves Gastrointestinal Functions
8. Strengthens Immunity.
9. Increases Pain Tolerance
10.Balanced Metabolism.

Health Benefits Without
**Just as many health benefits occur within the body, there are many benefits that can actually be experienced from without the body. From better sleep to more energy and strength, this list provides several benefits found on the outside of the body.

11. Slows Aging.
12. Improves Posture.
13. Improves Strength.
14. Increases Energy.
15. Maintain Healthy Weight.
16. Better Sleep.
17. Improved Balance.
18. Integrated Function of the Body.
19. Better Body Awareness
20. Increased Core Strength.
21. Better Sex

Emotional Health Benefits
**Due to the strong mind-body connection of yoga, there are many emotional benefits to be gained from a consistent yoga practice. Find out how yoga can help improve emotional health with this list.

22. Enhances Healthy Moods.
23. Stress Reduction.
24. Lessen Anxiety.
25. Wards off Depression.
26. Improves Self-Acceptance.
27. Aids in Self-Control.
28. Creates a Mind-body connection.
29. Creates a Positive Outlook on Life.
30. Reduces Hostility.
31. Enhanced Concentration.
32. Increased Memory.
33. Focuses Attention.
34. Better Social Skills.
35. Instills Calmness.

Body Chemistry
**Several aspects of body chemistry such as glucose levels and red blood cells are affected by yoga. Learn how you can improve your body chemistry through yoga.

36. Lowers Cholesterol
37. Strengthens Lymphatic System.
38. Lowers Blood Glucose Levels.
39. Reduces sodium levels
40. Improves Endocrine Functions.
41. Lowers Triglycerides.
42. Increases Levels of Red Blood Cells.
43. Increases Bodies Vitamin C.

Exercise Health Benefits
**As a form of exercise, yoga offers benefits that are sometimes not easily found among other exercise regimens. Check out these reasons to include yoga in your or your patient’s health program.

44. Lowers Risk of Injury.
45. Stimulates the Parasympathetic Nervous System.
46. Increases Muscle Tone.
47. Enhances Subcortex Brain Function.
48. Reduces Oxygen Consumption.
49. Improves Breathing.
50. Is a Balanced Workout of Opposing Muscle Groups.
51. Non-competitive.
52. Increases Joint Range of Motion.
53. Enhances Eye-hand Coordination.
54. Helps Dexterity.
55. Increases Reaction Time.
56. Improves Endurance.
57. Increases Depth Perception.

Disease Prevention
**Doctors and nurses love yoga because studies indicate that it can help prevent the following diseases.

58. Reduces Risk of Heart Disease.
59. Helps Prevent Osteoporosis.
60. Slows Alzheimer’s.
61. Can Help Prevent Type II Diabetes.

Symptom Reduction or Alleviation
**Medical professionals have learned that the following diseases or disorders can all be helped by maintaining a yoga practice.

62. Helps Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
63. Reduces Asthma Symptoms.
64. Relieves Arthritis Symptoms.
65. Helps Manage Multiple sclerosis.
66. Aids in Cancer Prevention.
67. Lessens Symptoms of Muscular Dystrophy.
68. Relieves Migraines.
69. Improves Scoliosis.
70. Lessens Chronic Bronchitis.
71. Helps Epilepsy.
72. Alleviates Sciatica Pain.
73. Reduces Symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
74. Relieves Constipation.
75. Reduces Allergy Symptoms.
76. Reduces Side Effects of Menopause.
77. Lessens Back Pain.

Nursing Crossword

You will need to right click and print out crossword