The month of February has really been busy for most us topped with the Day of Hearts! Certainly, we all feel the love in the air even within the walls of the hospital. Patients having their warm greetings and health care professionals making their love intentions known to their long time crushes.
On the matter at hand… 
About 2 weeks ago, Nancy Parker, owner of www.howtobecomeanursepractitioner.net , sent an email and asking me to post a link to her blog. I gave her site a visit and found it useful and interesting… and heck! Why not?! It’s always good to help a fellow nurse and the nursing field itself. One of the articles worth mentioning is her post, Top 15 iPhone Apps for Nurse Practioners on the Go. As the title suggest, it’s a list of applications that are useful for nurses with iphone/ipad/ipod. With todays technology popularly booming, it is but practical to incorporate these innovations into the medical world especially to nurses on the go. These come handy and helpful. It’s always good to have reliable and instant reference in times of need. Some are free and some are paid. Sadly, I do not have the luxury of testing these apps since I am unfortunate not to own any of these products. Perhaps, someone would have the heart to send me one? LOL. Email me if u want to send me one. Who knows? 
Anyways, comment up on this post and make your opinions heard regarding these apps. Check and click the link provided on Nancy’s site. Here’s a sample on the post…
Skyscape
Skyscape offers hundreds of valuable medical resources for the iPhone which include Outlines in Clinical Medicine®, Archimedes™ Medical Calculator, RxDrugs™: Drug Dosing Tool, and MedAlert™. There are also drug guides, interactive algorithms, calculators, and much more.
Eponyms
Get a database that currently contains more than 1,700 medical eponyms and is updated regularly for your iPhone with this app. Get an A through Z of many common and uncommon medical conditions, as well as definitions. The student version is free and the one for professional nurse practitioners and other healthcare workers is $2.
Merck Manual
This app includes images, charts, and figures to take full advantage of the iPhone or iPad display. Updates include hundreds of medical images and even full support. Choose from the Home Edition ($9.99) or Professional Edition ($34.99). They are both based on a “New York Times” best-seller of the same name.
Blausen Human Atlas
See the human body as never before in this iPhone app for nurse practitioners. It provides point-of-care access to 3D animations of common medical treatments and conditions with accompanying narration. You can even use it to manipulate illustrations with the touch of a finger. Currently selling for $19.99.
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Feb 11
4
nKini featured… again
Hi. The folks at Online Schools has featured nKini: Nursing Blog on one of their articles. It features 50 Resources for Students Attending Online BSN Schools. Check out the different links on the site as one can read about colorful and interesting stories of nurses all over the globe. One will be able to see the aspects of distinct nurses assigned in different areas working in varied situations. Enjoy and hit the link. 
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Jan 11
31
Spike’s first groom
It was a Tuesday this January. It’s around 12am. I’m on a night duty. The graveyard shift was “ayt”. We had no major case or any “commotion”. Although, we had one case but it was not in the OR. Rather, it was in the DR. The DR nurses asked for a scrub nurse for a STAT C/S case. I volunteered to assist the case. I eagerly went to the DR complex because I had not scrubbed for quite a while. It’s been some time since I’ve been in an unfamiliar territory. Seeing all those nurses wearing pink scrub suits makes me feel that I’m in a new place. LOL. Anyway, I scrubbed the case, everything went smoothly and we finished at around 2:30AM.
I had just risen from the night shift. It was 2:30pm. Checked emails, Facebooked(LOL) and tried to play HON. Sadly, HON was on server maintenance. Mom approached me and asked me to have our pet groomed. I checked the net for feedback of the different vet centers within the city. Based on the reviews, I was able to decide on which center to visit. I was there watching, Spike, our dog having his hair cut and groomed. The Vet said it’ll be around 3 hours to finish. Haha! I was stuck here at the shop. I hoped Spike will have a cool look rather than cute and girly.
Almost an hour has passed and Spike’s grooming was slowly showing its progress. He looked cleaner and the tangles were gone. For a first timer, I think he was quite behaved. I stared at his teary eyes hoping he we would read my mind… “Good boy Spikey! Keep that up and you’ll have a good bowl of dog food. Perhaps, I might even sneak some of my food from the dining table.”
After the haircut, Spike had a bath at the center. He smelled be smelled and looked fresh. The family was really happy. As usual, Spike had will have lots of attention, which he really likes.
Here’s Spike before and how spike looks now.
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! It has been quite some time when I’ve posted here in nKini. My schedule’s been very hectic lately for the past recent months. Here’s a rundown of things that went and happened.
July-August 2010.
It all started when I was on duty during Sundays, actually 6 consecutive Sundays to be exact. I was assigned as the station nurse back then. The shifts we had were what we called lucky – we had no major STAT cases. All we did was do the routine Sunday responsibility. And when the tick boxes that I have made for the different tasks to be done were all checked, I had more or less nothing to do. A thought came to me, “If I could change and make a combined nurses notes and peri-operative nursing checklist, then circulating cases would be much more convenient.” I just had to make sure that these would be a more of a check box type of form wherein we just tick if we had done something and attend more to the consultants and moreover to the patients. I had already noticed that some things are redundant with the nurses’ notes and in the checklist that we have been using. These meant wasted effort for writing that’s already been written in the checklist and time consuming. How did I go about the thought? Each time I went on a Sunday duty, I slowly constructed a new form for the OR nurses to use. From scratch, I tried to find a pattern that OR nurses usually write in the notes and make them into tick boxes. I fused these things on the revised checklist. The next thing I did was showed it to my colleagues. They said the revision is very helpful. They also gave their contributions as to how to make the revised form better. They said that I show it to our supervisor but I hesitated. I felt that the form wasn’t ready yet and needs some testing. I did a sort of pilot study with the form. For the times I was vacant, I shadowed a circulating nurse using the new form. The form was effective in a way that it could save time and that time could be used to attend to other needs inside the OR. Also, I found out many things to be added in the new form. We had about 6 major revisions and a couple of minor ones on the new form. Today, I’m pleased to say that the new form is being used and nurse circulators have been grateful for it.
September-November 2010.
I made a decision that would step up my career as a nurse. I was to take the IELTS exam. I enrolled myself in an IELTS review class near our institution. I didn’t matter to me if I was on the best review center. I think what would matter most is the individuals determination. I request for a PM shift so I could take review classes in the morning and go on duty in the afternoon. Almost a month has passed but I wasn’t quite satisfied with the reviews I’ve done. October was fast approaching and yet I felt that I have done so little. I was lazy to wake up in morning and frequently missed classes. I had to decide to postpone the exam a month later and changed my study strategy. By October, I requested for AM shifts. This time I was able to manage both my work and review – even gave up gimmicks, night outs and jogging. After work, I directly went to the review center. I take a 15-30 minutes nap before doing an actual IELTS exam simulation. I usually end up around 5pm. A week prior to the November exam, I requested a leave. By this time, I had the whole day to practice. I had my final coaching with my review center as well as with Mitch. She helped me with my writing strategies and gave a lot of tips. Together with God’s grace, all efforts were not wasted. My expectations were over met. I was aiming for a 7.0 or a 7.5 but I got an 8.0. which is very AWESOME!
December 2010.
When a month ends in the letters –ber, Filipinos know that Christmas is fast approaching. As early as September, people start to decorate their homes with Christmas lights and lanterns. Malls also start selling Christmas decors and they start playing Christmas music. On the street, one will notice a display of colorful lights. Both adults and children alike do caroling at night. People wake up as early as 3am to hear the 9 days dawn masses before Christmas. All these, resembles the spirit of Christmas for Filipinos. Likewise, people have their respective Christmas parties. As far as I can remember, we have lots of gatherings here in CHH. The CHH Christmas party was on the 10th, the NSO at the 14th and the Department of Surgery was at the 18th which was the best party at work. Moreover, I had the chance to join the “spontaneous” Christmas gathering of BSN Section H at MO2. ‘Twas fun and crazy!
Still, nothing beats the family Christmas eve party at my uncle’s house. Their place was very cozy and we had so much fun. We had a great view of the fireworks and the music was good. And we were all in a mood for laughter!
I bid farewell 2010 and look forward to a great 2011. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. God bless us always!
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Lexi Lacey was 14 weeks early her due date. She was only 26 weeks old in her mother’s womb. Given this fact, seems a little only 10% per cent chance of survival. Here’s the story.
On the evening of June 26th, mother Chelsea suffered agonizing stomach cramps. She called up the hospital and was told it was nothing to worry about. Later that night, her mom rang for an ambulance and was brought to the hospital. Having been born so prematurely, the main concern of the health providers was keeping Lexi warm. They did not have the facilities to care for a premature baby at 26 weeks. Babies born at this age lack the necessary body fat to maintain their body temperature. Amazingly, the health providers made use of the smallest insulating jacket they could find – a 15cm plastic sandwich bag from the hospital’s cafeteria! The bag was used to sustain her for 3 days until she was strong enough to be transferred to a hospital with the special facility. Lexi spent 11 weeks recovering in the new facility until she was allowed to go home on the 3rd of September.
SOURCE: Telegraph
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26
Syrinx
Last month, I posted about a new way to give medications – the P.L.E.A.S.E. Today, however, I came across “another solution” for needles and kids. Take notice on those quotation marks as I will explain those later. Anyway, I read about the Syrinx. The Syrinx is a sort of modified needle for kids. Designers attached cute little animal figures onto needles – making it look that the needles are part of the animals. Thus, making the system friendlier to kids. Jesper Nilsson explains that there are 4 steps on how Syrinx work.
“One While the anesthesia is taking effect, the child and the parent together read a book about what’s about to happen, all illustrated and designed real nice just for this event. This Syrinx book allows the child to become immersed in the event in a positive way rather than the usual anxiety-filled episode of yore.
Two The child chooses their own Syrinx creature they want to work with, allowing them to continue their journey into the event, rather than skirting around it.
Three When the blood is being taken, the child can (hopefully) focus on the Syrinx rather than the normal looking away in terror situation.
Four After the event is over, the Syrinx is detached and given to the child, kind of like getting a toy with your box of cereal!”
It’s great isn’t it. However, I might have a slight, let’s say, a concern. This explains why I intentionally placed those quotation marks. The innovation is good but what if the end result would give a child a phobia of animals. Or, what if it would give a kid the misconception that it is alright to be bitten by critters – even those found under our sewers. What do you think? Leave a comment and share some thoughts.
ShareWhen I arrived yesterday from work, mom told me that “Igi” is on youtube. He’s on America’s Got Talent show. Wow! Just WOW, after seeing the video. The whole family with friends of my brother patiently waited for Glee to finish and watch AGT on Starworld. While waiting, we spread the news by twitter, facebook and SMS. Here’s a picture of last night’s moment.
Hilariously, as we watched AGT, we came to realize that this isn’t the same episode on youtube. Oops! False alarm everyone – twitter, facebook and SMS! Haha! Perhaps it’ll be on next weeks episode. We watched Luigi’s performance on youtube for the nth time.
Who’s Luigi anyway? In our childhood days, we used to call him by “Igi” short for Luigi. 
His family used to lived at our ancestral home in Guizo, Mandaue City, Philippines. He is the son of Chito and Helen Seno. He’s the 2nd of 5 siblings. They moved to the US about 8 years ago for a better future. I could remember his younger sister, Yani, who shed tears because she didn’t want to let go of her nanny. The whole family is blessed with talents. I think everybody can sing and play not just a single instrument. You can visit his website here: LUIGI. Here’s the AGT video below. The judges loved his performance and the audience went crazy! Wow!!!
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On the morning of May 10th, I woke up early to cast my vote. I arrived at the precinct around 7:15 am. The holding room was full and I was outside on a long line of people to cast my vote. Some 40 minutes have past but still there was no movement. I decided to go home and have breakfast. On my way back, it was still the same. Casting votes was very slow. People on the waiting line started complaining. This was the first time the Philippines had an automated voting system. You’d keep patience on your side. As for me, I didn’t have the luxury of time. I was to be on duty on the 2-10 pm shift. To make the long story short, me and my brother went back around lunch. By this time we had our priority number. We got 480 something. We asked a guy waiting in the holding area, he was still number 290+. Wow, that slow?!? I went home to prepare for duty and later around past 5:50pm my brother finally casted his vote.
Today, my family watched the inauguration of the 15th President of the Philippines – Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. The ceremony was held at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. On the night before, the Aquino’s heard mass at their parents’ grave. I’m glad the efforts of those people who patiently waited to make their votes did not go to waste. In his speech, he uttered and reminded himself of the platforms and programs if he is elected president. He mentioned “Pag walang corrupt, walang mahihirap.” – this was one of his slogan campaigns. Yes, I believe he sets the best example to us all and to all other officials. He believes in justice and truth. He mentions reconciliation but not merely forgetting the faults of those guilty. Again, very true. It’s a time to change. Time to leave behind those “bahala na” habits and begin to initiate change. He has in his blood the legacy of the Aquino’s. Like he said, he cannot face his parents if he doesn’t continue to light the torch in him and every Filipino. I am positive that he will not fail us. Let us all do, help and pray for a better Philippines that it is today. Start it now and pass it on.
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Careers in Healthcare: Case Management: More than meets the eye
by: Betty Nelson, PhD, RN
Case management is a collaborative process of coordinating complex, unrelated patient care services to meet the needs of the patient while controlling the costs of services.
Why is case management important?
While case management has been practiced since the late 1800’s in the United States, it has risen in prominence just over the last decade. Case management emerged as a response to the need to maximize outcomes of the competing demands of patient care, availability of services and healthcare financing.
Many conditions pose significant challenges to providing the right care, especially when they occur simultaneously:
- Physical limitations
- Financial issues
- Advances in medical science and biotechnology
- The rise of more complex and severe illnesses
- A complicated health insurance environment.
What does a case manager do?
According to the American Case Management Association, a case manager’s responsibilities include:
- Advocacy & Education – ensuring the patient has an advocate for needed services and any needed education.
- Clinical Care Coordination/Facilitation – coordinating multiple aspects of care to ensure the patient progresses.
- Continuity/Transition Management – transitioning of the patient to the appropriate level of care needed.
- Utilization/Financial Management – managing resource utilization and reimbursement for services.
- Performance and Outcomes Management – monitoring, and if needed, intervening to achieve desired goals and outcomes for both the patient and the hospital.
- Psychosocial Management – assessing and addressing psychosocial needs, including individual, familial, environmental, etc.
- Research & Practice Development – Identifying practice improvements and using evidence based data to influence needed practice changes.
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Hello, enjoying my day off. I got up early to road run – a treat for myself and for my heart. Father’s Day is also celebrated here today. Happy Father’s Day to all proud dads. Everything’s great.
Then, I got an email telling me that my blog has just been awarded 2010 Top 50 Nursing Blog. Wow! Really?!? I think I owe these to the viewers. Thanks!
