Florence Nightingale’s Birthday Present
I’m happy to report that not only is this Nurses’s Week, but on May 12th, it’s Florence Nightingale’s birthday! The date is easy for me to remember, since my own birthday is May 15th. [Guess we are both under the sign of Taurus the bull, not that I follow such prognostication, but a correlation has been made in my family that if the nose ring fits...] I wonder what Flo would say about some of the headlines today? Aside from wars and rumors of more wars, technological miracles, and the odd ritual of camping outdoors once the weather is nice, what would she say about...
Read MoreHub-Caps to H-CAHPS
As surely as the white-walled hubcaps on my in my father’s shark-finned ’59 Buick, which I drove when I was 16, would have been replaced with wire-rims (were it still running), the CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System) assessments have morphed into H(for hospital)CAHPS. (Say, “H-Caps.”) What does this mean? And who cares? You should, dear reader. The HCAHPS is the next generation, Ralph Nader-type of brainchild that healthcare consumers (i.e., all of us, eventually) conceived in the early 2000’s. It all started as a back-lash movement against the...
Read MoreSo You Wanna Run Barefoot?
This really sounds like something you’d say to your toddler, with a wry smirk on your face. Be the interlopers rocks, glass, or just the random asphalty-hardness, what child hasn’t learned, as the punsters say, the hard way? Then what sense can we make of the newest adult-fad, barefoot running? Despite the much-touted book on the subject, there exists no reliable scientific evidence to cushion the fall. (Could it be a nefarious podiatrist’s plot to garner more customers??) Not surprisingly, sports’ medicine experts and cast-adorned would-be...
Read MoreNICU Stress Part 3: Breastfeeding Advice For Moms of Premature Infants
Breastfeeding Advice For Moms of Premature Infants NICU fallout: It’s not about radiation Are you the mom of a preemie who dreads pumping milk at night while the baby is in the NICU? You are not alone. Who can blame you? It’s inconvenient. It interrupts your sleep. It also interrupts your sleep! (If you noticed that repetition, you are probably NOT pumping at night.) Unfortunately, even though you are pumping every 2-3 hours during the day, your milk supply is also down…or dwindling. But why? Research shows there are five simple prerequisites for making milk: increased...
Read MorePodcast re: Graham’s Foundation
Dear Readers, The following podcast is one of our most emotional interviews of 2010. The story of Nick and Jenn Hall’s journey, and Jenn’s delivering micropreemie twins, is all too common these days. “The well-meaning things people say that hurt” may sound familiar to anyone who has gone through the chaos of the time; for others, this may be an enlightening bit of news. Listen how one family channeled their grief into a bit of comfort for other parents. The Graham Foundation “care packages” bless those who must navigate the treacherous waters of the NICU, with practical items, and...
Read MoreBringing Baby Home
BRINGING BABY HOME / BABY-PROOFING YOUR WORLD / BABY-PROOFING YOUR HOME /PARENTING YOUR NEW BABY Bringing Baby Home By Candace Campbell, MSN, RN [reprinted with permission, Health4Women magazine] Congratulations and welcome to a new stage in your life – parenthood! Or maybe this isn’t your first baby and it’s welcome back to the magic kingdom! In an instant, your new baby has changed you from a couple into a family. The irony of your new essence, parenthood, evokes what I like to call a babylove addiction, which in a poetic sense, may be likened to a line from the old Eagles...
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