Health Sociology
Title description: Health sociology
Word count: 1493
Keywords: Life-expectancy, Unequal distribution, Health disparities, Waterborne diseases, Multiple partner sex relationships, Ethnic communities, Healthier lifestyle
Excerpts:
An early study of these health disparities in the UK, the Black Report of 1982, showed how health could clearly be correlated with income, and people in the poorer social class had more illness and a much higher mortality than their fellow citizens in the more affluent classes.
A further factor in damaging the health of minority groups may be discrimination, racism or persecution by the host population, as well as a general unwillingness to take note of their health beliefs, practices and expectations.
The lower the social ranking, the higher the health risks, for example, he quotes research showing that movie actors who win an Academy Award live on average 4 years longer than their co-stars, and other actors who were nominated for the Award but never got it.
Dental Impressions
Title description: A brief analysis of material characteristics and clinical techniques
Word count: 3713
Keywords: Impression materials, Oral tissues, blowhole formation, Gypsum cast, Hand spatulation, Beta hemihydrates, Impression recording temperature, Agar, Pseudoplasticity
Excerpts:
Certain impression materials develop internal stresses when cooled to room temperature from impression recording temperature. Some elastic materials require a rest period after removing the impression and before pouring gypsum cast to allow full elastic recovery.
The water powder ratio W:P is crucial in determining the setting time and setting expansion of plaster. Increase in the W:P ratio of the impression plaster leads to an increase in setting time while lowering the setting expansion.
An agar hydrocolloid conditioner with three temperature controlled water bath is used. The conditioner has a liquefying or boiling section in which tray agar is placed at a temperature of 100°C for about 10 to 15 minutes and gel is converted into sol.
The gingival tissues are displaced away from the preparation before the light bodied material is syringed around the teeth. The displacement is made by packing a retraction cord into the gingival crevice.
EMTALA
Title description: Thee regulations and impact of EMTALA
Word count: 1748
Keywords: Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), Whistleblower protection, Indigent patients, Community call plans, 250 yard rule, Hospital bankruptcies, Emergency physician
Excerpts:
The essence of the Act was to combat the discrimination in emergency treatments to indigent patients. The Act sought to end the practice in certain hospitals that transferred, discharged or even refused emergency treatments to indigent patients, on grounds of costs. Treating patients with emergency medical conditions involves high cost diagnosis and treatments that hospitals tend to shy away from; when receiving financially incapable patients.
Apart from persons seeking the emergency department, the Act is also applicable to anyone who presents himself within 250 yards of the main building. Called the ‘250 yard rule’, the rule obligates a hospital to provide screening and treatment to anyone who can be judged as needing a medical treatment, even by a lay person.
Among the 61% of bad debt reported by emergency physicians in 2001, for about 27.7% of the physicians, the bad debt was only due to EMTALA. The EMTALA care costs are indeed substantial for the emergency physician. According to the American Medical Association (AMM), on an average the emergency physician occurs a bad debt of $138,300 annually.
Hospitalization and Community
Title description: Theory based action for reducing hospital admission
Word count: 4059
Keywords: Heath economists, Funding cutbacks, Unwanted admissions, Empirical evidence, Bed utilization, Budget crises, Multidisciplinary collaboration
Excerpts:
Research, expansion plans, infrastructure development plans, and even treatment clinics have been closed down by hospitals due to lack of funding or cut in spending. Reducing treatment costs is an urgent pressing need and in the interests of all involved. One of the effective ways to reduce costs is to reduce hospital admissions and stays.
There are five main factors affecting the demand conditions of a hospital, which are demographic characteristics and the size of the population, the prices charged, the insurance coverage of the population, the number of physicians and the quality of hospital services. For a given region a hospital would see a shift in its demand when other hospitals close or there is a change in their service.
The social worker plays a crucial role in sorting conflict between patient expectations and nursing home obligations, whenever one arises. In cases when patients with very little hope of recovery or those with irreversible conditions are discharged, the families of the patients experience a loss of hope and also see the nursing home of abandoning them. Here the social worker needs to change this perception by planning for the future.
According to the UK department of health, investments made in intermediate care and community services from 2001 have had immense results. Delayed discharge from acute hospitals reduced by about 64% by the year September 2005. This meant that about 5 million bed days were released per year.
Patient’s Privacy and Confidentiality in Nursing
Title description: Patient’s Privacy and Confidentiality in Nursing
Word count: 1829
Keywords: Privacy and confidentiality, Professional obligations, Appropriate disclosures, Communication privacy management (CPM) model, Privacy boundary, Tough-to-decide situations, nursing workflow
Excerpts:
In Iran where studies have shown a weakness of nurses with regard to ethical conduct, a task force was formed to compile a set of national nursing ethics code in 2009, which emphasized on nurse conduct particularly the need to maintain confidentiality of patient information.
The difficulty in handling patient information became more complicated with the introduction of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 2002. The rules dictated the sharing and accessing of the medical records of a patient and included penalties like fines and reduced job security for the violators.
When information on the patient is requested by anyone either in person or through phone, the nurse requests the code word. When the requesting person is unable to say the code word, then the nurse responds saying that they cannot share any information due to privacy and confidentiality reasons.
Ineffectiveness of FDA
Title description: Ineffectiveness of FDA to regulate pharmaceutical industry
Word count: 2874
Keywords: Law enforcement agency, Institutional project, Black box warning, Recall procedures, Gold standards, Statutory standards, Antibacterial products
Excerpts:
It has been weighed down by its own inconsistent approval standards, inability to make effective and timely decisions, and inappropriate legislations. The approval and decision-making policies of the FDA that are reflective of the binding legislations have rendered its actions far from being effective, reinforcing the view that it is not effective in regulating the cut-throat, profit-oriented pharmaceutical industry.
The PDUFA passed by the Congress in 1992, authorizes the FDA to collect user fees and speed up drug reviews. By paying the fees, drug companies are assured that FDA would review their standard application within 12 months or priority applications within six months. However the fact that shorter review times increased serious harm was missed.
While standard scientific protocols do not consider single study findings for new approvals, it is surprising to know that 37% of new drug approvals, by FDA were based on a single study. This apart, about 38% of approvals were based on two studies. Another aspect of FDA approvals that reflects its ineffectiveness is that its studies often fail to track patients for a long time.
Psychotherapy Approaches for LGB Clients
Title description: A brief review
Word count: 728
Keywords: Discrimination, Sexual orientation, Childhood molestation, Same-sex abuse, Misinformation, Negative attitudes, Mental health problems
Excerpts:
The resolution emphasized that LGB is not a mental disorder and therefore does not require to be treated with therapy. The resolution also included guidelines for the psychotherapists for working with the LGB population. Among the several recommendations, the resolution guides the psychotherapist on dealing with sexual assault victims and addressing discrimination among the LGB people.
Clients who speculate their orientation to certain life developments need to know that heterosexual orientation development is not impaired due to trauma, poor parenting or adverse experiences in heterosexual relationships. Proper training and experience would help the psychologist to assist the client to come to terms with their sexual orientation.
The effectiveness of the therapy is seriously affected when therapist is biased to heterosexuality, and applies heterosexual norms to LGB people (APA Online, 2008). Since there is a lot of bias and misinformation in the society on homosexuality and bisexuality, stigmatization is highly prevalent among LGB people.
Major Healthcare Issues in the Next Two Decades
Title description: Major healthcare issues in the next two decades
Word count: 843
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, Pathetic state, Mental health policy for children, Treatment selection, Treatment evaluation, Mental health welfare, Disease burden
Excerpts:
Healthcare needs and challenges vary from society to society, country to country. The globalization of today ensures that no country can have a safe and healthy population, isolated from the rest of the world. The recent swine flu and the earlier SARS are examples that healthcare is no longer a national or regional issue.
In developing countries, people suffering from schizophrenia, dementia and depression are mostly uncared and unsupported. Mental disorders constitute four out of the 10 major causes of disability. The number of people affected by mental disorders is likely to increase given the deteriorating social and living conditions, civil unrest and the ageing of the population.
Major disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and behavioral disorders in children are seen to affect nearly one in five Americans each year, yet these are shrouded in anguish and shame, discussed in whispers. The investment required to improve mental health in America does not require huge budgets, but education.
Medical Anthropology
Title description: A brief introduction to perception of health
Word count: 403
Keywords: Indigenous groups, Wandering spirits and witchcraft, Socio-economic criteria, Placebo effect, Healer-patient relationship, Moral angle
Excerpts:
Medical anthropology may be defined as the study of how people of differing cultures and social groups perceive health and health issues. Medical anthropology also associates these beliefs and practices to biological, psychological and social changes, during health and disease.
For instance, Nigerian farmers use necklaces and belts made of wild animal skin to seek immunity from diseases, while some Cameroon sections believe gorilla bone ash to make them stronger. In some other groups consuming animal body parts like heart and liver of wild animals; or drinking of cow’s milk is thought of giving them the resistance to diseases.
Any change in this equilibrium state is perceived to trigger adversities resulting in physical or emotional signs of ill health. Thus some consider backaches as inevitable and part of life and some may consider their ailing children as being normal if the child can walk and play normally.
Mental Health and Homelessness
Title description: Mental health and homelessness
Word count: 1660
Keywords: Physical illness, Mental illness, Psychoneuroimmunology, Chronic psychological factors, Homelessness, Coping skills, depressive symptoms
Excerpts:
When mentally ill patients approach doctors, for treatment to physical illness, these are perceived by the doctors and nurses to be related to anxiousness and worries. The physical illnesses are ignored and sometimes these could mean a loss of life saving treatment too (Rethink, 2006). It is important to note here that physical health staff lack mental health skills and vice versa.
The irony of the situation is that no one seems to be really responsible for the physical healthcare of the mentally ill people. The health development authorities should fix this responsibility, through appropriate agreements. No developments in the physical health of the mentally ill patients can be successful unless the accountability is fixed.
Extensive studies show that homelessness and mental health go hand in hand. Homeless people are more likely to experience a decline in their mental health or mental health issues would have been the cause for their homelessness. Continued homelessness can accelerate mental health decline.
The role of mental health professionals
Title description:
Word count: 4038
Keywords: Non medical setting, Psychological distress, Under-developed societies, Mystical powers, Placebo effect, Psychological defenses, Therapeutic relationships,
Excerpts:
The perception of illness and treatment expectations of the patient should be inline with the prescriber’s therapy approach. Belief, expectations and healer-patient relationship also have its own therapeutic effects, which have been utilized in every culture throughout history.
Most people seek psychotherapy, with certain dark aspects of their life shrouded in secrecy (Richmond, 2007). They hide such episodes from the psychotherapist, either intentionally or unintentionally, and present themselves in better light. It doesn’t seem to them that their secretive fantasies are the core of their problems and thus the treatment.
Psychological disorders like anxiety and depression are associated with several physical symptoms. Diarrhea, stomach upset, sweating hands, sleeping difficulties, poor concentration and general agitation are normally associated with anxiety. Depression can lead to fatigue, loss of appetite, difficulties in performing normal activities. Symptoms associated with mood disorders may be thought of as a medical problem, pushing them to seek a physician’s care.
The beneficial effects of social support on cardiovascular, endocrine, immune systems, cancer, respiratory illness and blood pressure has been increasingly perceived. The ability of social support to have moderating effect on stress is explained by the direct effects hypothesis and the buffering hypothesis.
Infectious diseases – Shingella
Title description: Article analysis
Word count: 1495
Keywords: Epidemiological findings, Enteric pathogens, Chronic carrier condition, Health information desk, Systematic sampling, Asymptomatic disease
Excerpts:
Due to the fact that there was no registration of park users, a systematic sampling of controls wasn’t possible. Thus the validity of the controls cannot be perfectly upheld. Many of the controls were adults participating from a sense of civic responsibility, who are unlikely to have spent considerable time swimming.
A health information desk can also be setup to enable visitors to report potential infection sources or situations. This would help park authorities to be informed of any undesirable development or situations that favor outbreaks. A record of all visitors with their visit dates and contact address must be maintained.
A major problem is that occasionally people who develop Shigella do not develop symptoms, but have the bacteria in their feces, which they could pass on to others. So emphasis should be more also on the use of toilets for defecation.
Role of social worker in non-profit long term care
Title description: Role of social worker in non-profit long term care
Word count: 1509
Keywords: Develop protocols, Psychosocial assessment, Client problems, In-home interventions, Preadmission screenings, Discharge planning,
Excerpts:
Literature on nursing homes in the US shows that non-profit care facilities have higher number of direct care staff and lower staff turnover rates. It should be noted here that the majority of nursing homes in the US are profit oriented while in Canada, the majority are non-profit care homes.
The social workers perform several roles, even beyond that expected of a social service worker. However there is no formal profile of the tasks associated with social worker in nursing home care. The law and regulatory governing are restricted to finding out the presence and absence of the social worker.
In the non-emergency nursing home admissions, social work personnel carry out the psychosocial assessment of the client during the initial contact. Based on this assessment, the level of required social work involvement, preparation of social work activity and discharge plans are finalized.
Physical and Mental Health
Title description: A brief look into aspects of physical and mental health
Word count: 4319
Keywords: Treatment gap, Chronic illness, Diet patterns, Privileged commodities, Recreational activities, Doctor-patient communication, Health emergencies,
Excerpts:
The physical, social and mental health of any individual are the three important aspects which determine the state of well being of an individual, the society and thus the country. All three factors are interdependent and intricately woven. In several societies, mental health is not given the same priority as given to physical health.
The US Department of Health and Human Services has recommended physical activity as a fundamental necessity to thwart the attack by diseases. Several thousand Americans suffer from chronic illness that could be either prevented or helped to recover through physical activity.
For the sake of global public health security, the WHO insists that government policies to monitor national and global health must be a vital element of economic and social policies and must be made transparent. It also calls for global cooperation in the areas of disease detection and response management.
Although the physical health in many forward societies look good, the attitude towards mental health need to addressed. The importance of mental well being needs to be emphasized, even at the medical fraternity level. Particular emphasizes should be laid to cross health conditions, like physical illness in mentally ill patients and vice versa.
Veterans’ Healthcare Issues
Title description: A veterans’ perspective
Word count: 1929
Keywords: Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Single payer-system, Discretionary budgets, Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNS), Veterans Heath Care Eligibility Reform Act, Community–based, outpatient clinics (CBOCs)
Excerpts:
Veterans’ healthcare has a priority enrollment system, which places veterans in various priority groups based on a specific criterion to determine their degree of coverage if any. So some veterans may not eligible and this can vary from year to year depending on funding.
Public Law 104-262 of the Veterans Heath Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996 established a two-tier system for providing medical care. Veterans are divided into one of two categories based on which their care is provided. Under the VHA system, “eligible” meant the VHA “may” provide care and the term “entitled” meant the VHA must provide care.
Many of these issues come to the front 10 years after the Veterans Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996. This rebuilt the VHA system that allowed for unprecedented growth in the demand for care for our nations veterans. The total number of enrollees grew by almost 80% from 1999 to 2005.
Public Health Policy Development
Title description: Women’s health policy
Word count: 1865
Keywords: Program evaluations, Evaluation design, Controlled experimental approach, Descriptive analysis, Exploratory analysis, Randomized clinical trials (RCT)
Excerpts:
Women’s health programs require to be determined if they are on the right track as all programs have a certain level of expectations. Program evaluations help to answer several uncertainties about the effectiveness of health programs. For instance it can be carried out to ascertain if a particular process like cesarean cross section has any implications on women in the long or short term.
Health policy analysis, particularly for women may be described as a multi-disciplinary approach that helps to understand policy failures on the past and how it could be planned for the future. The extent of focus of policy analysis, whether on contemporary or for the distant future, would have a bearing on the methods and the questions asked.
It has been increasingly perceived that the RCT is appropriate only when they are simple and standardized and are not appropriate for public health settings. Thus study design by itself cannot be the main criteria for evidence. With regard to interpretation of results, negative findings can make a case for a revision.
Veterans Health Administration
Title description: Veterans Health Administration
Word count: 917
Keywords: Veterans’ healthcare, Comprehensive healthcare, Malfunctioning equipment, Decomposed bodies, Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs), Large influx, Telemedicine,
Excerpts:
Subsequent to World War II, there was an increased need to rehabilitate nearly a million troops returning with physical and mental trauma. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (Perlin, 2004) paved the way for setting a hospital system for the returning troops.
Research has also become integral to the VA with about $400 million of its budget allocated for research. There are about 10,000 current research projects carried out at more than 100 VA centers (Ericksen, 2008). As a result of many such initiatives, the quality of VHA healthcare improved considerably and costs reduced as seen above.
Decomposed bodies were found near its medical center in Salem. Incompetent and uncaring staff, shortages of everything, rats and filth all around, malfunctioning equipment, were all associated with the VHA. Politicians didn’t want to go against the unions of the VHA workforce and the veterans’ lobby.
National Healthcare Policies and Implementation Issues
Title description: National Healthcare Policies and Implementation Issues in the US
Word count: 4990
Keywords: Diagnostic and treatment models, Public assistance programs, Integrated patchy payment system, Fragmented authorities, Complex processing, American pharmaceutical industry
Excerpts:
The US is ranked 15th among the 19 countries in accounting for deaths that are preventable through medical intervention (Mahon, 2006). Among people less than 75 years of age, there are about 115 preventable deaths for every 100,000 Americans compared to 75 to 84 among top countries. Among the industrialized nations, US has the least life expectancy at 60 and the worst infant mortality.
US has historically seen a pro market ideology and an anti government bias. When people want more governmental action, they have a burden to justify it and ensure political support for its implementation. The limitation of public sector’s role in healthcare in US may be attributed to the anti government bias, which has paved the way for the private sector to lead the implementation of changes in the system.
Healthcare distribution being associated with poverty, it is an irony that poverty still exists in the US despite the fact that the country’s social welfare spending is over four times that required to eliminate poverty. This is because most of the social welfare spending doesn’t reach the poor who actually needs them.
Thus the healthcare policy of the US is in an unsteady state, lacking consistency and unable to provide intended results. It is no wonder that the healthcare system in America is described as a waste and appalling. Several plans and strategies have been identified to reform the healthcare scenario in the US but which haven’t made much headway.
Sociology in Healthcare
Title description: A brief analysis of the importance of social aspects
Word count: 1653
Keywords: Medical anthropology, Socio-economic criteria, Cross cultural approach, Placebo effect, Alternate healthcare systems, Biomedical research, Health decision making, Stress management
Excerpts:
The cultural background has an important influence on health related beliefs and behavior. However, one’s perception of health and health issues is also influenced by other factors like individual attributes (like age, gender, size etc.), educational attributes, socio-economic criteria and environmental attributes of the individual. As cultures are never homogenous, people’s beliefs and behavior should not be generalized.
Students corresponding to such professions, particularly medicine and nursing are subject to enculturation as they acquire the culture of the chosen profession. In medical profession, this sub-culture incorporates the existing social divisions and prejudices, which can interfere with healthcare and doctor-patient communication.
The placebo effect where the ultimate drug effect is achieved without the use of drugs, is highly culture based. Although placebo and their effectiveness are widely reported, not much is known of its mechanism. However placebos suitable for one cultural group may not be suitable for another group. A relationship of mutual trust, confidence and understanding between the prescriber and the patient contributes to the placebo effect.
The rapid globalization of healthcare and its associated commercial interests already has several ethical issues to be sorted out, like in the case of stem cell technology, euthanasia etc. All such issues can be sorted out and healthcare delivered effectively only when associated social aspects are considered.
Social Epidemiology
Title description: Ethics in epidemiology
Word count: 670
Keywords: Public Health & Epidemiology, Cultural background, Behavioral and social sciences, Practice guidelines, Ethical dilemmas, Mentoring, Target population
Excerpts:
Professionals in the field of Public Health & Epidemiology also have their own code of conduct. The code of conduct includes fundamental obligations; principles or rules which define the professional’s actions and ethical theories which persuade the professional to act in accordance with binding ethics.
Epidemiologists should have no reservations to working with economically, socially or medically affected populations. They should be very flexible and willing to work on any health aspect and people as and when required.
The professionals must facilitate diversity in epidemiology practice without any attachment to specific culture or gender. Epidemiology data associating cultures and customs with diseases need be handled such that a sense of discrimination is not generated, while at the same time awareness is raised in the target population.
Health Issues – A Global Perspective
Title description: A brief look into physical and mental health issues
Word count: 3716
Keywords: Infrastructure, Preparedness, United Nations agencies, Mental health policy, Schizophrenia, Maternal deaths, Tuberculosis and AIDS
Excerpts:
However, application of modern medicine is hindered or sometimes facilitated by the culture, traditions and economy of the society in which it is to be implemented. For the successful implementation of healthcare in any society, it is important to identify and understand the social setup relevant to that society.
For the sake of global public health security, the WHO insists that government policies to monitor national and global health must be a vital element of economic and social policies and must be made transparent. It also calls for global cooperation in the areas of disease detection and response management.
The WHO report emphasizes that governments are responsible for the mental health of their citizens just like physical health. The report asks for the closure of all mental asylums and be replaced with community based psychiatric care in hospitals. There should be no more locking up of mental patients in prison like institutions.
Medical conditions arising from maternity related complications also have social impact on the lives of the sufferers. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are about 50,000 to 100,000 women developing birth canal fistula, each year. This condition results in leak of feces and urine, due to which they are abandoned by their husbands.
Implementing the resolution on appropriate therapeutic responses to sexual orientation: A guide for the perplexed
Title description: Critical analysis of article
Word count: 786
Keywords: Resolutions, Psychotherapists, Heterosexual clients, Reparative therapies, Conversion therapies, Fluidity phenomenon
Excerpts:
The resolutions are aimed at addressing the concerns of clients with regard to their sexual orientation. The guidelines are very important as sexual orientation as a topic of studying is rarely covered while training psychologists. Training on this topic is also inadequate in postdoctoral continuing education and in counseling psychology.
The psychologists thus need to highlight the factors which might influence their judgment or lower the accuracy of their interpretations; like situational, cultural or personal factors (APA, 2003). They must understand that their exposure and experience with heterosexual clients has limitations, when treating LGB clients.
They must be told of the trends in reparative therapy and how success and failures with the therapy are perceived. The LGB clients need to be told of the lack of systematic assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of change therapies. Most conclusions have been drawn from patients’ self-reports and therapists impressions.
Healthcare in the majority world
Title description: A brief analysis of healthcare and its social and economic impact
Word count: 3371
Keywords: The adult survival rate (ASR), Beauty enhancement, Tropical diseases, Global concern, Urgent action, Global Burden of Disease (GBD), Non communicable diseases (NCDs),
Excerpts:
Despite the plight of backward communities being very pathetic, advanced societies can help in reversing the situation by taking advantage of the fact that healthcare can be improved by just developing infrastructure and training, independent of economic growth. However, one of the crucial factors, which can undo all these efforts and even deny health improvement, is the availability of drugs.
The stark contrast in women’s health scenario between the advanced and backward countries is very evident in the area of maternal deaths. In some African countries the maternal mortality ratio is about 1000 per 100,000 live births, compared to less than 10 in many European countries. Over 80% of maternal deaths are due to conditions like infection or rupture of the uterus, unsafe abortion and excessive bleeding.
Women in regions like the sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are prone to high risk of death during pregnancy and childbirth. The lack of progress on maternal health and the avoidable loss of lives have huge implications beyond death statistics. Infants, whose mothers die within first six weeks of their birth, are more likely to die before they reach two years of age.
African-American Leadership in Nursing
Title description: Courtney Lyder – African-American Leadership in Nursing
Word count: 2056
Keywords: Rare personalities, Geriatic nursing, Gerontological nurse practitioners, Diversity initiatives in health science, Sub-standard care, Black physicians, Role models
Excerpts:
It is therefore not a surprise that Lyder received over $22 million in research and training grants. Since 2008, after becoming the dean at UCLA, the research funding had increased over 400% or $18 million annually (UCLA, 2012). An international expert on wound care, Lyder has delivered over 500 lectures in nursing related topics in the US and other countries.
The philosophy driving Lyder is that students need to be prepared to be the citizens of the world, as nurses can provide care in any country. Lyder’s visionary instincts compel him to anticipate and plan for the future. With the nursing shortage anticipated to worsen in the US with the rise of the aging population, Lyder has proposed increasing the number of faculty and accelerating recruitment.
The second issue is for the nurses to remain ‘high touch’ even as they transform into ‘hi tech’. While emphasizing on the adoption of technology by nurses, Lyder emphasized on the need for the human touch. Mentoring has been very dear to Lyder who aspires to see more men and minorities enter into nursing. He anticipates that by 2020, about 20% of the nursing population would be males.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Title description: An introduction to the development of MRI
Word count: 737
Keywords: Tomographic imaging technique, Ultrasound, Computed tomography, Nuclear magnetic resonance, Cryogen gas recycling devices, Noninvasive medical test,
Excerpts:
The working of MRI is based on the principles nuclear magnetic resonance, but is referred to as MRI instead of NMRI because of the negative association of the word ‘nuclear’ in the late 1970s. MRI was initially a tomographic imaging technique, which produced image from NMR signal corresponding to a slice through human body, from which it has advanced to volume imaging.
It was in 1975 when Richard Ernst proposed the use of Fourier Transform and phase and frequency encoding in magnetic resonance imaging. This formed the basis for the modern MRI imaging. The MRI of the whole body was then demonstrated in 1977 by Damadian.
Although the initial cost is too high, the number of MRI scanners used in the US is growing. Though the features and the possibilities with the MRI is growing significantly, its cost is relatively being lowered (Clarke, 2004). This trend would ensure that in the next five to eight years, the cost of the MRI wouldn’t be expensive, given the logic and anticipated cost reductions in gradient technologies and computers.
Cimetidine
Title description: An overview
Word count: 3750
Keywords: H2 receptor antagonist, Antihistomines, Over-the-counter (OTC), Warfarin, Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), Peptic ulcer symptoms, Other side effects, Glaxo’s Zantec
Excerpts:
Traditionally new drugs were developed based on the discovery of a plant or microbial extract that exhibited some form of the needed effect. Cimetidine development was radically different in that it was one of the earliest drugs developed logically from the basics. SK&F understood the physiological cause of acid secretion and aimed at finding a molecule that could combine with the receptor but block acid release.
When cimetidine was launched in the US as a first-class compound in 1977, it virtually accounted for 100% of the US anti-ulcerant prescription market from its launch to 1981. The retail pharmacy sales of Tagamet in the US peaked in 1986 when it reached $534 million, accounting for 56% of the prescription dispensed in the US market.
Certain stomach and throat complications attributed to excess stomach acid may also be treated by cimitidine, including the problems arising from reverse flow of stomach acid into the esophagus (WebMD, 2013). The acid produced can sometimes even flow back in to the esophagus or food pipe, leading to a condition called gastro-esophageal reflux, which causes a burning sensation called heartburn.
With Beta-blockers higher serum concentrations of propranolol and metoprolol were observed which was circumvent with atenolol or nadolol. Well-documented increase in serum concentrations of several Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) has been evident. However low doses of TCA used in adjunctive pain, could have beneficial interaction with cimetidine. Cimetidine can also increase the blood levels of many drugs by decreasing its elimination by the liver.
