Nursing Fellowship in MS
Sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), the John Dystel Nursing Fellowship in MS is a training opportunity for nurses to learn the skills necessary to provide the highest quality of specialized multiple sclerosis (MS) nursing care. The fellowship is funded through the John Dystel Fellowship Fund of the NMSS.
NMSS supports the professional development and training of health care providers in the comprehensive care of people with MS. This program provides the nursing fellow with the opportunity to practice under the tutelage of an MS nursing expert in a specialized MS clinical setting. The experience is designed to result in the acquisition of skills and knowledge necessary to practice as an MS nurse specialist.
To be eligible, the candidate must posses an RN license, bachelor's degree, and at least 12 months of clinical experience in nursing. For information on how to obtain an application for the fellowship or for further details, contact Nancy Holland at 212-476-0453 or e-mail [email protected].
Patient-Controlled Analgesia Needed
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has published a review of medication errors associated with patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), along with recommendations for its safe use. The findings are found in ISMP Medication Safety Alert!, a safety newsletter distributed to all hospitals in the United States. These articles are available at: http://www.ismp.org/MSAarticles/Calendar/July03.htm# July24.
The ISMP analysis involved reviews of actual medication errors reported voluntarily by health care practitioners to the USP-ISMP Medication Errors Reporting Program, as well as cases solicited by ISMP that were voluntarily submitted by U.S. hospitals for the project.
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Some of the most serious errors were related to the fact that the basic premise of PCA was violated. By definition and design, PCA is meant to be controlled by the patient only. If a patient is already sedated by his opiate pain medication, he will not activate the PCA pump to deliver another dose. This built-in safeguard protects the patient from overdose.
However, family members and health care professionals have innocently "pushed the button" for patients, hoping to keep them comfortable. This well-intentioned "PCA by proxy" has led to oversedation, respiratory depression, and even death.
Other factors leading to PCA errors include improper patient selection (not all patients are good candidates), inadequate patient education, ineffective monitoring of the patient's vital signs, insufficient staff training, prescribing errors and other practice-related problems, and design flaws in the PCA pumps, which led to inaccurate programming of the dosage.
Healthy Heart Information for Patients
Consumer Reports on Health recently released its first-ever Guide to a Healthy Heart, an unbiased, independent tool designed to empower readers to make informed choices and take control of their heart health. This easy-to-follow 60-page book is enhanced with many charts covering a wide variety of topics including how to calculate body mass index for losing weight, measuring anger for lowering hostility, and the essential details on drugs for treating heart failure.
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Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in the United States. The guide recommends lifestyle changes that can result in a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease and avoidance of drugs for many people. A bonus prescription drug guide discusses the pros and cons of blood pressure and cholesterol drugs for those who must take medication.
Guide to a Healthy Heart is available at http://www.ConsumerReports.org/health.