Community Organization Can Reduce, Negate Impact Of Alcohol Outlets On Neighborhood Violence

From the 22 August Medical News Today article

The density of businesses that sell alcohol in a community has been tied to local levels of violence, but new research has found that the influence depends on the nature of the community. More stable communities can see little to no influence but more disorganized communities are not so fortunate. Communities with greater levels of disorganization, marked by higher percentages of people living in poverty and in women-headed households with children and more renters, were hit the hardest by the presence of the liquor establishments…

Read the entire news article

Related articles

• Coping With Neighborhood Violence (relifeinc.wordpress.com)

10 dumb things you do at the doc’s office

From the 26 May 2011 CNN article

 

(CNN) — As much as she would like to, Dr. Lissa Rankin, a gynecologist, will never forget the woman who planned her wedding while lying naked on her examining table.

“Every 15 seconds, her cell phone was going off, and she was answering it!” Rankin recalls. “It was like, ‘That’s not the cake I ordered,’ and, ‘No, it’s the other gown,’ and I said to her, ‘Is this a bad time? Should I come back later?’ ”

 

Read the article (with the list of 10 don’ts)

 

 

CMS Launches Tools and Initiatives to Help Improve American Health Care Quality

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new tool for patients and caregivers, and other enhanced initiatives, to empower consumers to make informed choices about their health care, and to help improve the quality of care in America’s hospitals, nursing homes, physician offices, and other health care settings.

From the  5 August 2011 press release

“These tools are new ways CMS is making sure consumers have information about health care quality and important information they need to make the best decisions about where to receive high-quality care,” said Dr. Don Berwick, the CMS Administrator.  “These efforts are designed to also encourage providers to deliver safe, patient-centered care that consumers can rely on and will motivate improvement across our health care system.”

The steps announced today include:

·       A Quality Care Finder to provide consumers with one online destination to access all of Medicare’s Compare tools — comparison information on hospitals, nursing homes and plans: www.Medicare.gov/QualityCareFinder.

·       An updated Hospital Compare website, which now includes data about how well hospitals protect outpatients from surgical infections and whether hospitals care for outpatients who are treated for  suspected heart attacks with proven therapies that reduce death: www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov

Read the entire press release 

Related articles

• CMS Updates Medicare.gov Portal With Added Searches and Comparison Information (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
• U.S. health care system fails to deliver – Same Story The World Over… (earlsview.com)

A Statistical New World” and Other Creative (Bio)statistics Diddies

From the 18 August 2011 Tens and Twos with Dr. Felicia Mebane (public health)  blog item A Statistical New World” and Other Creative (Bio)statistics Diddie

 

FINALLY! Some creative videos on statistics. I wonder if they read my prior emails begging for more creativity in this area  .

This year, the American Statistical Association hosted a “Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics” video competition. And, one of the three winning videos was from graduate students and staff in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. YAY, biostats!

Teaching Nursing with YouTube

From the 18 August 2011 Center for Health Media and Policy at Hunter College article, Teaching with YouTube 

As an educator, I am always looking for ways to make learning fun.  Social media, such as YouTube, has been growing in use since its inception.  Even my 13 year old son looks at YouTube videos.  So, I thought, why don’t I see how I can incorporate YouTube into nursing education?  Having a fun, innovative learning strategy would make learning more enjoyable, and also add a different dimension to the process.  I decided to start adding YouTube to my simulation preparatory material.  I carefully viewed various videos based on the simulation scenarios I was writing.  After speaking to the students, I learned that they enjoyed the YouTube inclusion.  After that, I decided to add it to my pathophysiology course, as well as my psychiatric clinical teaching.  I am always looking for new YouTube videos and am interested in how the students themselves use it.  I ask students to send me links that they have found useful. After using YouTube for a few years, I decided that my experience with using it could be helpful to other faculty, as all educators are looking for new innovative learning formats.Guest blogger Leighsa Sharoff, EdD, RN, NPP, AHN-BC, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Simulation and Learning Resources at Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, writes about the use of YouTube in courses.

My article, “Integrating YouTube into the Nursing Curriculum” has just been published by OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. It provides a description of social networking sites and tools, as well as YouTube. I also share hints and cautions about will be most helpful to the many faculty who know it is time to integrate YouTube and other Internet content into their courses, but are hesitant to do so.
I’d love to hear about other YouTube videos that faculty have used in courses for health professionals. What are you using?

Leighsa Sharoff, EdD, RN, NPP, AHN-BC, Associate Professor of Nursing, Hunter College, CUNY